July 28 - Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

last night - off the African coast

Weather – 27º in Santa Cruz, 19º in San Cristóbal

random cool shot from Laguna

de La Laguna 

Back home, I anticipated melting throughout the entire time we were in Europe. I’ve been hot a few times, but no where near melting – the trip’s not over, but so far, the weather has been great! Today, in the small town of San Cristóbal de La Laguna it was actually cold. The temp was about 19º, it was windy with some misting. 

Steps – 14,754, Guillermo, our guide, was

La Laguna convent

new bus with a missing seat!

impressed with our step count for the day. Of course, we had to brag that just a few days ago in Barcelona we were over 22,000!

 Today was a big day for touring. We scheduled ourselves for 2!

The highlight of today’s touring is a mojo picón making workshop. Mojo picón is a traditional Canarian sauce. Before the workshop, we drove around Santa Cruz de Tenerife as the guide gave us info about island life. At one point, I thought the small bus we were on was having a bit of difficulty and sure enough,

mojo lesson

it was. What should have taken us 15 min to get to San Cristóbal de La Laguna took us about 30. Eventually we made it. We went off with the guide on a walking tour and the bus driver took the bus in for a swap.

San Cristóbal de La Laguna is a small

Chris in an apron!

colonial town 2000 feet above sea level, which is why it is so much cooler than Santa Cruz at the sea. We only wandered with Guillermo our guide for about 40 min, until the bus was back.

Santa Cruz sculpture

The mojo workshop was a lot of fun. It took place at a winery which we toured first. In fact, before the tour started, we had a glass of sparkling wine with some tapas…this was an apology snack from the bus company…nice. We’ve had mishaps with buses in the past and they never said sorry with wine.

Hands on tours are rarely offered and when they are, we rarely take them. We weren’t quite sure if it would be an actual hands-on activity or a demo – this was both. Mojo picón is a sauce served as a garnish for all sorts of dishes here in the Canary

Santa Cruz monument

Islands. We tasted it with boiled potatoes, and bread. Ingredients for the sauce typically include bell peppers, medium-hot picón peppers (called puta madre peppers, which is Spanish for MFing pepper – the woman from the winery telling us about the recipe called them this mater of factly, kind of acknowledging that it was a curse, but not really), paprika, garlic, almonds, and cumin. We also paired the sauces with local wines.

We got back to the boat around 2:00, just enough time to clean up, chill for a bit, and head out for the evening’s walking tour and tapas tasting. This tour (with Guillermo, the same guide as in the morning) was conducted entirely NOT on a bus. I have to say, this cruise’s tours have been light on the bus time…15 min to this local, 30 to the next etc. Not a lot of time for a bus nap, but that’s fine with me.

Santa Cruz cathedral

I always love a walking tour. I prefer to experience a town or city close up rather than from behind the window of a bus. I see the benefit of the bus tours of a city, but walking gives you more of a sensory experience…the smells of a bakery or the sewer, the rain on your face, or the sun on your face…all the while dodging people, pets, and cars.

Anyway…this evening’s tour had us strolling

cool winery interior

through the Plaza de España - a square centered around a Spanish Civil War monument. We stopped at the 19th-century Teatro Guimerá, the oldest theater in the Canary Islands – the Canary Islands seems to have a lot of ‘biggest, oldest, deepest in the Canary Islands’. The guide stopped us in front of a 16th century church for a bit of a chat.

We finished the evening at 2 local tapas bars where we sampled tapas (including the mojo sauce) and local wine. Yesterday Chris and I were chatting about the lack of basic tapas since we’ve been on

local cider

the cruise. On cruise tours, we’ve had ‘fancy’ tapas…these have been good, but we’re longing for the Barcelona tapas we had…tomato bread, cheese, dried meat, olives, calamari, croquettes. Tonight, we had some basic-ish tapas. I realize I am spoiled to be able to nit pick the tapas I’m eating.

more monuments

July 27 - Arrecife (Lanzarote), Canary Islands, Spain

Canary Island flag

Weather – 25º, little humidity, lovely

Manrique crab sculpture

Steps – 8,563

This the first time to the Canary Islands for us, all I know little about these islands is that they are part of Spain and are close to the north west coast of

Africa…time to learn. One thing I have learned is that these islands are about as south as the southern most part of Morocco and northern part of Western Sahara. The first thing we learn from Jon our guide, is about César Manrique, an artist from here who influenced the many things on Lanzarotte, the island where we are today.

not exactly hard to figure out

Driving to our first stop, Jon pointed out sculptures in the middle of round-abouts and architecture influenced by Manrique. I’d never heard of César Manrique, apparently there is a museum of his work here, unfortunately we don’t have time for this. I could do with a museum visit…we haven’t had one yet on this trip.

Atlantic Ocean

Our first stop is to the Jardin de Cactus Manrique created. This place is called a cactus garden but is more of a cactus museum. There are some MASSIVE cacti here – incredible. There are thousands of specimens of cactus from around the world here…very unique place. After wandering, and admiring the cacti, we had time for a refreshment…beer and a sangria…I ordered all in Spanish…not super difficult, but I was very proud of myself. Jon told us to be sure to use the washrooms…they had Manrique art indicating which was for women and which was for men.

Our second and final stop was at Jameos de Agua also designed by Manrique. This place is an 8km series of lava tubes or caves

cacti!!

that the La Sorona volcano created. We see a few huge caves and some of the pools in these caves.

very charming

These pools are sea water that rise and fall with the tides and are home to tiny albino crabs, less than a cm in size. We can see some of these, but apparently there are thousands!

It seems as though we arrive right at opening time as there is a massive line to get in. After about 30 minutes the crowd disappears. Fortunately, we breeze past the line with our guide.

Canary Island refreshments

There is a restaurant built into one of the caves and here is where we eat lunch of squash soup,

cave and pool

Slow cooked pork with sweet potato purée with a chocolate cake for dessert, all of this was sashed down with wine. The food was good, but nothing special. We paid extra for this tour, so I was hoping for a bit more from the food. It was a very unique place to eat in, that was for sure!

We returned to the boat around 3:30 for

outside the caves

a siesta, blogging and the usual boat evening.

Manrique road sculpture

July 26 – Day at Sea, Atlantic Ocean en route to Canary Islands

home for the next week

Weather – windy (as expected at sea), warmish, 21º (enough to sit at the pool in the shade) little humidity (not enough to condense on my mimosa)

Steps – 6,650 (more than the day before and we didn’t step foot on land)

It is better to travel west rather than east, to travel back in time through times zones rather than into the future – westerly travel gains one hour of sleep every few days…what could be better? Yesterday I said that included laundry is the best thing about this cruise…and it is, but westerly travel is second best. Today is 25 hours long, I decided to spend the extra hour sleeping. Somehow on vacation (I think I wrote about this already) I sleep longer than I do at home – maybe my internal clock is confused and decided to just stay on sleep mode.

Sleeping in this morning still had me up before 8, I would have liked to have

the moon and Morocco last night

gone to the gym, but usually the 9:00 hour is the popular one there, so we decided to find a spot at the pool, for a fresh made juice and some breakfast. We try to make friends with the juice guy each sea day on a cruise…today we had ginger (always have ginger), pineapple, cucumber, and celery. I also had a cronut…these things are mythologized as something to not be missed onboard…I disagree. This is the second one I’ve had, the first one was last cruise, and I won’t be having another. If I’m going to eat fat and sugar, it better be good…and these aren’t – probably best.

headed to Canary Is.

Once we were actually able to secure a spot at the pool (as usual, the age-old struggle of people saving chairs with a hat or book and taking off is alive and well here) we spent the rest of the morning, reading, blogging, mimosa-ing, chilling, and anticipating ‘Cool by the Pool’. The highlight of each sea day for us, other than the lack of a real schedule, is ‘Cool by the Pool’ - the onboard duo or band playing for about an hour around lunch. Today was the duo – a singing piano player and his singing partner. This group is from South America and can play pretty much anything. They are pretty good, no one can hold a candle to Nature’s Rhythm Trio, 3 Filipino guys were our favourites, but sadly are no longer on these cruises.

Lunch was at the buffet place off the back of the boat, we weren’t able to get a spot outside unfortunately. As today seems to be the day to mention cruise bests, the back of the boat or in sailing terms AFT, is the best location for outside. The 3 times we were lucky enough to be in aft rooms made amazing cruises even better – these rooms are often bigger, I couldn’t care less about room size, but balcony size…yup!

day at sea sched

The afternoon was a jam-packed schedule of napping and actually making it to the gym before a pre-dinner frequent cruiser get-together and dinner with a couple of the crew. Tonight, we were supposed to eat with the ship’s purser and concierge but were stood up. Not stood up exactly, they canceled in the afternoon. We’ve never quite figured out how they decide who to pair up for dinner with crew, but on the rare occasions we’ve eaten with crew the crew is often Canadian…not always, but often. The purser who we’ve eaten with before is from Vancouver and the concierge is from Turkey. Staff is super interesting for their stories of cruising and just travel in general. Hopefully, we’ll reschedule.

evening at sea sched

The show tonight was the same comedian from a couple night’s ago with a new show. The evening finished off with a drink at the disco.

July 25 - Motril, Spain

Weather – 28º high, low humidity,

caves!

pleasant

Steps – 6,489

CAVES!!! Despite never having been in a cave in Canada, we seem to find ourselves in plenty of them on vacation. We figure we’ve been in at least 8 caves over the years. The “Treasure Caves” in Rincón de la Victoria (the town) are the first ‘underwater’ caves we’ve visited. These caves are one of the only three marine caves in the world. Whereas the other caves we’ve visited were formed by underground rivers, these caves are formed by the sea. The sea

caves!

water has made the formations in these caves rounder without any stalactites and stalagmites. These caves also have Paleolithic Age wall paintings which I was super excited to see. As it turned out, these are off limits to the public, so this was disappointing…still cool, but don’t go to these caves for the art. The temp today was fine, but the temps in the caves were especially fine...probably around 22 degrees.

Next, we visit a restaurant for tapas and local wine pairings. This was more than just tapas...this was lunch. The wines were interesting as was the food, but as many things described as ‘interesting’ I wouldn’t rush back to have anything we tried, including the wine. We started with

caves!

Spanish ham and Manchego cheese which was as usual…great. The rest was good, but not great…toast with avocado and cod, toast with ratatouille and pork, and what they described as ‘French toast’ for dessert. We sat with a family from Miami who were fun to chat with. The location was also remarkable…right along the sea at a restaurant/resort. We sat around a pool overlooking the sea.

caves!

By the time we returned to the boat we had no need for more food, so we sat on our balcony for a bit before a nap.

The evening started with the requisite ship ‘block-party’. This is where everyone on the ship is encouraged to step into the hallway in front of their rooms to meet their neighbors. The staff pour wine distribute snacks which we meet the people who are living around us. This is charming and practical…we pass people in our hallway all cruise but never actually meet them.

caves!

The evening was typical…drinks listening to music, dinner, the show (Broadway songs by the ship’s cast) disco, casino, blogging, laundry prep (the BEST thing about this cruise is included laundry) and bed.

July 24 - Alicante, Spain

Santa María Magdalena

Weather – HOT! I predict this will be the hottest day of this vacation. In the morning, the forecast is for 34º with real feel of 42º!! In town right at the coast it is HOT and

Santa María Magdalena

HUMID. Further up in the hills it is hotter, but less humid.

Steps – 9,523

First order of business today is jumping on a coach bus. I’m not the biggest fan of this part of tours, but it’s a necessary evil. I’d rather just walk off the boat and continue with a walking tour, this can happen occasionally, but it’s rare that a visit to caves happens without a bit of a journey out of the city. We’re basically on the bus for 15 min to get us from the port into the heart of Alicante city centre for a walking tour.

This walking tour of Alicante starts with the 18th century town hall.  Next is a 17th-century San Nicolás de Bari Cathedral, with its 15th-century cloister. 

Bodega Heretat de Cesilia winery

Then back to the bus for a bit of a journey to Novelda where we visit the Sanctuary of Santa María Magdalena. This place is supposed to remind us of Antoni Gaudí’s, Sagrada Familia, which it does. It is here where it is HOT! WOW, but the lack of humidity makes it OK really. The most interesting part of this stop is the church organ. The pipes are made of marble…different.

el toro!

Lastly, we visit Bodega Heretat de Cesilia, an early 18th century winery where we learn a bit about their process and taste a glass. This place, like most other wineries we visit is very stylish and chic. The wine

Dali spent time here

lesson is good, but the wine pours are minimal. The wine is tasty, but very small – not as small and the New Zealand pours, but chintzy.

The rest of the day is the usual ship life…lunch at the pool, nap, cocktails, dinner, comedy show, late evening disco and BED!

July 23 - Barcelona, Spain

our route

Weather – 27 degrees, warm, humid, clear

Steps – 6,045

another view of our route

Today we board the Seven Seas Mariner, a 700-passenger ship that will be home for the next 10 days. This is the same boat we were on last Christmas, were on for the ‘retirement-Covid’ cruise and will be on again next Christmas. We certainly don’t seek out voyages on this boat, but it seems to have the itineraries we like. I definitely like the comfort of

familiarity.

itinerary

One benefit of let lag (if it’s even jet lag) for me is that I sleep later than at home. Last night I was in bed by midnight and didn’t get up until after 9:30!! This would be unhear of at home…I think this is a sign to be on vacation MORE!

Another basic hotel breakfast and we were on our way to the ship. We are one of 4 boats at the Port of Barcelona today. The 4 boats have about 14,000 passengers in total…compared to the others, we are tinsy-tiny at a mere 650.

Before we board, we have a plan of attack...board, another champagne, pool deck, park, laundry, Aperol Spritz. Laundry is included with our cruise fare, but having been in Barcelona on our own for a couple of days means a load into the self-serve machines is in order. Then to our room, wait for delivery of the big suitcases, unpack and chill.

made it!!!

For sail-away, we head to the upper deck for a cocktail, nibbles, the band, and the view. This cruise is different from our last couple. Not surprisingly, a Mediterranean summer cruise is full of younger people and families with kids. This is totally fine, just very different. I think there was one kid on our cruise last summer and can’t remember one on the retirement cruise.

July 22 - Barcelona, Spain

croquettes

La Sagrada Familia

Weather – 26

La Sagrada Familia

degrees, sunny, a bit humid

chips, manchego, olives, hot sauce

Steps – 22,774

Jet lag seems to be over. Nothing is on our agenda until this evening, so we get up for a late hotel-included breakfast. The breakfast is nothing too special, but they do have Spanish torta (cold egg, potato, and onion baked omelette) and pan-con-tomate (bread topped with a fresh tomato purée) along with everything else you’d expect.

cava!!!

After breakfast we wander over to La Sagrada

Familia which is about a kilometer from our hotel. The first time Chris and I were in Barcelona (2012 or 13, I think) we visited the inside of this church, so we just admire the outside this time. This place is busy, not thronging, but plenty of people. We find a bench for a bit of a sit, take a few photos, and move along.

Hector and Chris

When we return to Barcelona after the cruise, we have a tour of the Estrella brewery which is close to the Sagrada Familia, so we wander over there to take
a look. We can’t go inside, but now we know where we have to be.

We find ourselves at one of Barcelona’s

church

pedestrian streets for a beer. This tree lined street is small, lined with shops and bars with a smattering of tables from each bar down the middle. There are plenty of locals around which we like to see. I figure I need to find a tour with an abuela (Spanish grandmother.) These older women know how to dress for this weather…always a flowy dress with room for a breeze, I’m not sure about pockets in these dresses, but I can’t have everything.

We have to be on the go again this afternoon around 4, so we head back to the hotel for one more beer (complements of the hotel) and a siesta. While we enjoy

random street with random art

our beer, we chat with the woman who seems to run the hotel in the day – she checked us in, worked breakfast this morning and poured our beer. The hotel has 90 rooms and apparently is nearly full.

The highlight of the day is a “Barcelona at Sunset: Tapas & Wine Tour”. With Hector our guide and 7 other people (all younger than us, all 6 Americans and one Mexican), we visited 2 bars and one restaurant in the Gothic Quarter and Born neighborhoods. Each of the places is small and independent. We start with Cava (Spain’s answer to Champagne), tomato bread, eggplant and goat cheese croquettes, cecina (Spanish dried beef) and Russian salad (potato salad and tuna that has nothing to do with Russia.) There is enough food here for a small meal and this is just our first stop. During each stop, Hector explains what we are eating and the history and stories around the food and drink. I could do with out the Russian salad, but for the croquette and beef I could have stayed all day.

chocolate mousse with olive oil and salt

Our second stop is to an underground cellar-type establishment. We learn about the Andalusian way of sprinkling hot sauce on potato chips – delicious! We also have thinly sliced beef with tuna sauce, olives (delish), Manchego (again…delish) and cod (also delish). With this we drink red vermouth (vermút rojo) and a white wine…both delish…obs! I had never tried Spanish vermouth but had heard of it and was keen to try. Vermút rojo is a white wine with caramel added along with spices, fortified with brandy or other alcohol…, kinda like a cold mulled wine.

The last stop has us at more of a restaurant than the first 2 places. Here we start with a red wine and eat beef cheek, Spanish hummus and a chocolate mouse drizzled with olive oil and flaky salt. We finish with a Spanish late harvest wine.

church

Between the 3 eating and drinking stops, Hector stops to tell us about a church we pop into, or a monument or a neighborhood. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…touring with a guide is the way to go. Of course, this costs a bit more, but the info and experience is something we can never get from a book.

As expected, this tour was fantastic. A small number of people lets us get to know each other a bit over sharing travel stories and advice. Hector guide was great throughout.

After the tour we hunted for places to grab one last drink. All of the places we passed were a bit too thronging and uninspiring, so we thought the craft beer place right beside our hotel would be perfect. Nope…this place was closed by the time we got there, not super late…930, so much for late night Spanish culture.

At this point I was in a bit of a lather, so since we were right next to the hotel we cooled off and set out in search of one more time for a beer. We finally found a place with an open table and were set.

July 21 - Barcelona, Spain

Arc de Triomf

Place Riel

Weather - Warm and humid, but not hot. 25 degrees in the evening. Great temp for sitting with my first sangria in a square.

steps - 15,000

After a quicker than Google maps trip to the Ibis
Styles hotel thanks to our cab driver whose name I didn’t get this time – only one trip from point A to point B this time!! This cab driver meant business…we were weaving in and out of traffic, using the bus/cab lanes to their fullest. I never seem to worry about safety in cabs (of course I wear a seatbelt)…these drivers are pro…right? I’m frequently shocked that we’ve only been in 2 vacation fender benders. 

Gaudi's Casa Mila

SANGRIA!!!

The best thing to hear when checking into a hotel is “your room is ready”…this is what we hear! The Ibis Styles hotel is basic and perfect… including a welcome drink! Travel experts will advise not to take a nap when arriving after a long flight, but these travel experts don’t know my everyday nap routine. I figure it’s the afternoon in Barcelona, so a nap is in order…if I want to get on a normal sleep routine, it’s gotta include a nap. A couple hours later I’m up, have a little time for blogging and we hit the town.

On our plane were 2 guys Chris used to work with! What are the odds?? One was connecting on, and one was spending the night in Barcelona. We met him, his wife and 3 kids for a couple of drinks and dinner. Fun!! More sangria and a pizza later and t
hat is dinner. Brian even picked up dinner and I forgot to thank him. If you’re reading this…Gracias, Brian!!

Casa Mila

July 20 - Calgary to Barcelona, Spain

FINALLY!!

Warm in Calgary when we leave, expect it to be HOT and HUMID in Barcelona…we will
see.

So…haywire?? A bit haywire…yup. Bags were packed, Uber pulled up and we were on our way. Then we found ourselves in a Deerfoot parking lot, but eventually took an alternate route and made it to the airport - good thing we left our house 3 hours ahead. We got out of the Uber to discover one of our 4 bags was MISSING!!!!! Pre-covid we would never have packed more than one checked bag and one suitcase for a cruise, however…now we each pack an essentials bag that we carry on and then each check a suitcase. I realized when packing, that even for a cruise with it’s required ‘dressy’ clothes, that I could still get by with just a carryon bag.

Anyway…back to the mayhem. Girmay (our Uber driver) and I made it BACK to our house and then BACK to the airport with not too much time to spare. Chris and I decided that he would stay at the airport and check 2 of our bags and then I’d be back and just have to go through security – of course we figured out this plan AFTER we’d convinced Girmay to bolt back to our house. So, we then convinced Girmay to pull over on Airport trail for Chris to get ANOTHER taxi/Uber back to the airport to check in the bags. Longest Uber trip I’ve ever been on…90 minutes!

Thankfully, security was a breeze and Chris and I were finally reunited and were on the plane Champagne in hand. Not the way, either of us wanted to start this vacation, but it’s ‘blog-worthy’ story.

July 2022 – pre vacation

They say the longer you anticipate a vacation, the more psychological benefits the vacation affords you. I believe this. Vacation planning, dreaming, fantasizing, and reading are life’s big luxuries distracting us from the day-to-day oppression – a bit too dramatic? Despite believing this, we aren’t big vacation planners. Now that Chris and I aren’t working full time, we seem to lack motivation to book or plan a vacation far in the future. When life wasn’t one big vacation, and our vacation were dictated by our jobs, we seemed to have things planned a bit more. Certainly not more than a year out, but we wouldn’t be planning a summer cruise 6 weeks before.

The just over 2-week journey, planned a mere 6 weeks ago, is the first time since Covid that we’ve been to Europe. We’re spending a couple of days in Barcelona, before getting on a 10 cruise. We always get into a city at least a day prior to a cruise…just in case flights go haywire and when travelling this far, getting over jet lag prior to the cruise. We’ll finish up with 4 days back in Barcelona.

Most of these 18 days will be spent in Spain (including the Canary Islands) with a day in Morocco and 2 in Lisbon. I’m always happy to revisit places we’ve been in before, but this cruise has only one port we have been to before.