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Published: June 26th 2017
Catalina Park in Gran Canaria
The extent of our sight seeing tour in Gran Canaria!!As we lay back on the pillows in the bed on the first night in our new cabin we both had a peaceful, easy feeling (I must stop doing that!!) and woke at 8am refreshed after an undisturbed night (except a toilet trip at 4am but that's an age thing!!)
My foot was throbbing today probably after the extent of the walk and the exertions of the downhill incline yesterday. We decided it is not worth risking it changing in to a pig's foot (it still looks like a deformed trotter anyway!!) so neither of us scrambled to be the first in line at the gangway in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria (Roisin still thinks we're on a pirate ship as she keeps referring to it as the 'gangplank'!!). I am still walking with some discomfort and on the few times I have swivelled around as someone has said ‘
hello, how are you' or
‘good day', a pain shoots up my leg. I wish people would stop doing that to me!! For some strange reason I am able to walk upstairs putting one foot in front of the other like most able bodied people but I am unable to walk down
stairs unless I lead with my bad foot and descend one step at a time. With the difficulty I'm experiencing in moving up and down steps, I feel I'm turning in to some sort of Dalek!!
The temperature finally made it in to the mid-70s and the sun was shining. Well I think it was the sun, having been so long since I'd seen it!!
The ship was not scheduled to depart from Gran Canaria until 11pm so there was plenty of time should we feel the urge to step ashore. Neither of us were in a hurry to see what delights Gran Canaria had to offer so after a lazy hour on deck it was time to venture down for the morning's 11:15 trivia.
On arriving at Club Fusion on deck 7 the place was closed for cleaning. Roisin was convinced that as everyone is likely to be off the ship, it would be very unlikely the quiz would go ahead. She therefore went back up on deck to work on her tan whilst I hobbled forward toward the international café in order to update the blog. On passing Explorers Lounge I heard:
‘Number 7. How many sides does a decagon have?' Trivia was here!! I hobbled to the nearest team who seemed to be debating the question and I mouthed '10!' I was invited to join them and continued to play the other 13 questions. I contributed
Angel Falls as the tallest waterfall and
Uranus as the 7
th planet from the sun. Even when I was over ruled that
Chronophobia was the fear of colours (they voted for the fear of light) we still won with 18/20. (That's another lanyard to add to the collection!!)
Gran Canaria is the third-largest island in the group and is often described as the 'Round Island' for its near-circular shape. Las Palmas, its capital, and where the Emerald Princess had docked is also the largest city in the Canaries numbering some 500,000 inhabitants.
The ports of call were coming thick and fast now unlike the rate of healing with my ankle. Since our battle with the flood in Tenerife my trainers have been slow in drying out. This has left them with rather a pungent, crusty, odour that really hits the back of the throat (even if I say so myself!!) The next stop after Gran Canaria
was Lanzarote. Originally we had planned to hire a car and head for Fire Mountain in the Timofaya National Park. We decided to postpone this trip until our return in March. The number 1 priority in Lanzarote was to seek out a new pair of trainers/sneakers (or similar) and destroy the old ones. This, in military terms is what is known as ‘Seek & destroy'!! (or seek & exterminate in dalekspeak!!)
Lanzarote is the fourth-largest island in the Canary chain. The most easterly of the Canaries, the island lies only some 70 miles off the shore of North Africa. For this reason (and something to do with the Gulf Steam?) this island has the most amicable temperature. Like its neighbours, Lanzarote was shaped by a period of intense volcanic activity. The resulting landscape possesses a stark, near-lunar landscape: Over 300 now-dormant volcanoes left behind petrified lava seas and deep layers of volcanic ash.
The centre of Arricife is 2.5 miles from the cruise terminal so a free continuous shuttle service was provided. The roads in to the island's capital are well maintained with still more roads being laid to reach every corner of this volcanic landmass. With perfectly
smooth bitumen layered highways weaving their way across this barren vista it was as if a gang of navvies had been asked to tarmac the moon!!
Back on board, the Customer Services Dept. must have read the ‘blog' as we received the rest of the box of chocolates in our ‘
new' cabin although these looked and tasted more like chocolate coated strawberries!! During the evening there has been music organised in every lounge on board. The music is advertised: ‘
to suit all tastes'. However, there is a distinct lack of ‘thrash metal' or ‘alternative experimental jazz/neo punk fusion'!! I can feel a letter to the CEO of the company coming on!! The current array of music ranges from a pianist in the Piazza to a violinist and pianist, a guitar soloist and the resident band, Retrospect.
Tonight's trivia was dedicated to 70s music at 8:30pm and then a murder mystery musical trivia at 9:30. This was performed by the Entertainments staff in the style of a radio show. The characters all read from a script, directed by a narrator who, at certain intervals would play a musical clue. We decided to eat in the restaurant at 7pm.
This should have given us plenty of time to make the 8:30 quiz. Normally we have been lucky to be shown to a table for 2 so the whole dining experience has been really quick at under 1 hour. Tonight, though, we were asked if we want to share. If you prefer a table for 2 and none are available, you are provided with a pager that vibrates when a table becomes free. As we wanted to be served ASAP, we decided to share a table on this occasion. Unfortunately we were shown to a table for eight. It is a well-known fact that service is only as fast as your slowest eater as the plates and dishes are not removed until the final diner has finished eating. As luck was against us we must have had 6 of the slowest eaters on board. We never finished until just before 9pm so missed the 70s trivia. We therefore headed straight to the explorers Lounge where we eventually met up with Barry and Anita (remember the couple from Gibraltar?) Not having taken any medication for the past few days, I remembered to bring the Champagne (Asti) that I won at the
Flags of the World trivia some days ago.
The murder mystery musical quiz was entertaining. We scored 20/25. The winners, who scored 21 won a bottle of champagne. This didn't bother us as we had already experienced their ‘champagne'!!
We stayed put in Explorers lounge after the quiz as a Lionel Richie tribute act took to the stage. He looked and sounded like the Commodores front man and played all his hits with accurate aplomb. He had me convinced by his performance so I was surprised when he was introduced as a ‘Derek'! He could have chosen a more showbizzie name such as
Clint or Brad to go with his super cool, white suit and Hollywood smile.
Chris Ricketts, our resident solo guitar player has so far impressed with his Eagles and Mark Knopfler tributes. Tonight was his homage to Bob Dylan. I did overhear someone say that they intended to complain as they don't even like Bob Geldof!!? Where did that come from? There was not even any mention of Bob Geldof in the daily programme. Moreover, this person was heard to say: ‘
Why can't we have a bit of Jim Reeves!!?' ‘Bimbo', now there's a classic that comes to mind:
Bimbo, Bimbo, where ya gonna go-e-o
Bimbo, Bimbo, whatcha gonna do-e-o
Bimbo, Bimbo, does your mommy know
That you're goin' down the road to see a little girleo. They just don't write them like that anymore. In those days if you couldn't make the chorus rhyme, it was acceptable to just stick an ‘o' on the end of a word! However, I'm not too sure writing about giving little boys candy bars in one of the later verses is PC these days!! It may send out the wrong message!
Tomorrow is another relaxing day at sea so a chance to rest my ankle. The sea state as per the TV monitor has been showing ‘
not available' for the past day. I'm sure the bridge are just hedging their bets so if its anything less than smooth they can't be held accountable for the consequences!
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Truce Grovellar
non-member comment
I can't see any text. where's the text? I can see the photos but not the text!Have you not written the text yet and just uploaded the photos or are you not bothering with the text.I know they say that a picture is worth a thousand words, b
ut is it? really? Give me the text! I love the text! The pictures are OK but on their own not enough.. Regards, T