When we awoke at eight o’clock this morning, the Queen Anne was already docked in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. Going out onto our balcony, we saw that the sky was a glowering, gunmetal grey, and we hoped that this wasn’t the sign that it was going to rain all day.
As we were getting ready, the grey skies were brightened by the sudden appearance of a rainbow, meaning the rain had some competition in the sky this morning; we hoped the sun would win. 🙂
We ate breakfast, as usual, in the self-service buffet before wandering out onto the rear decks, where the temperature was very pleasant. We noticed that the Ventura was docked alongside us once again; we could look across at her bow and up onto the bridge.
We didn’t have any excursions planned today, as you can walk right off the ship into the town, and we thought it would be fun to explore on our own. 🙂
We disembarked the Queen Anne around 10.00am (to let the queues go down) and walked along, out of the dock area. I wanted to be able to get some great bow shots of the Queen Anne and, as we rounded the corner so the ship was facing us head-on, we noticed other people doing the same. 🙂
By now, there were lots of patches of blue in the sky, and it looked as if it was going to be a lovely day. We continued walking along the wide pavements, until we came to a large sign, partly created in topiary, which proclaimed we were in “LAS PALMAS DE GRAN CANARIA”. As many people were posing next to the sign for photographs, I had to wait until there was no-one around before I could grab a photo, which forms the featured image for this blog. 🙂
A little further on, we saw what looked like a large boat (or small ship) set in a grassy area. The ship looked as if it was a bit of a wreck, with obvious fire damage. There was a plaque nearby in Spanish, with an English translation, explaining that the vessel was called Niña III, and was a replica of the original Niña, one of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage to the Americas in 1492. Gran Canaria holds historical significance due to its connection to Columbus’s voyages. He stopped in the Canary Islands to make repairs and to stock up on supplies before continuing his journey across the Atlantic.
The Niña continued to be used in various capacities afterwards, and she made several further trips across the Atlantic. She was one of the few ships to survive a hurricane off the coast of Hispaniola in 1495. She was later used for trading voyages in the Caribbean.
No-one is entirely sure about the ultimate fate of the Niña. It is likely she ended her days in the early 16th century, as the vessels of the time usually only had a 20-year lifespan due to the harsh conditions of the sea and the limitations of shipbuilding at the time. The Niña was probably decommissioned and scrapped after years of service. It therefore appeared that the fire damage we could see was as a result of vandalism and arson, someone deliberately damaged the replica we could see in front of us. I just cannot understand the mentality of some people. 🙁
A few moments later, we came across the Museum of Science & Technology. We thought about going in, but by now the weather was too fine to spend the time indoors. We were, however, fascinated by a large spinning granite globe outside the museum, which Google told us was a Kugel Fountain. It was quite mesmerising to watch.
We decided we would have a look at the Geocache app to see if there were any nearby. There was one about 650 metres away, so we decided to go and look for it. The clue was “Where Ireland meets Gran Canaria” so we figured that it might be an Irish bar or something along those lines.
We walked through the streets as the number of metres to the geocache came down. It looked as if the location was on or near a beach, and we headed eagerly towards it. Sure enough, it brought us out onto a wide beach with a stunning mountainous backdrop, and we spotted a pub called “Paddy’s Anchor”.
Soon the app said we were only two metres away from the geocache, but we were having problems finding it. We were just about to give up, and we’d moved back towards the beach, when we saw a tall guy go over to the pub, his mobile phone in his hand. Soon he removed something from a small blue box above the window frame of the pub, and we saw him write something down before entering some details into his phone. He must also have been looking for the cache! 🙂
After he’d moved on, we went over, and sure enough we found the cache. Another one to add to the collection. It was great that it had led us here to this fantastic sunny beach.
As we strolled along the front, we could see various beach tennis courts set up, and it looked as if there was some sort of international Beach Tennis competition taking place. A small “grandstand” held several spectators shouting encouragement to the players, and we saw an umpire sitting on his high stool. An excited voice commentated over a PA system, and it all looked very interesting.
We stopped to watch for a while and then, as the weather was really starting to hot up now, we decided to go for the customary cold beer. 🙂
We found a little bar/bistro tucked away down a side street, and each ordered a bottle of freezing cold Estrella beer, which went down an absolute treat. Then we looked around some nearby shops before returning to the beach and strolling along the beach front, stopping for an ice cream on the way.
Kicking my flip-flops off and walking in the sand, listening to the roar of the surf, made me wish we’d brought our swimsuits and towels. By now, there was hardly a cloud in the sky and the perfect weather had tempted more and more people to come out; the seafront bars, cafés, restaurants and shops were doing a roaring trade, and there were lots of swimmers and sunbathers. A happy holiday atmosphere prevailed, and we decided to go to a mini-market we could see and buy a cold can of San Miguel each to enjoy, while sitting on a bench doing a spot of people watching. 🙂
Afterwards, we decided to take a slow stroll back to the ship, as the sun was very hot now and we hadn’t brought any sun protection, or even a hat. I needed the loo by now as well, so we looked around for somewhere suitable to go and saw a cool-looking bar which was accessed via some steps. Many local people were inside, and we noticed they had a good selection of cocktails and wine, so while Trevor went up to the bar to order, I used the restrooms. As we were waiting for our drinks, standing at the long counter, we noticed there were some cube-shaped fish bowls on the bar, each containing frondy aquatic plants and a single tropical fish. I actually felt sorry for the fish, all on their own in a tiny cube with no company of their own kind.
I enjoyed a crisp, chilled vino blanco and Trevor had a beer. We enjoyed them so much I called to the barmaid “Lo mismo otra vez, por favor.” (Same again, please). 🙂
While we sat in the bar sipping our drinks, a large noisy party of locals came in and sat at nearby tables. There was much banter and laughter and we could hardly hear ourselves think. We decided to go after we’d finished (and I used the restrooms again) and we arrived back at the Queen Anne around 3.45pm, stopping to get a photo of her next to Ventura on the way.
What a lovely, relaxing day we had had!
Back in 11046 we had time for a power nap before it was time to start getting ready for dinner. At table #349, the conversation flowed once again. Our waiter was quite the character – he would always come over to us and say “Nice to see you, to see you nice!” in his best Bruce Forsyth voice. The meal was delicious; I have to say the food in the restaurant is very good.
The entertainment in the Royal Court Theatre tonight featured a West End vocalist called Lisa-Marie Holmes. She had apparently been in a couple of musicals such as Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and Pricilla, Queen of the Desert, although she was classically trained. I wasn’t really keen on her; she was a bit screechy and some of the songs she chose were pure cheese. The best one she did, in my opinion, was Con te Partíro (Time to Say Goodbye) which was made famous by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman. If she had stuck to the classical songs I would have enjoyed her show a lot more.
Afterwards, we went along to the Golden Lion to do the quiz, but the theme was “Showstoppers” and, because we don’t really go to see musicals or know much about celebrities, we didn’t do well at all. In fact, I gave up half-way through.
We then went along to the Queen’s Room, which featured Irish fiddle player E. Sarah Carter, who had played in Riverdance. She was accompanied by the superb ship’s orchestra and she was excellent. The only seats we could get were on barstools which was not really ideal, because of the noise of the ice machine, cocktail mixer and bar staff shouting orders to each other. I suppose they had their jobs to do, but if you want to be able to hear what’s going on in the Queen’s Room, then a seat at the bar isn’t the best place.
When the mediocre Amethyst Duo came on stage afterwards, we decided this would be a good time to head back to 11046 for the evening. 🙂
Before we settled down in our big comfortable bed, we propped open the balcony door and enjoyed the soothing sounds of the Atlantic ocean washing against the side of the Queen Anne as she took us to tomorrow’s port of call – Santa Cruz de Tenerife.