jetjunkies

January 7th & 8th

Very early morning for us both. Ate a light breakfast then headed out to Las Palmas to explore. The path from the dock area to the City involved going through a Mall that was still done up in its Christmas finery. As it is a Sunday and the day after Epiphany, not much is open. The Mall however was ready to take full advantage of any cruise ship shoppers. There were three ships in port at the time we headed out.

We decided to head for what looked like a very nice park and actually went through a couple others on our way. We were both really impressed by all the pedestrian malls lined with restaurants, shops, benches and trees.

Trying to find a public restroom was another mattter involving at least half a mile to the nearest facility on the beach. Not even McDonald’s on the pedestrian mall had one.

After walking for a few miles we decided to have lunch at one of the excellent local restaurants. We had read great things about Trattoria Pizzeria Calabrè Las Palmas. The Spanish eat much later lunches and dinners than we Americans are used to, so the restaurant didn’t even open for lunch until 1 pm and we were the only ones there until about 1:30 pm. Since all the tables were reserved we ended up eating at the bar. We had no idea as to portions so ended up with vast amount of food. I ordered an eggplant parmigiana pizza and Pete ordered a Qyadrata pizza with the meat in the crust. We also insanely ordered a burrata antipasti plate that was loaded with meats, burrata, tomatoes and rocket. All the leftovers were packaged up for us to bring back to the ship.

There was a grocery store right across the street from the restaurant. We stopped to buy bottled water (they were charging us $5.50 to $7 a bottle on the ship), some sundries and foil to repackage the food so it wasn’t so obvious as a pizza box. The ship only allows limited food, water and juice to be brought on board. Pre-cooked foods are definitely not allowed because of possible contamination?? Just like you can’t bring wine or spirits onboard for use during the cruise. This makes more sense as they charge extra for alcohol. They will store your bottles and give them to you at the end of the trip. We weren’t sure about leftovers, so thought it was worth a try and we sped right through the security checks without a problem. Yummy leftovers for dinner!

Las Palms is the capital city of the Canary Islands, jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife and has a population of about 400,000. The Canary Islands are autonomous and self governing with government oversight of all the islands and government oversight on each island. I’m guessing it would be somewhat like the Federal government and State governments.

Las Palmas has a very busy port as most everything has to be imported. The only items produced in the islands are potatoes, wine, bananas and tomatoes that are exports to Europe. There are of course small agricultural crops that are just used locally.

Today has been another sea day so much lounging about except for a brief period of activity on the roof track.

Tomorrow is Casablanca with an early start for us. We are both very excited to see such an iconic city.