Wir haben gerade auf einen Sommerurlaub, ja gewesen! (We've just been on a summer holiday, yes we have!)

So that's it - summer holiday done, and now three days later it seems as far away as ever.

Normally we go to Turkey, and we have a bit of a riot……..so this year we opted to break the routine and try out something different. Also something a little more economical as we have a big trip to Thailand planned for December.

Economical means Easy jet. And these days that's no drop in standards. Reserved seating, food to buy if you want it, and big smiles…That's two more things than you'll find on British Airways.

I suppose the biggest event of this year's holiday was the fact that we decided to hire a car. The hotel we had chosen was about an hours drive away from the  airport and initial enquiries into a taxi produced figures of €156 return.  For only €356 we could hire a car for the whole week,  so it was a no-brainer.

Except of course that the flight landed as an evening sun glowed in the Fuerteventurian sky,  and by the time we had collected luggage etc and completed the formalities on the car, a darkness had settled on the island somewhat akin to a lighting state from the legendary David Hersey. So I was faced with a 55 minute drive on the wrong side of the road in a strange car in the dark.

There are those who say that only when you have experienced a state of tension can you fully appreciate the feeling of relaxation that follows. I know what they mean.  An hour of grip steering wheel, hunched back, and slightly short temper later,  we pulled up in the car park at the hotel.

I have to say I grew to love the car and now can't think how we have a holiday without one. Eventually it got us out and about on the island, and gave us some great days. A real bonus, and I managed to return it intact, something I doubted on that first night's journey.

Chosen at random on the Internet, but mainly for the fact that accommodation was provided in individual suites, the hotel didn't look like the most welcoming places at nearly 11 PM on a Saturday night. In fact, it felt a little like entering a high-class medical research facility. The suites however were fantastic. Looking a little like Luke Skywalker's home out of "Star Wars", they had a beautiful sitting-room, a large bedroom, fantastic walk-through dressing area, and a large and sumptuous bathroom with Jacuzzi. Each suite had its own courtyard, with sun beds which provided  an idyllic and private place to spend the day, and a little bit of shelter from the Fuerteventurian wind.

 The main purpose of our summer holidays is to relax - to chill out, and to enjoy the time we spend with each other. And this we managed to achieve in spades. Books were flicked through on Kindles, crosswords were completed, and tans, to varying levels, were accomplished.

The resort we'd chosen, Costa Calma,  was largely German. Actually probably in the same way that Berlin is largely German. It was German. As a resort, and for facilities, if the island had an enema then Costa Calma is probably where they would stick the tube. Apart from one very nice terrace restaurant attached to our own hotel, and another restaurant entitled the Galleria, food outlets of quality were in short supply. In a way it's refreshing to note that the Germans are prepared to put up with the same shit on holiday that the English have done for years. Not for nothing are we both  Northern European races. Quite often sitting in a bar for lunch, or one of the restaurants in the evening, Mr Howle and I would focus our antennae onto the conversation of a nearby couple who had the look of the English on holiday. On almost every occasion we were disappointed. They were German. They had managed the same blend of post Primark chic,  and that slightly fish out of water look that we the English do so well,  and yet they were German.

 So the good thing about being thrust into the small town of Dresden-on-Canary, was that Mr Howle and I had only each other as conversational partners. After 17 years in a relationship that can sometimes be quite difficult, and yet we managed to tell each other about hopes and aspirations, childhood experiences, and likes and dislikes, that the hurly-burly of our normal existence in uptown Sydenham, rarely allows for.

We have lots of shared loves and interests; the crossword, the beach, and in this instance, a shared highlight of a visit to the zoo.

It is something we've done together before. In fact my anniversary present this year was a trip to London Zoo to spend half an hour with the Penguins, which was fantastic both as a present and as a way to start the year. I couldn't help coming away from London zoo on both our visits feeling depressed. Yes, the visits were in winter, but the sight of a meerkat, that most comical and commercial of animals stood on his hind legs shivering under a bathroom heater in his cage was not something I easily forgot. It would seem to me a pretty basic tenet of good  zoo keeping, that animals should be kept in a climate to which they are accustomed,  and London probably provides a suitable climate for only the grumpy toed sloth.

 Fuerteventura, on the other hand, provides a sunny clime in which many animals flourish. The Oasis Park, which could have been the most disastrously dire tourist attraction possible, turned out to be an absolute Sanctuary and  gave us a morning of fun and joy.  Lots of the animals were easily accessible.  They looked happy and lively, and had enormous enclosures of sunny, clean habitat, in which they looked perfectly at home.

The day gave us a newly found love for the giraffe; a chance to reacquaint a long-lasting affair with the meerkat, and a close encounter with a lemur.  It was the greatest fun, and just one of several real holiday highlights. 

And very few Germans in sight…….on either side of the bars!