Cruise to Canary Islands

28^th September - 11^th October 2015

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28 September. Southampton. Boarded the ship at 11:30. It was quite quick, but not as fast as advertised. Met Kieron, Mark and Michelle and we all decamped to the Sky Bar for a couple before the rooms were ready. M,M and I went on the North Star. My bags never appeared on the baggage tracker app. Unpacked and then went to The Bionic Bar, where the robots made me two drinks. Totally confused by that, as I was only expecting one!. Dinner in Grande, then sat in Music Hall and watched the Robbie Williams tribute act.

30 September. Vigo, Spain. Arrived around 10. It was cool and breezy, so I changed out of shorts. Michelle and I were on a tapas tour. We met Sean, the guide, by the El Bañista del Arenal statue and then went to see a sculpture of Jules Verne sitting on an octopus! After that we went to our first bar where we tried both red and white Albariño wines, and various meats and cheese. There was also a plate of green peppers, cooked in salt and olive oil. Then it was on to our second stop of the day, a pulpo bar. Pulpo is Spanish for octopus and not surprisingly the food was mostly octopus based. We did also have a tender piece of beef. There was also a taste of two more wines (one of each) which were drunk out of small, shallow, white porcelain bowls. Our final stop was at a sea food restaurant, where we had another red wine and prawns, clams and mussels in rice. It looked like paella, but wasn't. Back on board was the welcome back party for Crown and Anchor members.

1 October. At sea. Today I did the iFly. Great fun. No pictures unfortunately.

2 October. Arrecife, Lanzarote, Canary Islands. An early afternoon arrival, so straight after breakfast I rode the North Star again. This was better than in Southampton as the arm went higher and also over the sides of the ship. Saw lots of dolphins. Won the trivia, got a pen! Today's trip was a wine tasting tour. They grow their vines in volcanic soil, and they're individual vines each with a protective wall to keep the wind off them. We visited 3 wineries and they all, effectively made the same wine. 80% is white the rest red and rose. Some of the wine is very sweet, not to my taste at all.

3 October. Santa de la Cruz, Tenerife, Canary Islands. The earliest start of my cruise, so far. I was on the 4x4 just after 8:30, for a trip into the interior of Tenerife. It was very hazy and this was down to the Calima, which is Saharan dust blowing across from Africa. We travelled through national parks and some very barren, rocky and arid landscapes, which were right next to mountains covered in trees, mostly conifers. We saw Mount Teide but it wasn't clear because of the Calima. Where we stopped to turn round and retrace our steps is a favourite of film makers. We saw the steps made for Charlton Heston to walk down in the Ten Commandments and other places that were used for Planet of the Apes, Star Wars and many more movies. Unfortunately, despite being in 4x4's, we never went off road.

4 October. Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain. We arrived at 7 but as I hadn't got a tour booked, I didn't get up until 8:30. Mein Schiff 4 and AIDAsol were berthed by us. I took the HOHO bus tour and then had a stroll around. Being Sunday a lot of the shops were closed. I went into a church called Santa María del Pino. There isn't really a lot to do in this port, even though it's a big town. I should have taken a tour, I think. I was back on board just after midday.

5 October. Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. Mid morning arrival. Today, Jordan and Erica, a pair of honeymooners from Vancouver, and I decided to go on the famous toboggans. We left the ship around 12:30 and on the way to the cable car, visited the local market where they had lots of fresh fruit for sale. We also saw the fish market, next door. Then we took the Monte cable car. After a a quick coffee and pastel (Portuguese custard tart), we joined the queue for the wicker basket toboggan ride down the hill. These are literally, wicker baskets on runners and two men guide them down the steep hill for two kilometres. Amazing. Then it was a taxi ride back down to a bar for a couple of tiny beers (their small is my tiny!) and a glass of of passion fruit poncha, before wandering back to the ship. A fun port day with a couple of very nice people.

7 October. Lisbon, Portugal. Early morning arrival. We sailed under 25 April Bridge and docked by Celebrity Eclipse. Emerald Princess sailed in behind us. I went on a small group tour to Sintra, where we saw the Palácio Nacional de Sintra and then on to the Quinta da Regaleira. There we walked through the gardens, and a tunnel and also explored the house. Then it was on to Cais Cais where we saw the Hells Mouth arch in the rocks and we also had a picnic of red wine, bread, cheese, chorizo, olives and tomatoes, before driving back to Lisbon past the bridge and Belem Tower, to a lookout before returning to the ship. Then I had a go on the bumper cars. In the evening I had dinner with Michelle in Wonderland. It was certainly worth the extra fee.

9 October. Bilbao, Spain. Michelle and I took the shuttle bus into Bilbao from the port. There we walked to the Guggenheim Museum. The Guggenheim is an amazing titanium clad building of curves and angles. Outside is Jeff Koons' Puppy, a living wall of flowers in the shape of a puppy. Outside the museum there's another Jeff Koon's piece called Tulips. There's also one of Louise Bourgouis' Maman sculptures. She made six and this is the third I've seen, the others being in London and Tokyo. After visiting the inside of the museum, we strolled along the Rio del Nervion to the old town. After lunch, we looked around the old town, before heading back to the ship. Bilbao has many old and newer buildings with ornate balcony railings and interesting fronts. A surprisingly nice place.