aliholli

Friday, 19 August 2011

La Palma

♫♪♫♪ "Oh Santa Cruz you're not that faaarrrrrrrr" ♫♪♫♪

Next stop was the volcanic ocean island of La Palma, the most north-westerly island of the Canaries. Braemar docked at the main port Santa Cruz de La Palma, the island's main port...

..near the beaches with black volcanic sand.

Today's tour on this stunning and beautiful island began with a visit to the Sanctuary of Nuestra Senora de Las Nieves, The Church of Our Lady of the Snow, the patron saint of the island. It is the spiritual centre for all the people of La Palma and is located in the midst of an area of outstanding natural beauty.

The existence of this church is proved as far back as November, 20th, 1423 so it is one of the oldest places of worship in all the Canary Islands.....it is beautiful inside.

A great view by church

But the highlight of the tour was the visit to

Caldera de Taburiente National Park

created in 1954, which is one of the biggest volcanic craters in the world. The visitors centre had loads of information for us.

If you click on this photo to enlarge it you can see where the ship was docked on the cloudy cloudy cloudy east side of the island, and the road we took through the tunnel to the west side of the island ...THE SUNNY SIDE!!!! We came out of the tunnel on the other side of the island into glorious sun, what a bonus!

If you book a holiday here go on the west .... the sunny side.

We had a short hike over the crater border path... what fantastic scenery. The crater has a circumference of 28,000 metres, diameter of 9,000 metres and depth of 1,500 metres, lined with pine trees and bossed lava, the photos could never do it justice.

Wonderful stuff! Click for more info!

Great tree roots.

map of where we walked

me and some SKY BLUE (PUSB PUSB)

husb

Then back through another tunnel,the longest tunnel of all the Canaries with the longest stretch of straight road... 2km....

Apparently many locals used this stretch to see how fast their cars could go, only to get a speeding fine, the total amount probably repaid the cost of building it...

into cloud

crater

This long building is one of the 2 hospitals on La Palma, all single rooms, free (NHS) and every room has a sea view! You would't mind being here for a while.

OMG OMG DID YOU SPOT THE IKEA???????!!!!!!

Back for a walk through the town...they like their flowery balconies, very pretty.

We didn't have to leave till evening so we had a beer and a bearhug.

And because we'd missed our tea we ordered room service..... the tray is getting bigger and better!

Has anyone spotted the picture on our cabin wall??!!!! What are the chances eh? =)

It was a brilliant day. La Palma is the home of the 14 international telescopes (Isaac Newton telescope, Liverpool telescope)

the Observatory

situated right at the top of the island and because of this there can be no industry, no pollution, no gases. Just good pure clean air.

There are no forest fires, no dangerous animals, no poisonous animals, no snakes, no foxes, no rats, no vermin....

just lizards, a frog and 80 varieties of bird.

No crime, no looting, no murders.

No rain.

(Well, maybe 25 days a year) (in Winter)

We loved it. (Black sand isn't very inviting though, but you can't have everything!!)

A GREAT DAY!!

Thursday, 18 August 2011

Madeira (cake and wine)

Funchal in Madeira is a pretty place with glorious flowers and wonderful views. We enjoyed our day here opting for the 4x4 drive around the island which took us through typical streets where it seemed the whole of the male community were playing cards, ("playing"? "Thrashing" more like!)

Then onwards and upwards to Cabo Girao, the highest sea cliff in Europe, 580 metres above sea level.

Down by the harbour the fish were hanging out to dry.

There are no beaches as such in Funchal but look at the colour of the sea.

How about this place for a game of football!!

Rum (poncha)in Camara de lobos which went straight to my head, it was so strong.

On top of the world. Great view from the top.

We got dropped off in the old town and walked through the market, it was so colourful.

Who's that peeping?

Me and Mr Columbus. (I'm looking rather white)

Back to Braemar with a fruity, nutty, honey Madeira cake and a bottle of Madeira wine which the security guards promptly confiscated (it was like an off-licence that had just had a delivery behind that check-in desk, honestly)

Wednesday, 17 August 2011

31st wedding anniversary

We were still at sea but it was a hooty day - I nearly managed to disrupt the whole of the ship's plumbing system by somehow dropping a penny down the plug hole, and husb had to call out the little maintenance men after he knocked a new shoe off the top of the wardrobe into the cavity behind. They had to pull up the carpet and "go fishing for it" with a torch, a mirror and a long thing and they seemed to find it quite funny.

The red wine from Stellenbosch was superb, thanks Cub.

And no need for Wendy House dressing ups, it was a casual night.

Husb wore his new, newly rescued shoe! (He did, believe me)

LOTOS 5 starting in London

Life On The Open Sea again, WHOOP WHOOP! heading to the Canaries and the Algarve... our journey stared with the fast train from Chester to Euston where we met the Cub and he helped us take the cases round the corner to

"the world's most wonderful railway station"

The Olympic rings were up ready for next summer....

...And we had time for a cheeky cuppa before catching the train to Dover
(armed with a very nice bottle of wine from Stellenbosch, THANK YOU)

where we boarded the Fred Olsen ship BRAEMAR and headed off into the Channel.
(nice tee shirt)(oh you've been to Tortola have you?)

The cliffs looked white.

FIRST FORMAL NIGHT ON SHIP

with our table companions who were excellent company, we couldn't have picked a nicer set of friends to spend the fortnight with, we had a lot of laughs.