There are no less than 169 steps between boarding the ship on deck four and getting a pizza on deck fifteen! Tromping up ten whole decks (yes I know that maths sounds dodgy – why?) is good exercise in preparation for lunch, whether it’s pizza or not.
Much earlier, we arrive in Santa Cruz de La Palma, the other island we can occasionally see from our village, although quite infrequently. This is the one which only recently erupted. Today, we’re not getting a car, since the port town is recognised as probably the best-kept in the Canaries and worthy of a good wander.
It turns out to be the case, and we enjoy lots of lovely buildings, the town hall, market, theatre that used to be a church, streets, plazas and other points of interest in the town area.
Later we walk out northwards to see the viewpoints of Carmen and Los Gomeros, both barrancos are so verdant compared with Southern Tenerife.
Finally we decide to take a turn inland, upwards of course. We head to Candelaria which takes us up to 300m, with some fabulous pine forests all around, and a small village, before we begin our descent back towards Santa Cruz, where we mop up a couple of plazas we missed before returning for a late lunch.
Which brings be back to pizza – the queue is ridiculous, and we know from past experience the boy will be unbelievably grumpy if we ask for personally cooked pizzas, so we don’t bother and have burgers instead. There’s nothing complicated about a burger and the chef (I can’t use the word boy on this station) is very organised so his queue moves very quickly.
Rather than mess with public spaces again, we stick to our balcony, which is in full sunshine all afternoon and incredibly hot. However I have stay indoors to work on a Sage related problem in Sheffield.
Later we ascend to 18 for our drinkies in Planets, Pinkster Gin for me tonight which is overly sweet, I won’t want that one again.
Our last visit to Beach House, we are once again served by the lovely Raj, who now guesses quite well what drinks we want, unfortunately the speed with which they arrive remains an issue. There’s a real problem with bar staff onboard in general, no idea why.
Food is good, we have a combination of nachos and tortillas to start and then a sharing Asada which turns out to be a mix of everything. When it comes to pudding – apple pie – Raj pops upstairs and procures our Sauternes, what a star!
The turn is the ventriloquist, who is very funny, and quite naughty. no photos so have a nice star-gaze instead!
