Depart UK and Embark Braemar

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Thursday 11th December, 2015. Depart UK and Embark Braemar, Tenerife, Canary Islands

Having spent the night with our friends Rosemarie and Philip in Epsom we were relieved when the pr-booked taxi arrived pretty much dead on time. We had the quickest and smoothest ever check-in at the airport but had to re-pack as both our hold bags were underweight but the cabin bags were over. The flight was 4 and a half hours and we were given a hot breakfast on board. We landed at Tenerife South but were departing from the port of Santa Cruz De Tenerife which is on the North East coast. We were allocated bus 3 for the journey. The landscape was very barren with lots of cacti and desert vegetation. Pretty uninspiring but we will take a closer look when we return to this island for a longer stop.

The Canaries are 13 (7 major and 6 minor) islands spread over 300 miles in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. These lonely volcanic islands are part of Spain and are an autonomous region with two provinces which are administered from Santa Cruz De Tenerife and Las Palmas De Gran Canaria. The Fortunate Islands, as they have been called since Antiquity are located just off the African coast and aided by favourable trade winds. The Canaries grow fruit and vegetables year-round for the tables of Europe. They also attract millions of tourists escaping from the extremes of weather in the less blessed latitudes.

We were almost the last to board the ship. We had a shower and waited for our bags to arrive. We are on a table for 4 but our dining companions did not show up. However there is a table for two next to us and, after a fairly quiet start we got chatting to Wally and Carol. We sail for Gran Canaria tonight.

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