Canary Islands
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 17-30 December 2017
Having
not had to check in to Madeira (we left from Lagos, Portugal), this "Completing Clearances" process led
us to some interesting areas in Las Palmas; probably not ones frequented by most
tourists, although not far from the seemingly endless cruise ship dock and the vast
behemoths strung to it. Luckily, we had
our trusty bicycles so attending to such chores and indeed prepping up for an on-board Christmas Celebration, was easy. Bike paths have been well planned through the city enabling us easy access, so we were soon were done with domestic duties and were able to consider time for a little light entertainment too!
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Decoration on outside of buildings in Vegueta.
Adam & Eve clearly enjoyed draperies of the day too? |
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The weather was sunny or .... not! This was not a December beach day, nor the anchorage
the place to be. Unless you were Christmas cruzin' and dock-side on one of those enormous ships |
The
Canaries, or at least that part we saw, are vastly different to Madeira –
opposing planets almost. We felt a car
was essential to escape the city surrounds, but neither of us wanted to drive
in the Christmas traffic, so stuck to pedal power, back roads and shops within
easy reach.
My guide
book and an interesting web site described a walking tour that included the Casa de Colón (Columbus House) and, given we
were following in this explorer’s wake, we rode along the grand cornishe to a
small museum in nearby Vegueta dedicated to his achievements.
This building was a stately home for the first governors of the island
and it is believed that Columbus stayed here in 1492. It's not hard to imagine these Islands as an
essential stop along the voyage to the New World, remembering that Columbus’
wife came from the small island of Porto Santo near Madeira. Though the Museum is not really a textile find as such, it
was interesting to see a reconstruction of Columbus’ cabin on La Niña, admire a collection of really old charts and maps and of course, do a little "snooping" through one of the area’s grand homes to appreciate how life must have been in the 1500's.
