DAY 137---SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, CANARY ISLANDS

 

Docked in Santa Cruz de Tenerife today.  Beautiful day with lots of sun and temperature in the low 70's.

Historical/Background Info:

        Tenerife is a volcanic island that has built up from the ocean floor during the last 20 million years. It is the largest of the Canary Islands with a population of one million and is part of Spain.  It lies 200 miles off the west coast of Africa.  The island has a population of nearly 950,00 with 205,000 of them living in the capital city, Santa Cruz De Tenerife.  Tenerife is best known for it Carnaval de Santa Cruz, a huge pre-Lent festival with parades, music, dancing, and colorful costumes.  The island also has many beaches with sands ranging in color from yellow to black.  It is one of Spain’s most important tourist destinations with 5 million visitors each year. It is a very rugged island with the highest point being Mt Teide at 12,188 feet above sea level.  The port we are docked today is of great importance and is the communications hub between Europe, Africa, and the Americas, with cruise ships arriving from many nations.  The harbor is one of Spain’s busiest.

LAST EVENING

Serena, the world cruise hostess, is also a fantastic singer and our entertainer for this event.

Salmon tar tar was very good.  We also had fried calamari as our appetizer.

Veal piccata was excellent as always.

Creamy polenta.

When we returned to the suite last night these luggage tags were on the bed.  Nice!

TODAY

        Captain Abhi gave us a very nice view today from our balcony.  Later found out it was because they were to bunker today and has to be from our side of the ship.  Ahead of us is the downtown area which is just short walk from the pier gates.  There is a complimentary shuttle to take us from the ship to the gate.

Love the way the houses are nestled in the mountain valleys.

                 Car ferry backing in to unload.  It runs from here to the other Canary islands.

        I was suppose to go on a 3 1/2 hour, "Northern Tenerife Panoramic", tour at 9:15 this morning but I decided to standby for a "Historic Santa Cruz & Tapas Tasting" tour at 9:45.  Everyone showed up so I did not get on it.  

        So I left the ship at 10am and took the port shuttle to a pedestrian bridge crossing into the town.  I was there for an hour and a half walking around and taking some photos.  I was also looking for a paint pen so I could write our name on the new piece of luggage we got back in Miami.  I found a pen but not exactly what I was looking for.  I was back on the ship in time to shower before heading up to La Veranda for lunch at noon.

                                                              Local government building.

        "Monument to the Fallen" in the Plaza de Espana.  Memorial to the victors of the Spanish Civil War.

                                                     Lots of cafes along the city streets.

                                                                          Fish art

                                                                      Interesting tree

                                                        Entrance to a mercado (market).

                                                                  Catholic cathedral

                                                    Museum of Nature and Archaeology 

        This is where the port shuttle dropped me and then just a short walk across this pedestrian bridge into Santa Cruz.

My Impression of Santa Cruz

        I really enjoyed my walk this morning.  The city is very clean with lots of small plazas with very colorful trees and flowers throughout.  Of course this is a Spanish island so that is the language here.  The people were very talkative with each other and spoke in a louder tone than us Americans especially in the shops I looked in for the pen.  There were several pedestrian only streets with cafes and I passed by several alluring bakery shops.  I resisted however!  Unlike the past several ports there were very few dogs and all on leashes.  This is a vacation destination for Europeans as it is so pleasant here and close by.  I was impressed with what I saw of Tenerife.

        They have been bunkering fuel all morning and finally pulling away at 2:30 this afternoon.

        While I was working on this post Jade & Effrin brought our 3 pieces of luggage they had been storing for us.  The other five are under our bed.  So now we have all 8 pieces and ready to pack.  But not today.  I woke up at 3am and lie awake for a couple hours worrying about packing and if all our bags would make it home.  Luggage Forward will be shipping 4 bags to the house.

        Good news!!  The crew's masks came off again today.  So now we can see their smiling faces again.  Covid issues among crew improved.

        As I mentioned the new President of RSSC, Andrea DeMarco, came on board today for a few days and is hosting a very special cocktail hour in the Stars Lounge followed by dinner in Chartreuse.  Only those invited to attend are Diamonds (over 1000 nights on Regent) and Commodores (over 2000 nights on Regent).  Not sure of the exact number but believe the number invites is less than 20, including us.

Chartreuse restaurant is closed tonight just for this special dinner event.

        I managed to get an advanced copy of the menu last night.  Cocktail hour at 6:00 with dinner at 7:00.  This should be a wonderful event.  I know the Food & Beverage team will go all out for it.

        The headliner entertainer this evening is featuring a comedian from London, Jeff Stevenson.  Not sure if we will attend.  

        We will be sailing at 7pm for the short (159 nm) trip up to Arrecife on the Canary island of Lanzarote.  We are to be docked there by 8am.  It's a new port for us.