Aruba, One Happy Island

When I go on my travels I usually begin with a Tale of Woe about the Extraordinary service we regularly receive from KLM. This time - and I don't quite know if I am delighted or disappointed - we caught our flights on time (there was a slight delay in take off from Aberdeen due to the atrocious weather) arrived in Amsterdam in time and boarded our flight to Aruba without hitch and even arrived at the Queen Beatrix airport on the island with our luggage. The flight was excellent - business class has a lot to recomend it - the food was great and an extensive choice of films and entertainment from which to choose. So no Tale of Woe this time. Sorry.
We are staying at the Marriott Tradewinds which has lots of all inclusive perks within the main Marriott and Stellaris resort. Again, no Tale of Woe here. The staff are wonderfully friendly and helpful, the room is spacious with a balcony and sea view (including 2 pirate ships moored just off the beach) and the temperature was a joyous 31 degrees. In fact, all in all, the worst I can say about our travel here is that we were pretty tired when we arrived and were in bed by 9pm.
Today, after a breakfast that would have fed several families, we took a taxi to the Zoutman Willem III tower, a quaint little museum with the most wonderful tableaux of scenes from Aruba's history made with dolls. On one exhibit of rural life there was a plastic spider set on the roof of a traditional house with a rat in the rafters that was actually smaller than the spider! It was very twee but actually told the story of colonialism quite well and would certainly have been a great place to take kids. The actual tower is small and has a winding staircase in it up to the clock tower. We asked at the desk if we were allowed up stairs to be told that 'My boss has his office up there and he isn't worth visiting!'
Aruba is known as One Happy Island and it certainly lives up to it's name. Everyone is very friendly and willing to help or just have a chat. After the tower we went to the Archeological Museum which was fantastic. Small but perfectly presented...and free. They have some terrific artefacts from the original Amerindian peoples who settled here and it is well displayed and, again, really suitable for children with activities relating to the displays for them.
We had lunch at Iguana Joe's. I had the local pasties with chicken and Sean had a tortilla wrap with chicken chilli and cheese. The pasties were delicious, a bit like samosas with a coronation chicken style filling. Sean's tortilla wrap order resulted in the death of at least three chickens and half the dutch cheese exports for a year! That was before they added the fries and salad! Poor soul, only managed to eat half of it. We also tried the local beer called Balashi.
After such a full morning it was back to the hotel and onto the beach for some serious sun worship. It is the quiet season now so not busy at all. Very relaxing. At the poolside bar where we stopped for Happy Hour. Sean took a school boy fit of the giggles while looking at the menu and made me order our Sex on the Beach cocktails! So juvenile!
Relaxing over, we are now heading to the Steak restaurant downstairs in the lobby.
Sadly no humourous tales of woe yet. Perhaps tomorrow's planned jeep safari which comes with a medical exclusion list that includes kidney and back problems or pregnancy. The woman at the desk didn't actually say that with a straight face while looking at me. It could be a bumpy ride!