The Canary Islands

Well, have to admit we were lazy when the ship ported at Tenerife.  It was a rainy, cool day and we had not scheduled a tour so when we realized that the port was a good distance from the city, and transfers were expensive we decided to skip the shore trip for this day.

 

We spent the day eating and drinking onboard the ship in the bars that were open early, taking a siesta (practicing now that we were in Spain), and watching movies in our cabin.  We had a nice leisurely dinner in our cabin (complete with a good bottle of wine) and promised ourselves that tomorrow we would go ashore and explore in Lanzarote.

It was a sunny day that dawned while we were arriving in Lanzarote and we could see the island very clearly.  Unfortunately, Lanzarote is a volcanic island desert.  It looks like the surface of the moon!

  As we caught our tour bus to Puerta del Carmen the clouds started rolling in.  As we began walking down the boardwalk , we realized that there were beautiful beaches here (although it was still a little chilly for us to use the beaches) and the town out turned out to be a quaint little village although quite a bit tourist oriented.

After a few hours of walking we settled in at O’Reilley’s, (yes an Irish pub) for a bacon sandwich and an Irish cider.  The bacon sandwich was wonderful and the Magners was authentic both of which we enjoyed while watching the tourists wander the street between the bar and the beach.  We’ll talk about O’Reilley’s more in a future “Irish pubs abroad” post.  Then it was back to the ship for a two-day sail to the island of Madeira.

Our day at sea included, as was becoming normal, a formal night in the dining room.  This was the final formal night because the night before reaching Malaga would be filled with packing and preparing everybody’s luggage for departure in Malaga.  The dining room chefs and staff always try to outdo themselves on this evening and we weren’t disappointed.  The food was special and all of the dining room kitchen staff members were introduced as they formed what can only be described as a Conga line carrying the final dessert (Baked Alaska) for the cruise. 

This was also the evening for tipping the servers all over the ship for taking care of us.  Normally, a cruise line suggests that tips be calculated at $11 or $12 per person per day allocated in a certain way among the dining room staff, the room stewards, etc. although some cruise lines include tipping in the cost of the cruise.  Since we didn’t use the dining room every night we wished to allocate our tips differently than that suggested by the ship (and which RCCL allows) and we were happy to hand out our envelopes to our favorite servers.  What a nice way to say “thanks” and “see you later”.

We awoke the next day in time to see the port of Funchal in Madeira as the ship arrived.  Unfortunately, there were very low hanging clouds over this incredibly beautiful town as we slowly cruised into port.