Before anyone comments ‘0GMT’ means we are at ‘Zero Greenwich Meantime’ i.e. we are in the same time zone as the UK and at therefore the same time!!
Thank goodness the weather improved considerably overnight on Sunday so much so that we cruised into Santa Cruz on 2 engines and arrived to a partly sunny sky but with a noticeable ‘nip in the air’ at 70 F. Having been to Tenerife on two previous occasions I decided to do ‘my own thing’ and as it turned out I had a rather serendipitous but wholly interesting day.
The Greek Philosopher Homer is said to have described the Canary Islands as ‘a kingdom where winter does not exist’ and Tenerife – the largest of the islands claims that ‘they bask in glorious spring like weather all the year round’. The red and pale yellow poinsettias certainly abounded in profusion around the town. Santa Cruz has grown from being a small port that served the town of San Cristobel De La Laguna – of which more in a later posting – to be the island’s busy and cosmopolitan capital. The city was founded in 1494 and Lord Horatio Nelson lost his right arm in a night action off Santa Cruz in 1797. The cannon said to have caused the deed is known as ‘tiger’ and can be found in the Military Museum. Since my first visit in 2006 many areas of Santa Cruz have been regenerated.
Since we were due to be in port from 8.00am unit 11.00pm I had a relatively late breakfast and let the masses disembark on shore tours before leaving the ship at 10.00am. It was a bit of route march following the ‘thin blue line’ to the dock gates (About a kilometre) but even over the last year much has been done to improve the look and ease of access to the port area.
More or less the first thing I encountered was the inevitable “Hop-on Hop-off bus’ but it occurred to me that despite my two previous visits I hadn’t really explored the town so on I got and was handed a rather snazzy set of red earphones which neatly plugged into a terminal next to my seat so that I could hear the commentary in a variety of languages. The 45-minute trip enabled me to identify a number of places and features for possible exploration by foot later in the afternoon.
Bus tour completed I returned to the ship to refuel – fish and chips on the ‘poop deck’ (Marquee Deck 9 actually) – and set-off again at 1.00pm to visit the key spots such as the Parque Garcia Sanabria - Tropical Gardens with some interesting modern sculptures including one by Henry Moore – and the Auditorio (Concert Hall) – see a later posting. I arrived back at the ship at 7.00pm having walked over 7 miles!!
The photo is of one of those features. If you are familiar with Spain you will know that coloured tiles are used in sculpture – or in this case functional seating – in many places. For example in the Gaudi gardens in Barcelona and long the sea front in Cadiz. In Santa Cruz de Tenerife the tiles are used to depict old advertisements.
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