May 2, 2013 - Viva Espana!

Bonjour! Je vous écris de l’avion qui m’amène de Madrid aux Îles Canaries, pour une deuxième fois. J’avais visité il y a 2 ans. Après la Tunisie un 6 jour à Madrid, et dans celle-ci je ne vous direz pas après combien de fois. Les 3 premiers jours avec Philippe qui m’a accompagné de Sidi Bou Said et qui aujourd’hui y est retourné, nous avons fait la fiesta. Moi j’ai fais un 3 jour additionnels. La température n’était pas bien, nuageux et des averses avec un temps froid. Mais ça donne l’opportunité de faire des choses différentes. J’ai eu...

Feb 4, 2013 - The End ... Sort Of ... Maybe

We've spent our time here on the Canary Island of Lanzarote reflecting on the past three incredible years and in amazement of the places we've been, wonderful people we've met and the experiences we've had. Our next challenge is figuring out what we'd like to do next? Keep exploring ... find a home ... find a job ... train for a triathlon (Dan# ... all possibilities. We have decided the best place to do "the figuring" is "at home"! So, we're on our way and will be in New Hampshire by the end of March. But not before we have one more...

Nov 21, 2011 - shopping mecca no more

Tenerife is the other main island in the Canary chain. The capital alternates every four years between here and Grand Canary, which we visited yesterday. Until fairly recently the islands were a tax free, duty free zone. We still do not understand all the reasoning involved, but when Spain joined the EU in 1985, the Canaries, which are part of Spain, did not. But when they finally did in 1999, they gave up most of their tax free, duty free perks. Some things are still cheaper here than on the mainland - gas, cigarettes, liquor and...

Nov 20, 2011 - no canaries here

Our beloved Windy City is no more windy than anywhere else in the world and the Canary Islands are not named after canaries. The early Spanish explorers found a lot of wild dogs here and they named the islands after them - think of the root of words like canine and carnivorous. Or the other version is that the original natives here ate dogs. The islands were created by volcanos eons ago and the older ones like Grand Canary are heavily worn and eroded. All the volcanos are pretty quiet these days, there are lots of little earth quakes going...

Nov 3, 2011 - Tenerife, (small world)

Tuesday, 1st Nov We are on a subsidised tour around the island today. We drive through the resorts to pick up others and then head north to the other side of the island and sit through a sales presentation for a couple of hours. They are trying to sell expensive mattresses and merino wool bedding. They are excellent products, but even at (cough, cough) factory direct prices, it is still expensive. We have neither the room nor the money, but we are happy to sit through all this to save EU40 each on the price of a tour. The presentation is...

Oct 31, 2011 - Tenerife, Canary Islands

Facebook album - if you are not a Facebook user you can still view the album of photos by copy and pasting on this link: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150932354845707.756554.746395706&type=1&l=0fb2e3d4df 27 - 31 Oct We have an early start so that Cynthea can partly pack, have a quick breakfast and then head to the dentist at Baker St (two tube journeys away). Tony has breakfast and heads back to the room to sort luggage out, we can have 15kg in one bag, and 20kg in the other. Check out is by 10am, and the two packs are stored...

Mar 25, 2011 - Canaries-Carnaval

Bonjour! Je commence par la réponse à la question posée. Et de plus je joins une image qui vaut tous ces mots. Le mot Canaries provient du latin canis signifiant «chien», en raison des nombreux chiens qui peuplaient les îles lorsque les Espagnols les ont découvertes au XVe siècle, ce qui n'a rien à voir avec les oiseaux appelés «canaris». Il y a beaucoup de touristes ici. Parfois je me croirais en Allemagne tellement ceux-ci sont présents sur l’Île. Depuis mon arrivée la température se maintient aux environs de 25 degré le jour. Je vais en...

Jun 30, 2010 - Leaving Tenerife...

Today we are leaving!!!!! Saying goodbye wasn´t so hard after all. Meeting the other girls was fun... Laura now knows everyone in Marta´s and Sara´s school.... hehehehe We had two babies crying all the way. We already were imagining ways to shut them up after just 15 minutes. -.- We arrived at Bristol with a BANG literally... -.-

Apr 18, 2010 - Welcome to Teneriffe!

This morning we arrived in the Canary Islands to the largest island of Teneriffe. We signed up for a shore excursion to the Loro Zoo about 45 minutes west of Santa Cruz. Getting on the bus was a little bit crazy when you consider there are 3000 people on this ship that havent seen land in nearly 9 days, but we made it! Teneriffe is very interesting, it reminds me alot of the pictures Ive seen of Hawaii but not nearly as much foliage. They do have the most incredible array of flowers Ive ever seen anywhere. There was even a tree that had...

Mar 23, 2010 - Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain

Didn’t dock at Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands until 11am. Pop: 380,000 Walked an hour or so to Parque Doramas where we had picnic lunch then a couple more hours down to the Cathedral de Santa Ana dated from 15th C and took 400 years to build. Pd 6E for both of us to look at both the Cathedral and Museum and another 3E to catch the lift up to the tower for a fabulous view over Las Palmas. Beautiful warm clear day. Caught a bus back to town then walked the long stretch of cafes and bars along the beach. Went into a bar on a back...

Mar 28, 2009 - A town called Teror

The day sailing between Cabo Verde and the Canary Islands was long and itchy. I went back to the doctor who just stuck me with another syringe of antihistamine. Even though I had more bites than the previous day the nurse refused to believe me when I said it was something in my room. When it came time for bed I put on a long sleeve button down shirt and tucked my PJ bottoms into knee socks. I managed to get to sleep but woke shortly before dawn. When I turned on the light I saw a big black bug trying to climb into the upholstered headboard....

Mar 4, 2009 - Back to Las Palmas on Gran Canarias Island

... I just received a new email from Lyle .. The subject was... Can't find anyone to help me send pictures .. Hopefully he will find some help soon as everybody loves to see Lyle's photos. So after a few days up in Lanzarote.. he returned to Las Palmas to have his stitches removed.. I have received a bit more on Lyle's Itinerary from daughter April.. She said he was off to Vietnam again March 30th .. Flight via London and Hong Kong. Dear John, I could use one of your hot chocolate drinks! My troubles with Visa are un-ending. I had forgotten...