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La Palma, Canary Islands
Weather: Sunny
We were woken up this morning by the rumbles from down below! No, we weren’t feeling unwell!! As our cabin was right at the back of the ship, we had the vibration and noise from the stern thrusters and the propellers going into reverse! At least we were awake to see our arrival into port.
The sun was only just rising as we arrived and the landscape is pretty dramatic. Sheer rock faces drop down to the sea and small half-craters are filled up in the bottom by houses in shades of yellow, orange and red. There’s a little beach just across the harbour from us … not your usual white or golden sands, but black as the island is volcanic.
We can see the town of Santa Cruz de la Palma just behind the ship – white buildings intermingling with the terracotta shades. Clouds were gathering at the top of the hills surrounding the town and no doubt by the end of the day these hills would have disappeared from our sight.
Callum was so much brighter this morning – he ate all his breakfast along with 2 slices of toast, a glass of pineapple juice and a cup of tea.
Afterwards, we walked into La Palma. It’s only a very small town and being a Sunday, we weren’t expecting much to be open. However we were pleasantly surprised – the town was lovely.
We walked down Calle O’Daly (a very Spanish street name!) with its cobbled streets and overhanging balconies. There were some very ornate buildings too.
At the end, there’s a very small naval museum with a full scale replica of the Santa Maria. It was open so we had a look around. It would have been closed down in England by H&S. Low sides with steep drops and a lack of railings – but the addition of which would have detracted from what the ship was actually like. The ship was pretty small and to imagine the New World being discovered on a ship this small was incredible.
We wandered back along to the port via the promenade and stopped half way back for some refreshments. At last – the bill came to more than Euro 5!! The tide was breaking over the sea wall in places and those walking along this side of the road were getting a bit of a soaking.
Back on board and Callum was desperate to go back to Sindhu for lunch. This time we ordered him his own set of Nashta and he chose Prawns, Broccoli and Chicken … and the prawns and chicken disappeared very quickly!
We took Callum up to the Clam Shell (the hidden area) at the front of Deck 8 before taking him back up at Kids Club for the afternoon. About 30 or so kids were all making stained glass windows and later on, it was an Ice Cream Sundae session which Callum was really looking forward – apparently, we hadn’t let him have an ice cream this holiday!
We sailed away from La Palma with the cloud crawling down the hillside. Once we had set sail, the clouds disappeared, the sun came out … as did the wind (gale force according to the Ships Navigational channel – so Jon may get his wish for a slightly choppier night!).
We ate in Verona again – this time we both had the Calamari and also went for the Fillet Steak that you cook yourself on a hot sizzling lava rock. Just hope the sprinkler system was turned off as it did generate a load of smoke! It was delicious.
Callum had fallen asleep by the time I went up to kids club so we decided to call it a night.
