Las Palmas, Gran Canaria

It's a lovely sunny day, the ship is parked in dock on one of the lovely Canary Islands until nearly midnight, and me and himself don't have any tours to escort or classes to run.  We can do whatever we like.

Usually, when we find ourselves in this position, we are off as sooning as we dock, looking for the the interesting places, visiting cathedrals and monuments and trying to see as much as possible in the time we've got.  But today we decided to have a lazy day.   An exceptionally lazy day.  We didn't rush to breakfast, we didn't hurry off the ship and we didn't dash across town.  We just ambled 

We spent most of the morning on the beach, just a 15 minute amble to get to, on the other side of the peninsular from where the ship was docked.  The bay there is sheltered by a line of rocks which act as breakers against the waves of the sea, especially when the tide is out.   I went for a dip - delighted to see a shoal of large silver fish in the crystal clear water.  I wish we'd brought the goggles and snorkels now.  Wonderful.

A lovely couple of hours on th.e beach

Sand Sculptures the beach at Les Cantares

We enjoyed an Italian lunch, and then took a leisurely amble along the promenade noticing that the tide had come in now, and that the waves had risen above the natural breaker, turning the calm bay into something a little more adventurous.

Just like Scarborough, but with sun!  

We were looking for ice cream, and found a really good ice cream parlour at the end of the beach.  And I mean REALLY good.  We're going to remember that for our next visit.

Ambling on a little further, we found some lovely natural coves, full of foam and crashing waves.

We were beginning to flag by now and headed back through the city to the ship, stopping on the way to buy a necklace.  The chain part was made by twisting and lacing thick cotton in a way to make an attractive almost lace like collar using different colour threads.  I'd watched the men making them sitting by their stalls.   Very clever.  With a stone added, it is a lovely and unique little momento of our beach day.

The last thing to mention about today was Ross Robert's cabaret in Scott's Bar at the end of the day.  He has a wicked sense of humour and gave a brilliant show.  My favourite line had to be when one of the waiters happened to walk across the stage area behind Ross at the beginning of the act.  "It's OK," said Ross, "I've got his cabin number, I'll go walk through it one night when he's performing!" I nearly fell of he chair laughing.  The waiter looked suitably embarrassed. 

So that was our visit to Grand Canaria. Tomorrow we're in Santa Cruz, Tenerife. It'll only be a half day and we have no tours, but we like Tenerife. Class eh?

Lanzarote and the Fire Mountains.

At least the sea was in a good mood this morning as we made our way to the island of Lanzarote.  We were due to dock at lunch time, and spend half a day in Arrecife.  Once again the sky was blue with promise, and Peter and I spent a good half hour looking out from the rear deck, enjoying the fresh air.

Peter and I are escorting.  We've done the Fire Mountain tour before, about five years ago, and I remember nearly all of it.  It's something we really enjoyed, which is why we wanted to do it again.  According to our tour guide, it's the most popular tour of Lanzarote.  According to the tour description - "During the 18th century, more than 100 volcanoes erupted creating a curious lava landscape".  It's breathtaking, and it's what we are going to see. 

So Peter and I took a bus each and off we went.

First we visited the green lake "El Golfo" - I'm led to understand that it is fed with sea water which it gets underground via lava tubes.  It's gone green due to the algae.  Personally I wasn't that enamoured with the lake, but the landscape around it was quite spectacular.

El Golfo is the green "lake".

The next part of the tour was a photo stop of Los Hervideros.   This place is quite incredible. As the lava ran down into the sea, it cooled into some quite amazing caves and shapes.  The sea hits the cliffs with such force it seems as though it is boiling, crashing upwards in huge foaming waves and fountains.  I would have loved to have more time here.

Los Hervideros

Then we were taken to the Timanfaya National Park

View of Timanfay National Park from the park centre

The first part of the visit involves three demonstrations to prove the heat of the ground beneath our feet.   This starts with gravel being lifted from about 20cms underground and being put into our hands.  It's hot!   The second demonstration involves a hole about 2 metres deep.  We watched as grass spontaneously caught fire inside because of the underground heat. The final demonstration involved deeper holes and water.  The resulting geyser affect made everyone jump.   We were then shown how the restaurant at the park centre cooks for large groups (they were expected later).

This barbecue uses the heat from the volcano below to cook the food, 

The second part of the park visit is the drive through the park itself.   The place is amazing - described as an alien landscape or like being on the moon.  Beautiful.

We got back to the ship as the sun was setting and enjoyed a cup of tea on the rear deck.  I learnt how to take selfies on my phone, so my aim is to try and get one and included Nureyev.  The evening's guest act were a couple of magicians Evans plus Evans.  I really quite enjoyed the show.

So that was our day in Lanzarotte day. Tomorrow it's Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. No tours, but we've been here before and plan to have a lovely relaxed day. Class.

Boxing Day plus one - a sea day on the Marco Polo

Just to let you know that today started well, and then ended up with the ship feeling like a bucking bronco.   OK - maybe it wasn't quite that bad, but............

As I said, it started well.  Well enough for passengers to explore the back deck and enjoy a bit of sun.  Peter's classes went well and I spent my time reading.  But as the day progressed, a swell built up that that just got  worse.  The sky grew dark,  drizzly rain washed the decks and everybody huddled inside.

I was feeling quite proud of myself because I wasn't feeling ill despite the rise and fall, but I wasn't hungry at dinner and the up and down got steadily worse. We were still looking forward to the evening's pantomime, Cinderella....  we'd been promised a new twist. 

We sit at the very back of the show lounge which is at the front of the ship. (So we are the closest of all to the front end.) The ship was pitching up and down like a see-saw as the swell lifted us higher and higher, each time just dropping us several metre.  My stomach tried several times to leap out of my mouth.

The pantomime was very funny, as much because of the mistakes as the script and it kept me distracted while the ship heaved, but as it ended, I couldn't wait to get downstairs.  As usual - straight for my bed, to stay there until morning.

So that was our sea day. Tomorrow afternoon we reach Arrecife, Lanzarote. Peter and I are on tour to the Fire Mountains. Cool