December 15, 2024: Sunday in London, England
My friend Sara and I signed up for a 12-night Canary Islands Celebration Cruise on the Cunard’s Queen Victoria. Our last cruise together was our Caribbean cruise in late 2022 and early 2023 (click here to view that cruise).
We leave Monday (16th) from Southampton. a port city on England’s south coast.
See the map below to show where Sara and I will be going on this cruise.
Our first two land stops will be in Portugal, first Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal, and later the Portugal island of Funchal. Our final and ultimate destination being the Canary Islands of course There are 7 main islands in the Canary Islands, but we will be stopping at only three (Tenerife, Gran Canaria, & Fuerteventura). After the Canary Islands we sail directly back to Southampton.
Below is a photo of our cruise ship, Cunard’s Queen Victoria. Sara and I are on the 5th deck in the forward side of the ship, and the attached photo shows the location of our cabin.
We are currently in London and I have a few photos to share.
Yes they still have phone booths in London, all over the place. And yet you can’t use cash in restaurants and pubs.
We went to the Sacco Galleria, meh.
We also went to the Tate Britain, part of the Tate network of galleries in England. Mixed, but this one cracked me up. This display suggest the presence of a female biker gang operating under the name ‘Violet Revs."
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| Above: ‘Violet Rev" display |
And of course we visited the landmarks; Westminster, Big Ben, and Buckingham Palace.
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| Westminster |
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| Big Ben |
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| Buckingham Palace |
There was one small room in Buckingham Palace with a light on, I figured that was where Charles (King Charles III) was balancing the Royal budget.
Then Sara and I got lost and wandered in circles or squares as the case may be. We finally took the time back and went to a really groovy pub for drinks and fish and chips. Good exhausting day.
I won't go into our arrival day. Whew. Had to kill time before our room at the Sloane Square Hotel was ready. We went to a cafe on top of a department store and I had real mince pie and coffee. Then after a nap we went to the kitchen beneath the theatre near where we are staying and had some dinner. Tasty and healthy and we tipped heavily as everyone was a sort of working actor. No photos from that day (13th).
Sara and I headed out for the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was an interesting mix of stuff from all time periods. A lot of religious art and medieval stuff. I enjoyed seeing the sculpture and was astonished to see a reproduction of Michelangelo’s David in the midst of the church-y sculptures.
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| Above: Reproduction of Michelangelo’s David |
We didn’t see a lot of paintings from that period. I was interested in their ceramic collection, much of which was Asian and Old English. Very pretty but not inspiring. Then I go to the more contemporary rooms. Wonderful. The art shown below is titled "Listening to the Waves" by artist Takayuki Sakiyama).
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| Above: "Listening to the Waves" |
Some other interesting works of are are as follows. The second photo is Jan Paderewski one of my heroes. Czech pianist and statesman. I’m taking a ceramics figure workshop in January, hence viewing so many bodies. And I just took a few of the ceramics I loved. Maybe I have to go back.
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| Above: Torso Of A Woman By Auguste Rodin |
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| Above: Alfred Gilbert's bust of Jan Paderewski |
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| Above: Heroic torso by Ivan Mestrovic |
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| Above: Fire Basket by Charles Sargeant |
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| Above: “Form-Series 1” by Guac Roh-Hoon |
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| Above: ?? |
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| Above: ?? |
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| Above: A nice ceramic pot |
When we were sated with art we went to a local place for lunch and we think it was middle eastern with major French influence. Tasty. The sauce was nvidia or something like that. Then we walked to the Royal Albert Hall (photo below) and into Kensington Park where the Albert Memorial is located (photo below also). The Hall and Memorial honors Prince Albert (d. 1861), consort of Queen Victoria. Then Sara and I headed back to our hotel.
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| Above: Royal Albert Hall |
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| Above: Albert Memorial |
London was all decked out for the holidays, the photo below is the bright lights of Sloane Square in Chelsea (an area in West London) where we stayed.
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| Above: Bright lights of Sloane Square |
The swans in the photo below were just one piece of the elaborate 12 days of Christmas displayed in the area.
That’s all that’s worth reporting for now, more later once we board our ship and our cruise to the Canary Islands actually starts.
December 16, 2024: Monday, Day 1 of our cruise, we leave tonight
December 17, 2024: Tuesday, Day 2 of our cruise, at sea
December 18, 2024: Wednesday, Day 3 of our cruise, at sea
December 19, 2024: Thursday, Day 4 of our cruise, now in Lisbon, Portugal
We finally arrived this morning at Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal, our first land stop since leaving England.
The photo below I took for all my aerospace friends and those that just like airplanes. It is a Monument to the First Aerial Crossing of the South Atlantic. It is a stainless steel replica sculpture of the Fairey III biplane, that was used by Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral during their 1922 South Atlantic aerial crossing. It is cool how it is mounted on a concrete pedestal.
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| Above: Monument to the First Aerial Crossing of the South Atlantic |
Wikipedia has the following illustration of this first flight.
The next photo is of the Belém Tower built in the 16th century. Our guide told us the tower was originally built in the middle of the Tagus River on an island, but the earthquake and silt has surrounded it with more land. The tower was built to defend the city of Lisbon from enemy ships. Since 1983, the tower has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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| Above: Belém Tower |
The following photo is of the Monument of the Discoveries, a monument on the northern bank of the Tagus River estuary, designed to commemorate the Age of Discoveries in Portugal. The guy in front was Henry the
Navigator navigator and In his hand he is holding a small version of the ship called a caravel. Next to the Naviagtor are Vasco da Gama and Ferdinand Magellan. The caravels were the fastest ship on the seas at the time. This particular photo shows just a small portion of the monument.
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| Above;: Monument of the Discoveries |
The following photo is one ripped off the Internet that shows how large the monument actually is. The entire monument depicts a caravel ship about to set sail. In total there are 33 sculptures of leading figures that were instrumental In the Portuguese naval force.
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| Above: Monument of the Discoveries, this photo from the Internet |
The next photo is of the Jerónimos Monastery (Monastery of St. Jerome), it began as a monastery belonging to the Order of Saint Jerome. It was under renovation so it wasn’t a great stop except I saw Vasco da Gama’s tomb covered with dust. Vasco da Gama was best known for being the first to sail from Europe to India by rounding Africa's Cape of Good Hope. In 1983, the Jerónimos Monastery was also classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the Tower of Belém.
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| Above: Jerónimos Monastery |
Later Sara and I walked through the Christmas Lisbon City Walk market and down an alley for a yummy Portuguese style pizza, see the 2 photos below. The fountain in the first photo is the south fountain in the Rossio square, there are two fountains in the square.
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| Above: Lisbon City Walk market |
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| Above: Portuguese style pizza |
(Side note: Prior to that we also first went to eat Pasteis de Belem (short for Bethlehem). Yum!)
The selfie below is of Sara & yours truly as we arrived back to our ship.
The following photo is of yours truly back at the ship, below my hands and cutout is a sign that says Lisboa (Portuguese for Lisbon), but it doesn’t show up due to the lighting. Look closely, very, very closely and you might make it out.
The next selfie is again of yours truly in front of our ship, the Queen Victoria.
And the very last photo is of Sara and me at a formal tea when we got back to our ship.
Tonight we sail to Funchal (Madeira), Portugal, and we will be at sea until we arrive early Saturday (21st ).
December 20, 2024: Friday, Day 5 of our cruise, at sea
December 21, 2024: Saturday, Day 6 of our cruise, now at Funchal
Sara and I arrived in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal Saturday morning. At breakfast, weather wise, it looked like a lost day but then the promise came, two rainbows. See my photo below.
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| Above: Two rainbows |
Our first agenda was to take the funicular (cable car) to the Monte Palace Tropical Garden. It was a long ride up the hillside (about a 15 minutes ride) and we could barely see our huge ship the Queen Victoria down below. See the next photo.
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| Above: Funicular (cable car) to the Monte Palace Tropical |
It was a very interesting garden. First off to be greeted by an olive tree from 300 BC (see photo below). They mentioned that Jesus was referring to this tree (no he wasn’t in Funchal) in his talks to his disciples. They didn’t say that just because it was old enough he could have eaten olives from it. Funny reference to me.
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| Above: Olive tree from 300 BC |
Well, California better watch out as Madeira has its own "Sequoia" tree and it’s a beauty. Actually it's the Coastal Redwood, they look similar and belong to the same family, but they live different lifestyles in different places. Giant sequoias and coast redwoods are members of the cypress family of plants. See photo below.
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| Above: Coastal Redwood tree |
And they have dragon trees too. This evergreen species is named after its dark red resin, which is known as "dragon's blood".
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| Above: Dragon tree |
I forgot to take a photo of Santana houses. They are small A-frame with thatched roofs. If you google Santana houses Madeira they have photos and descriptions. But below is a picture of one that I stole from the Internet.
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| Above: Santana house, this photo from the Internet |
It was pretty exciting to turn a corner to find a flock of flamingos without sweaters, as I was wearing several layers. I wonder if they make flamingo down comforters?
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| Above: Flock of flamingos |
Then we went down another set of stairs, I did say Madeira is hilly, didn't I ? We saw lots of swans. Below you see me lecturing one who tried to bite Sara. Needless to say I kept my distance for the lecture. It is amazing how big and mean they are.
We also saw some messy peacocks, but I didn’t take any photos.
The following photo shows the way we left the garden, possibly the highlight of our garden visit. We took the toboggan ride down the hill, operated by teams of two men. This was the same way they brought crops and building supplies down the mountain before motorized vehicles. The men have been wearing the same outfits since I guess when tourist attractions started many years ago. The men guide and brake the toboggans with thick rubber soled shoes. I asked how long the shoes lasted, a month they said. They work 6 days a week unless it rains. If it does rain the road is too slippery and scary,
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| Above: Toboggan ride down the hill |
After that we followed the other tourists and started walking down from the toboggan terminal. It wasn’t straight down but almost, and our knees were unhappy.
We went to see the open art exhibit of the doors being painted by the merchant We found a taxi to get us the rest of the way down and to the Old Town where the narrow streets were lined with small shops and eateries with the famous painted doors of Funchal, over 200 doors painted with local scenes like men with big fish and mermaids. I didn’t take any photos as it was too crowded. But you can view some at the following URL site, https://sayyestomadeira.com/en/funchal-old-town-street-art/. Below are a couple of the doors that I copied from the URL site.
Sara and I had a light lunch then went back to our ship where I wrote this.
Tomorrow is Tenerife. Santa Cruz in the Canary Islands, I will read my guide book so I can be smart tomorrow.
December 22, 2024: Day 7 (Sunday), In Tenerife, Spain on our 12-night Canary Islands Celebration Cruise
Sara and I finally made it to the Canary Islands Sunday morning, a Spanish archipelago off the coast of northwestern Africa. Tenerife has three ports, two of them receive cruise ships: Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the main cruise port in the Canary Islands, and Los Cristianos, located in the most touristic area. Our ship docked at the Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The illustration below shows the main islands of the Canary Islands.
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| Above; Main islands of the Canary Islands |
The photo below is another interesting Dragon tree we saw, this tree welcomed Sara and me to the Museo de Bellas Artes (Museum of Fine Arts), a good place to see local art, located in the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The museum houses an art collection ranging from sixteenth-century Flemish to twentieth-century paintings, as well as a sample of sculptures and crafts.
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| Above: Another interesting Dragon tree |
The photo below shows a painting at the Museo de Bellas by Swedish artist Tanja Tamvelius that captures the essence of Weyler Square (named for a Spanish general, General Valeriano Weyler} and is one of the main meeting points in the city.
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| Above: Painting by Swedish artist Tanja Tamvelius |
The photo below shows a fountain in Weyler Square made by Achille Canessa of Genoa. It is in two sections, a central pillar and a basin. Atop the pillar are children holding flowers. On each of the four corners of the square base is a child holding a dolphin spewing water which falls into shells in the wide basin.
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| Above: Fountain in Weyler Square |
The park had a sign that said “no dogs,” but I saw so many dogs there I thought I was at a pet adoption agency. Apparently the dogs can’t read.
We covered the main area first in sunshine, then rain, then sunshine, and rain/sunshine all morning.
We went by a nice market and stopped in the TEA (Tenerife Espacio De Las Artes), a city museum where Oscar Dominguez was on exhibit. He’s considered the best artist in the Canary Islands. He’s a surrealist and even the art speak said his work was filled with angst. But I didn’t take any photos there.
One good thing was that Sara and I were inside when it rained super hard, so we stayed dry. Then we walked to the Opera House on the César Manrique Parque (shown below), which reminded me of the famous opera house in Sydney Australia.
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| Above: Opera House on the César Manrique Parque |
One of my favorite things about the Canary Islands is César Manrique's art and his history. We saw this wonderful wind sculpture of his in the parque (shown below). It was built in 2001 by Aquilino Dorta Pérez, although it was designed by César Manrique.
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| Above: César Manrique Wind Sculpture |
We were going to walk to the Palmera Garden but it was even further and there was a jet black cloud looming. Sara and I got back to the ship as the rain started, the raindrops were as big as quarters when hitting the ground.
Below is my favorite shot of our ship the Queen Victoria, which reminds me of the Art Deco Travel posters. The ship in the far background is the MSC Opera, operated by the Swiss company MSC Cruises.
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| Above: Our cruise ship, the Queen Victoria |
At the ship Sara and I planned a dinner with a couple, then went to a show called Rock Symphony. I had low expectations. The Hungarian violinist Máté Rácz started as expected. He was wearing gold lame tails and by the 3rd song he ran off stage and came back in jeans and a pirate outfit because he was playing the music from Pirates of the Caribbean (not Pirates of Penzance). It was loud and fun, a good ending to the day, Sara and I are having a fine time.
December 23, 2024: Day 8 (Monday), In Gran Canaria, Spain on our 12-night Canary Islands Celebration Cruise
Sara and I arrived at Gran Canaria island in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, capital of Gran Canaria. Once there we walked out to see the best beach on the island, just a short walk with the idea we would walk along the promenade to the escultura (a giant wind wheel) by my guy César Manrique. The beach is beautiful, the day was clear, shirt-sleeved temperature, and it was nice to be on a flat surface after our trip down the mountain yesterday. We asked for directions to the César Manrique art but when we got there we saw only a sand sculpture, quite beautiful but not the art work by Manrique that we were looking for.
After a longer walk we got to where we expected to see the wind wheel by César Manrique but it wasn't there, it had been sent for restoration. All we saw was the stand, as shown below.
What we were expecting to see is in the following photo that I grabbed off Wikipedia.
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| Above: Wind wheel by César Manrique, this photo from Wikipedia |
On the way back we passed what I would describe as the Canary Islands answer to Venice Beach in LA.
We then took a taxi to the other end of town to Casa de Colon (Columbus’ House). The mansion (below) belonged to the first governors of Gran Canaria and was where Columbus stayed during his stops in the Canary Islands on his way to the Americas.
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| Above: Casa de Colon (Columbus’ House) |
There are models of the three ships, the Pinta, the Nina and the Santa Maria, and a mock-up of the Pinta cabin as shown below.
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| Above: Mock-up of the Pinta cabin |
The interior of the Pinta and the models of all 3 ships was fascinating to me. Below is the model of the Nina ship.
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| Above: model of the Nina ship |
There were also maps of the routes Columbus took on all of his voyages and also information on the brave people that followed, but that's not condoning what was done what they did to the people they abused.
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| Above: Map of the routes Columbus took |
It was amazing how many voyages were taken and recorded, including Francisco Pissarro crossing Panama to the Pacific. Columbus made 4 transatlantic trips.
Then we went to see the Catedral de Santa Ana, the first church in the Canary Islands, the religious art and memorabilia were beautiful, but the interior of the cathedral (shown below) was better than the art to me.
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| Above: Interior of Catedral de Santa Ana |
Sara and I later had lunch which was fun. We had a specialty, Wrinkly Potatoes, an iconic dish native to the Canary Islands. I’d been advised to try them. Tasty and ok.
Along the way back to our ship we passed the Literary Guild, a historic building in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, which was a nice thing to see, but no photo to share.
I walked only 12,400 steps today, yesterday it was 15,600.
December 24, 2024: Day 9 (Tuesday), In Fuerteventura, Spain on our 12-night Canary Islands Celebration Cruise
At Fuerteventura Sara and I took a land tour offered by our ship, which was primarily about the geology of Fuerteventura.
The pale color in the following photo is petrified sand from the bottom of the ocean before Africa separated from South America 180 millions years ago.
The black lava in the next photo is from volcanic eruptions. The beach is lava. A little different from the white sand beaches of Florida.
The next photo is of the largest crochet Christmas tree in the world, in the small town of Pájara. The tree is 25 meters high (about 82 feet), beating last year’s record of 23.5 meters. The island gets 13 mm of rain (about half an inch) so mostly arid, but there was an oasis, notice the palm trees in the far background.
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| Above: Largest crochet Christmas tree in the world |
The following photo was taken at Pájara, a small town on the island and part of our tour.
The photo below shows some houses we saw on the tour in the small village of Vega de Río Palmas.
Air quality was registered as very bad. It is dust (not sand) from the Sahara 60 miles away. Weird eh? The following photo was taken at Parque Rural de Betancuria, a park on our tour, the photo is not the best due to the dust.
The blue line in the attached Google map shows the route we took on this tour.
Sadly that’s the end of Sara’s and my cruise to the Canary Island, and as mentioned before we are now sailing back to Southampton, England, and should arrive Saturday morning.
Days 10, 11, and 12 will be at sea. Day 13 (Saturday) Sara and I will be back in Southampton.
December 25, 2024: Day 10 (Wednesday), at sea
December 26, 2024: Day 11 (Thursday), at sea