Canary Islands Cruise

Mark and I were on the ship, departing from Dover, within three hours of leaving Beckenham which was probably as record. At Dover station we shared a taxi with two American ladies – Dariene from Seattle and her sister Denise from Capistrano in California. Little did we know at the time but the four of us ended up being a formidable music trivia team. Both ladies had left their significant others behind. They were good value ship buddies.

Although this was cruise number forty for me, for Mark it was number 3 and I warned him that the Holland America crowd were somewhat older, slower moving, and with questionable fashion sense. We were on the Nieuw Statendam which is one of Holland America’s bigger ships with a capacity for around 2,600 guests. 600 embarked in Dover and a further 1,000 in Rotterdam the following day. The remainder had been on since Fort Lauderdale on the transatlantic crossing.

Overnight we sailed 115 miles to Rotterdam and I was picked up by my two Dutch friends, Anja and her daughter Sylvie who I met on the Hawaii cruise. They were my music trivia teammates and live only an hour from Rotterdam.

They took me to the town of Delft about 30 minutes away and we had a fabulous three hours looking around the old town. Anja grew up in Delft so she knew it well. The highlight was the town square with cafes and bars lining the perimeter and a church at one end where William of Orange is buried. I couldn’t resist climbing the 376 steps to the top of the tower. I’ll do anything for a good photo.

There are two historical figures named William of Orange. This was William the Silent or William I of Orange who is regarded as the father of the Netherlands. He was born in 1533 and Orange was a place in France. The Netherlands adopted orange as their national colour for this reason although Orange in France has nothing to do with the colour or the fruit. The other William of Orange, or Billy Orange as Sylvie refers to him, was William III of England, born in 1626 who was the grandson of the other one. He married Mary II who was the daughter of James II. Mary actually had a greater claim to the throne than Billy however they agreed to rule jointly and it worked rather well (until she died from smallpox six years later at the age of 32).

Delft is famous for its iconic white and blue pottery and was also the birthplace of Johannes Vermeer of “Girl With a Pearl Earring” fame. Other works include “Girl With a Wineglass”, “Girl with a Red Hat”, and “Woman with a Pearl Necklace”. Just in case anyone thinks I’ve been reading Viz, it’s a real painting.

Back in Rotterdam I met Anja’s husband John Jacob who had arrived in their camper van. Anja and John were off on a two week European tour heading to Montenegro amongst other places.

A fabulous morning spent with friends in a town I probably would never have visited had I not lost music trivia on the first night of the Hawaii cruise last October. Good people.

We left mid-afternoon for a three day sail to Morocco. The journey south started off a little chilly but at least we had blue skies. The sea days were uneventful with no trivia wins which was unusual. Despite appearances this must be a smart bunch.

Morocco

On day five we reached the Moroccan seaside resort of Agadir. I was one of the first off the ship with an itinerary designed by ChatGPT. I shared a taxi with a couple from Texas who had never stepped foot on African soil before. They were dropped off first leaving me with Hassan who was a rather impatient taxi driver. Possibly the wrong career choice.

He dropped me at the Danialand Cable Car which has been operational since 2022. I’d beaten the crowds and had a whole capsule to myself on the 6 minute trip up to the Kasbah. Luckily I like my own company.

The Oufella Kasbah is one of the highlights of Agadir. I found it a little underwhelming but the views were quite satisfactory and it wasn’t busy. I travelled back down, solo again, and jumped in another taxi with a much more relaxed driver called Jama. He dropped me at the main square but it was just a large concrete area with nothing going on so I headed for the souk El Had which I figured wasn’t far. I was wrong. I had no way of navigating my way there so I asked a series of people who pointed me in the right direction. I was glad that pointing is a universal form of communication. About three miles later I arrived at the main market and it lived up to expectations. Quite an upmarket souk by souk standards. I’ve been in much more squalid souks in my time. Unlike other North African markets the vendors weren’t overly pushy. Of course if you show the slightest interest in something the owner will go to great lengths to find something suitable for you to buy. It’s easy to see how hapless tourists buy something purely on the basis of the effort alone. Anyway, I bought a belt. Sensing my interest, in no time at all Abdul whipped out his knife and shortened the belt to fit me. I felt obliged.

In the evening I did rather well at poker with my Dutch friend Wout looking on. He’s a little younger than me but at 2.03 metres we make an odd couple if I stand next to him. We have a number of tall people onboard which isn’t surprising considering there are over 1100 Dutch on the ship. It’s also very rare for American’s to be outnumbered on a cruise ship.

Lanzarote

After a rough night at sea we reached our first port of call in the Canaries, Arrecife, which is the capital of Lanzarote. Once again Mark stayed onboard. I think he liked having the ship to himself. Also, he’s done most of the Canaries. I had visited Lanzarote many years ago with Katy, however I’m not sure I saw much of Arrecife.

I went on foot to see what the town had to offer. In reality there weren’t too many highlights and it was a rather scruffy town. The Castillo de San Gabriel was up first and scored a generous five in my personal rating system (and some of that score was due to it being free entry).

Next I headed to the highest building on the island; the 17-storey Arrecife Gran Hotel. It was built before a ruling came into force which stated that no building can be above 7-storeys. From the top there were great views of the beach below which despite the sunshine had about three people on it.

Gran Canaria

Our next stop was Las Palmas, the main city of Gran Canaria and this time Mark actually got off the ship. We taxied to the old town area known as Veguete and had a relatively pleasant time at the Cathedral of Santa Ana which was over 500 years old followed by a museum dedicated to Cristobal Colon. It turned out that Cristobal Colon, known as Christopher Columbus in English, stopped in Las Palmas on various trips to the New World including his 1492 voyage. At this time Gran Canaria had only been under Spanish rule for 14 years.

Mark surprised me by suggesting we walk back to the ship which was 2.5 miles away but it worked out well. Prior to getting back on the ship, and for the second day in a row, I bought some contraband wine in a carton. One litre for a euro and nine cents. The day before I was ripped off – I’d paid 1.70.

Tenerife

This was my first time to Tenerife and we docked at the capital, Santa Cruz, in the north of the island. Mark was on a tour so I was going solo for a walk around the city. ChatGPT organised a walking tour for me which wasn’t overly successful. First up was a twenty minute walk along the coast to the Auditorio de Tenerife. It’s a modern building sometimes compared to Sydney Opera House. I wasn’t able to look inside and in all honesty I wasn’t overly impressed despite the unique design.

My next destination meant walking back the way I’d come which was somewhat unappealing. I reached the Parque Garcia Sanabria which was very pleasant indeed. It’s the largest urban park in the Canary Islands and opened in 1926. It was named after the mayor of Santa Cruz at the time. It had a botanical feel to it and it was beautifully landscaped. It made Beckenham Rec look like a wasteland. My favourite feature was the floral clock donated by the Swiss.

Walking back I happened across a church which ended up being the highlight for me. The Convento de San Francisco de Asis wasn’t much to look at from the outside but inside was warm and welcoming. Of the hundreds of churches I’ve visited over the years this was one of the nicest.

That was it for the Canaries and one observation is this. Considering how close they are to Africa, I saw very few black people on the three islands we visited. There are seven main Canary Islands – Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera, and El Hierro. Since the 15th century the islands have belonged to Spain who conquered the various tribes on each island who were collectively known as the Guanches. The Guanches lived in caves and tents and had no metal tools. Despite the primitive existence of the Guanches it still took the Spanish 94 years to seize control of all seven islands.

The island group is named after dogs not canaries. Canaries were actually named after the islands. It was Pliny the Elder who is credited with their name after he noticed large dogs on one of the islands.

Lisbon

Our final stop was the Portuguese capital, Lisbon. The city was struck by an earthquake in 1755 which destroyed 85% of all the buildings and caused the deaths of over 30,000 people. Lisbon became the first seismic resistant city in the world.

I had visited before and I recalled the sail-in down the Tagus River was worth getting up early for. Possibly not 5:30 am early, but I was awake anyway.

I went on foot and headed for the pantheon (closed on Monday), then the castle which was as marvellous as last time I visited. I kept having flashes of déjà vu and quickly realised I’d done an identical self-propelled walking tour a few years ago. The weather was perfect so I didn’t mind seeing it all again.

One thing I’ve yet to do in Lisbon is ride historic Tram 28 which runs through the neighbourhoods and tells the story of Lisbon. I also missed out on the monastery where Vasco da Gama is buried (closed on Monday). It’s a great city to walk around and provides a good thigh workout. My tip: don’t go on a Monday.

For the Dutchies it was also King’s Day (April 27th) and with 1170 of them on the ship we had no choice but to observe it. Trivia was Dutch trivia so I learnt all about the Netherlands in the afternoon. Longest river, highest point, population, famous Dutch people, World Cup final appearances, number of provinces, name of the prime minister, king and queen details. I became a semi-expert. Anyway what nobody mentioned was that the trivia was in the Dutch language. We didn’t do too well.

On the penultimate night I arranged dinner for 8 of us – some of the good people I’d met on board. Bill and Dawn from Ohio, Julie and Ryan from New York, sisters Denise and Dariene from California and Washington state, and of course Mark from the top floor.

Two sea days later and we were back in Dover for my brief turnaround before heading off for the month of May to six new countries.