The aeronautical museum on Lanzarote is located in the old terminal building at the airport. The museum seems to suffer a lack of visitors, as its homepage states that one of its aims is to increase awareness of its existence amongst the local population.

I had passed it on previous occasions, but being en route to the new airport to catch a flight to Madrid I did not have time to visit it. Instead, I always made a note of going there on my next visit.

The aeronautical musum at Arrecife airport, the original passenger exit is on the left

This time I actually managed it, and although I was not disappointed, I did begin to understand the problem that the museum has, because there was almost no-one else there!

The building is located further inland than the current terminals, near the main road. It has its own car park, but for some reason the entry to the visitors’ car park is confusingly preceded by a sign declaring that “authorised vehicles only” may pass.

Although Lanzarote did have an airport in the 1930s and was even flown over by airships on their way to the USA, this closed during the Spanish Civil War and it was not until 1946 that a civilian airport was opened again. The passenger terminal was very modest, consisting of a few rooms and a small control tower on the front. The aircraft would roll up to just in front of the building, at which point the passengers would come out through a side door and walk over to them.

Inside the original control tower

However until the 1970s the only flights were to the other Canary Islands – there was not even an air connection to Madrid – so this was probably more than sufficient. In 1970 the current Terminal 2 was opened, and flights to the Spanish mainland started.

The museum contains interesting photos and artifacts of those years, and as such is worth a visit. You can even go into the old tower and see the radio equipment that used to be operated by a single person. Entry to the museum is free and the staff speak Spanish, English, German and French, although most of the descriptions of the photos are only in Spanish. Tours can be arranged in advance, but are not a requirement. Opening times are Monday to Saturday, 10am to 2pm.

The car park at Arrecife airport is split into two halves. One half is reserved for the hire car companies, who park their fleet there when not in use. The other half is open to the public and has one of the most unusual price structures that I have ever seen for a car park.

They charge by the minute.

Admittedly the price is only between 1 and 2 cents per minute, and as of 2009 the first half hour is free.  So effectively that is about 1 Euro per hour, making it cheaper than most car parks in Germany.

But still, as fair as it might seem to have such an exact method of charging, imagine what it must be like to have to wait in a long queue at the ticket machine on your way out  and see the minutes ticking by!

Airport parking charges, October 2009

I’ve often read (and heard) about a lack of respect for non-smoking laws on the Spanish mainland, but today I came across an item on a German-language website that defies belief: a judge deciding that an alleged drunken driver was innocent – even though she had an accident whilst over the limit and injured someone.

According to the story on IslaCanaria.net, the driver concerned was suffering from a lack of sleep and was over the legal limit as far as alcohol in her blood was concerned.  Admittedly not that much over, but over the limit none the less.  The pedestrian that she apparently hit suffered a broken shoulder and a broken leg and was subsequently not able to work for 6 months.

Now, whatever the circumstances may have been, such as whether the alcohol contributed to the accident, or whether the pedestrian was actually allowed to be where he was, is it not strange that the driver was allowed to get away with being over the limit?

A quick look at the table for alcohol limits shows that the Spanish limit is the same as that in Germany, but is actually lower than the limit in the UK.  I wonder how many British visitors realise that and think that they are OK to drive, but are actually already over the limit?

But the main question has to be: is it usual for Spanish judges to ignore the country’s laws in this way?