For the past few years, we’ve been taking quick brakes in beautiful cities around Europe. The problem with these has been the time of year. It’s not very easy to find proper weather in December. It’s time for some deicing.

On the way, we saw a magical site, the Atlas Mountains. This is the location at the western edge of the world, where Atlas bore the weight of the world on his shoulders. You also might remember the story when Hercules was performing his twelve tasks, and took over from Atlas and tricked him in to taking the burden again. For me, this was quite special, since it took me back almost forty years into a classroom with Classical Greek mythology.

The Canary Islands have a moderate weather all year round. During the day it goes up to the 20s. I wear merino wool all year round, and whilst people were running around practically naked, I only needed a T-shirt and one long sleeved on the first day. Nice warm day, since I was wearing a pair of shorts.

We took our first quick walk before breakfast, just to catch the beautiful sunrise.

Zen moment for a paddle-boarder.

There is not that much to see in Corralejo, in the way of cultural experiences. People are here for the sun, the waves and the wind. There is a surf, kite and kayak shop at almost every corner. And I was hoping for the landsailing as well. Alas, I trusted the internet too much (damn Google maps). It had gone out of business and there was only a regular surf and kite shop where my obsession was supposed to be. We got a beautiful walk on the beach anyway.

You might be wondering what these things are. They can be found on the beach at Las Dunas de Corralejo. They offer privacy to sunbathers of all sorts. We nicknamed them hatching burrows for naked old men. And wankers.

I’ve seen a lot of things and visited questionable establishments in my time. I seem to become more conservative by the years. Being naked in a sauna is very normal in Finland. And taking a dip in the lake after the sauna, also naked, is part of our cultural heritage. Being on a public beach, seeing wrinkled old men walking between these small shelters with their parts dangling around, was something I really didn’t expect. Seeing younger men jerking off in the “privacy” of this cubicle, or in one case watching us a few metres away and doing it in full view, made me feel quite the prude. Must be quite liberating blowing of some steam on the beach.