HAPPY BIRTHDAY FROM LAS PALMAS!

Thursday, November 30, 2023

Port of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain

Aboard the Enchanted Princess

Room Aloha 212

Sunny, 82F—another gorgeous day!

Welcome to Las Palmas

 November 30 is a special day, the birthday of second son, Brian. I was able to wish him a Happy Birthday via text at 3 a.m., because we are 5 hours ahead of EST!  I am quite certain our weather is much better than  Erie’s and I hope everyone stays safe back home.

 

Gran Canaria, 93 miles of Northwest Africa, is the 3^rd largest of the Canary Islands and has a population of about 850,000. Las Palmas  itself has a population of about 370,000. Its geography is very diverse, with volcanic mountains, sand dunes, cliffs, and snow at the peak of some of the mountains.  The Canary Islands were used as a refueling point for Christopher Columbus as it was the last port in Europe that his vessels set sail from.   

 

Today we could walk from the port to interesting areas, thank goodness. That said, the ship’s map of Gran Canaria and Las Palmas wasn’t very useful.  I got a map from the tourist information kiosk near the port, but it turned out to be a darn shame that Janie cannot read (English).  I convinced TK that we should go to the Plaza del Pilar to see the market. Because it was quite a distance, we needed to take a city bus. We were up to the challenge, at least I was.

 

We boarded Yellow Bus 47, 1.40 euros/each, and off we went through city streets, traffic, bumping along. Fortunately, the driver indicated our stop to us about half an hour later. There it was, Plaza del Pilar, with nothing going on, nothing. How could this be? I took another look at the tourist information map only to discover that the market was only open on Sundays. If only I could read! 

Big buildings pass us by

At least there was a church at the Plaza del Pilar

 

There we were, no idea of where we were, tall buildings around us, people scrambling by us, all presumably with places to go.  I will say that TK did not say anything, either he held it in, or a new TK had evolved. We had 4 hours to find our ship!  We started walking and several blocks later we saw water. A closer look it was a beach and people were surfing. But our cruise ship was absolutely nowhere to be seen.

Surfers

Beach

Then, right before our eyes, a huge mall appeared.  A WOW mall. We weren’t going to pass that up! This mall was much bigger than Millcreek Mall, all decorated for Christmas, the hustle/bustle of shoppers, and no empty spaces! 

There used to be flower shops in malls in PA too

Somehow, we were able to find a bus stop for Yellow Bus 47 after a wonderful walk through the mall. Back to the port we were. We were not yet fatigued, and TK was yearning for churros. My hunt for sfogliatella took over at every previous port until yesterday. Without much planning we plopped into a bar/café and ordered a small plate of churros and Coke Zero. Oh my! I did not know they were deep fried and covered in sugar—we wish we had ordered a large plate! I’m adding churros to my repertoire!

Our churro bar/cafe

Churros, we already ate two!

TK sees the cutest things

He took the photo for the  temperature. By his method

of calculation, it is 82F/26C

Roundabout, Las Palmas style

Water closet--we encountered one of these 

near Notre Dame in Paris.

 

This part of Las Palmas is probably tourist oriented, but I still needed a few things for those back home, so we zigzagged in and out of some souvenir shops. There was even another big glorious mall near the ship.

Second mall

Janie inside a Christmas tree

 

We could not believe it was only 2 p.m. when we returned to the ship.

Enchanted Princess on the right

 

Tonight we were going to the “Movie Under The Stars,” but believe it or not, it started to rain---we have had the most beautiful weather in every port, it is OK for some rain to fall!

 

Happy Birthday, Brian!

 

TK’s Takes: The churro bar/café had the biggest ice cubes he ever saw.  Janie is not going to be the reader of maps/tourist info anymore.

 

 

 This was a 13000 step day--11,500 yesterday.

Janie's Note: As we begin our journey across the Atlantic, Internet may be sketchy. I will continue to write exciting daily reports, and hopefully I will be able to post them.