Recently, the St. Paul Pioneer Press published a travel story of mine about Spain's Canary Islands:
Beyond the beaches. I wrote about my time on the islands of Tenerife and La Gomera. While I was there, last fall, I stayed at several stunning and beautiful places--in settings that I could have easily settled in for a few weeks! One of the most memorable (who am I kidding? they were all memorable) was at the
parador on La Gomera. Because of word constraints and photo space available, of course there was no way the newspaper could print everything I wanted--but that is the beauty of internet and a blog! The parador on the island is one of the most lovely I've seen--filled with gardens you can stroll through--along with a spectacular swimming pool--and overlooks that seemed out of a movie (one side overlooked San Sebastian and its harbor; the other across to Mount Teide on Tenerife). Whether at sunrise or sunset (I was out at both!) the whole feeling was a mixture of magic and art and nature and timelessness.
The room was simple, spacious, airy and inviting. I loved the high beds and heavy wooden window shutters. At night, the ledge was wide enough for me to sit on, and stare out at the half moon over the Mediterranean. In the morning, I awoke to the lovely sweep of palm leaves rustling...
and the promise of a good cortado--the biggest decision of the morning being whether I sip it in the courtyard or the garden....
