Barcelona and Transatlantic Cruise 2008 – Day 10 – Lanzarote, Canary Islands
December 5, 2008
Today we had a port of call in the Canary Islands, the first of three stops in the island chain. First stop was the island of Lanzarote. The Canary Islands are part of Spain.
Lanzarote is a harsh island comprised of volcanic remnants. It’s very odd looking and stark. The colors are very brown, tan and grey. Almost the entire surface is devoid of growth being volcanic material. To me, it’s very odd how over 300,000 people now inhabit this island with its still active volcanoes.
Around three hundred years ago, volcanic eruptions completely covered the island and locals say it won’t happen again for at least 30 years. That sounds like a very odd statement to me. A fellow passenger summed it best when he said, “It was a great place to visit for a day, but how in the hell would you spend a week there or our life?â€.
We booked an excursion through the cruise line, our only one, for this stop. We would take a bus and drive through some of the country side with a few stops. The bus ride would end up at the Volcanoes National Park.
The drive through the countryside was very interesting. There were definitely some very unique and different volcanic rock formations. We managed to snap some pictures of these interesting areas.
One stop we made was at a local vineyard/winery. The Lanzarote wines are supposed to be very unique because of the volcanic ash soil. Also, since there is no irrigation and very little rainfall, it’s very interesting how the grapes are grown. They dig a pit down about 18 inches to get below the top volcanic ash and plant the vines. Then, around the pit, they put up a wall of rocks. The purpose of the rocks is to catch the evening moisture off the ocean. This moisture in the rocks is enough to water/irrigate the vines. We sampled some of the local wine, but didn’t really care for it and did not purchase any.
At one of the stops, we visited a local restaurant that cooks its food over a hot volcanic pit. They have grates and plates over the pit for cooking the food. It was very unique, but unfortunately, we didn’t get to sample the food. They also demonstrated some other open volcanic pit tricks. In some, they poured water. A few moments later, the pit belched a big geyser. In another pit, they tossed some straw which soon became a fireball. This pit was maybe a few feet deep. These kinds of demonstrations really had you wondering how safe the island was for the long term. Hawaii has some similar areas but they seem to be very limited while they were everywhere here. Also, the size of the Volcanoes National Park on Lanzarote totally dwarfs the size of the park by the same name on Hawaii. It was literally huge and very interesting.
The last stop (actually the first) of the tour was a place where we (excluding Mr Papa) got to ride some camels. They put two persons on a camel, one per side, in a chair looking device. The camel ride was pretty slow but lasted about a half hour in caravan format. We returned to the ship about 3:00.
Before dinner was the first production number of the Celebrity Singers and Dancers. This was the show originally scheduled for the first sea day but had to be postponed due to high seas. The show was entitled Encore and was a collection of former hit shows.
Overall, the show was good and entertaining, but I would have to say it wasn’t as good as I was expecting or that I have come to expect on Celebrity. The costumes, as always, were very stunning, elaborate and beautiful. The sets were very well done and the use of the stage was excellent. However, I felt the dancers were nothing special, or at least didn’t show it in this show. They did very simplistic technical moves and didn’t do anything that was particularly difficult. I remember from previous shows always at least having one couple that would perform some difficult duet moves. The group singing was also quite good and entertaining, but for me, the solos were not inspiring. While not bad, except for one or two numbers, they were not memorable. I don’t want to overstate, as the show was still very enjoyable, I was just hoping for more. Suzanne thought more of the show than I did. Being a singer herself, perhaps I am being too harsh. Anyways, I am hoping for a couple more excellent shows in the remaining two production numbers.
I think there were a lot of tired folks today because dinner seemed to be sparsely attended compared to previous nights. Still, we enjoyed another excellent dinner with a great bottle of wine. We have been averaging about $50 a night for the bottle of wine, so we have been splurging a bit here. Savannah and Suzanne opted for the tuna steak for dinner with Savannah having a special request baked potato as her appetizer course. Sean enjoyed a ribbon pasta dish and went for the beef a second straight night with a nicely prepared steak.
After dinner, it was country and western night with the party band and we had planned to go for a half or maybe an hour, but the kids and Suzanne were pretty bushed, so we all called it a night a bit early. Savannah was asleep within 10 minutes of getting back to the cabin. The rest of us chatted about the cruise thus far for about thirty minutes before going lights out a bit after 11 pm.
Tomorrow our port of call is at the Canary island of Tenereife where we have a walking tour of the town planned.
Barcelona and Transatlantic Cruise 2008 – Day 9 – Madeira, Portugal
December 5, 2008
Editor’s Note: Sorry for the delayed updates here, but technical difficulties have prevented posting. Yes, even Internet Service Down issues apply while cruising. Hopefully back to normal now.
Today we had a port of call in Funchal, Madeira which is part of Portugal. We arrived into port at about 7 AM. While we planned to go ashore, we didn’t have any planned tours, so we arose around 8 AM with breakfast in the cabin. We enjoyed eggs benedict with some bacon and sausage.
It was about 9:30 in the morning when we went ashore. We had two distinct areas of touring planned, one near the ship and one a bit of a ways away. The first, near the ship consisted of the local town.
We toured some gardens, a museum, walked around the center of town and did some souvenir shopping. Suzanne got a t-shirt, I got a sweat shirt and the kids purchased a few knick knack type souvenirs.
I have also been bothered by the constant questioning of the kids on this trip as to what time it was. Thus, I have decreed that both kids would be buying a watch and soon. Savannah picked up a nice little white watch in Madeira. Sean was ready to buy the exact same watch that I wear at one of the shops on the cruise ship, but I think it would be silly for him to spend $125 on a watch, so have agreed to look for a new watch for myself and then sell him my current watch. This may backfire on me as I am not sure I want to spend the money for a new watch and thus he may have come up with a good way to not buy a watch. We will have to see.
We also wanted to tour this military history museum in Madeira but couldn’t really find it. At the building we thought was it was a very foreboding, armed man guarding this door. He didn’t look like he wanted to be troubled with so we didn’t investigate further. Later, we saw folks entering that door, so it must have been the right place and we just didn’t investigate far enough.
We also stopped a local Madeira wine store and sampled some of the famous local wine. In my opinion, it was all terrible. I don’t enjoy drinking fortified wines at all though I do cook with it from time to time. I don’t think Suzanne was impressed either, but still she bought a small bottle to take home. We took our loot back to the ship before heading out on our second tour.
This time we took a cab up the mountain to a small town about Funchal called Monty. We viewed a temple and enjoyed the views above the town, but the primary purpose of the visit was to ride the famous toboggans or sleds down the mountain. You get in these wicker baskets on rails and two drivers push you down the road. Actually, most of the time they simple “try†to steer you as gravity drives you down the hill. Suzanne filmed the ride down the hill so it will be interesting to see how it came out. As they cautioned folks with back issues about doing the ride, I opted to not ride down. It looked like quite an interesting ride down the mountain side and of course, Suzanne said at the bottom that I could have done it without any back issues – oh well, better safe than sorry with so much of the cruise to go.
After getting off the sleds, we still had about a mile and half walk back to the ship – all down hill through winding, very narrow roads. It must be hell getting around that town if you lived there.
We arrived back on the ship in plenty of time to get ready for the sail away party. The weather on this cruise remains a bit colder than it was supposed to be. The entire European/Mediterranean region is dealing with unseasonable cold weather. The average weather in Madeira and Canary Islands for this time of year is supposed to be in the upper 70’s. It was definitely light coat weather as the mercury maybe hit the low 60’s.
Because of the weather, we haven’t enjoyed our balcony as much as planned, but enjoyed the sail away from Funchal on it. As it turns out, it was a great place for the sail away as the ship backed its back end almost parallel to the island before pulling out. We enjoyed a glass of wine and some great views of Madera as we begun our journey to the Canary Islands.
For dinner, Sean enjoyed a four cheese pasta and his usual 2 shrimp cocktails. He was pleasantly surprised to find an extra shrimp in each of his cocktails tonight. I think he is going to turn into a shrimp. Savannah and Suzanne opted for the roasted chicken and I had a perfectly cooked medium rare Prime Rib. I was a bit leery of getting prime rib as it’s often not cooked right or not very warm when not cooked at home. It couldn’t have been better prepared tonight.
After dinner, it was time for the traditional 50’s/60’s Sock Hop. Suzanne and Savannah were again dressed in their poodle skirts and shirts brought along just for this event. Sean normally has some proper looking jeans and a shirt for this event, but at the pre-packing clothes try on at home, found that they no longer fit him. The party band Front Liners continues to impress and we danced the night away at the sock hop until about 12:30.
Tomorrow we make the first of three stops in the Canary Islands at Lanzarote.
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