Our first stop of the day was Garachico. We thought we might have had time to visit it the day before but we didn’t. No biggy!

This is our map for today’s journey:

Garachico

Nestled below a 500-meter cliff on the northern coast of Tenerife lies the sleepy beach town of Garachico. Cobbled streets invite visitors to explore the pretty seafront town and discover one of the best preserved historic districts in the Canaries. With a rich and ancient heritage, it was founded in the 15th century and was an important trading port. The town was almost destroyed after a volcanic eruption in 1706, the Church of Santa Ana was one of the places where the locals took refuge. After the eruption, the town’s busy trading port came to a sudden halt.

Among the town’s attractions are sea water rock pools teeming with tropical fish, a 16th-century fortress named Castillo de San Miguel, and the Iglesia de Santa Ana, which houses a wealth of artistic heritage.

The 1706 volcanic eruption, which buried the old port forever, formed the arm of the sea known as El Caletón (the cove) in a capricious way. Its “charcos” (puddles), Las Viejas (the old ones), Los Niños (the children), Los Chorros (the jets), etc., create a set of natural pools, with acceptable conditions for bathing and an excellent promenade.

Michael and I stayed at Marina Rubicon until October 24th. I worked quite a bit on this blog (I am always behind, it seems!), we went for walks, and pretty much chilled.

We sailed overnight to Tenerife on October 24-25. We took a few days to plan our road trip then left on November 1st. Little did we know just how beautiful Tenerife would be!

We took two beautiful hikes today. The first one was Sendero de los Sentidos.
The Sendero de los Sentidos is a natural treasure that runs through a laurel forest and will delight walkers thanks to its biodiversity, unique in Europe. At one point the path descends to the Mirador del Llano de los Loros (an observation deck), where you can enjoy views of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the Barranco y Presa de Tahodio (Tahodio dam ravine). The Path of the Senses is conceived as a sensory journey in which you can enjoy nature in all its fullness not only with sight, but also with smell, touch and, why not, hearing. . .

Stats:
Distance: 1.4 km
Duration: 32 minutes
Elevation: 79m rise
Route: Circular

Map:

I was reminded somewhat of the UK with all of the green!

Our friend, John, was still on Seahike with us. Yay! His next adventure with us was to participate in a 3.5 day passage. He was a great sport, staying up with Michael for three hours on his watch (until 11:00 p.m.), then joining me at 5:00 a.m. for the last three hours of my watch.

But before we left, it was time for breakfast with Moroccan tea. Then some pictures of the very colorful businesses by the marina.

And, we’re off! Ta ta, Morocco! (Again, we waited for high tide.)

We sailed overnight from Tangier to Rabat. We had to time our arrival with high tide, as the entrance to the bay isn’t navigable at low tide. We arrived a couple of hours early so we drifted until the time was right.

We stayed in a marina in Rabat because we planned to take the train to Marrakech from Rabat.

We sailed (I think we mostly motored) to Tangier on September 28th. It was only about 30 nm from Spain to Tangier, so a short day trip.

We passed baby sailboats on the way out of the marina in Spain. How cute!!

September 29: We spent our first day in Tangier and took a tour with a driver the next day. Here are some sights from Tangier.

We had been in regular communication with my friend, John (soon to be Michael’s friend as well) since we started sailing. John is an avid traveler, so he was uber interested in our adventures. Our repeated message to him was, “Come join us!” So he did! It worked out well because Michael and I had planned a trip to the USA and knew exactly when we would return to Spain. John joined us a day after we got back to Seahike.

If you’ve been reading this blog you know that Michael and I had been to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar. But we wanted to share this experience with John as well. So we walked from Spain to Gibraltar with the expectation that we would ride the cable car to the top.

That didn’t happen.

The cable car to the top of the Rock was closed. We found a little tour bus office. They told us to wait for the next tour bus and guide to arrive. They were extra busy this day cuz the cable car was closed. The owner assured us about 20 times that we were taking the right tour. We didn’t want the “shit tour” that the cruise passengers took because it was a “shit tour.” He told us about 18 more times that we didn’t want to take the “shit tour” because it really was a “shit tour.”

So we waited. About 30 minutes later, the bus and guide arrived. We were on our way on the “non shit tour”! To be fair, it was a good tour. We would have preferred more time, but they had to pick up another group, of course, to save them from opting for the “shit tour” instead.

We took a totally touristy photo by the phone booth while we waited. The other picture below is from our first viewpoint stop. These are the Pillars of Hercules. The Pillars of Hercules are the mountains on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar. And noted by this marker.

We covered the cruise through the 19th in the previous post. This post covers the remainder of the cruise.

8.20, Tue: Haugesund, Norway 
8.21, Wed: Bergen, Norway  
8.22, Thu: At Sea
8.23, Fri: Amsterdam, Netherlands 
8.24, Sat: Brussels / Bruges (Zeebrugge), Belgium 
8:25, Sun: Arrive London (Southampton), United Kingdom 6:00 AM

August 20: Haugesund, Norway

We started at the national monument Haraldshaugen and followed the Coastal Trail north of the town and through a historic area along the sea. This scenic pathway provides nice views of the North Sea and surrounding landscapes. Kyststien (the Coastal Path) stretches for over 2000 km along Norway’s beautiful coastline. We walked only a short bit of it, of course.

We eventually reached The Rising Tide, a sculpture of horses in water, created by artist Jason DeCaires Taylor. The suited figures illustrate an attitude of denial or ambivalence towards our current climate crisis and the young riders represent hope in effecting future change. The sculptures symbolize our desire to control natural forces, but their position in a vast body of moving water highlights our inherent fragility.

Let’s start with the monument. Haraldshaugen was erected to commemorate the unification of Norway by Harald Fairhair. Snorre Sturlason’s kings’ sagas make reference to the site where Harald Fairhair was buried, which is believed to have been found last century. The national monument was erected on top of this mound in 1872, to mark the millennium celebration of Norway’s unification into one kingdom.

It was designed by architect Christian Christie, as a large burial mound surrounded by a granite wall with 29 standing stones, each representing one of the old Norwegian counties. A 17-metre granite obelisk with four bronze panels around its base stands at the top of this mound. Each panel depicts important scenes from the life and times of Harald Fairhair.

As noted in the previous post, Michael, two of his sisters and I took a cruise together. We visited a lot of beautiful places and had a wonderful time together! Here is the itinerary followed by pictures of each port of call and a few of the ship.

8.15,Thu: Board the Norwegian Prima cruise ship
8.16, Fri: Isafjordur, Iceland  
8.17, Sat: Akureyri, Iceland
8.18, Sun: At Sea
8:19, Mon: Geiranger, Norway 
8.20, Tue: Haugesund, Norway 
8.21, Wed: Bergen, Norway  
8.22, Thu: At Sea
8.23, Fri: Amsterdam, Netherlands 
8.24, Sat: Brussels / Bruges (Zeebrugge), Belgium 
8:25, Sun: Arrive London (Southampton), United Kingdom 6:00 AM

Let’s start with the HUGE error I made! We wanted to walk around a bit before we boarded so we dropped off our luggage at the cruise ship port. Unfortunately, one of the bags I handed off to them contained our passports! This is bad. You can’t board the ship without a passport.

So when we returned to the ship to board it, I told them what happened. They said this happens every cruise and that we shouldn’t worry. We just had to wait for them to deliver our luggage to our room and then we could have them bring it to us. But time passed. Then more time passed. And more time. Before we knew it, we were the only ones waiting to board.

The gentleman at the counter remained calm and told us he hadn’t “lost” a passenger yet. But then I think he got a bit concerned because he told us that if we missed the ship we could meet them at the first port of call in Iceland. Of course, that meant we’d have to spend the night in a hotel and hotels also ask for your passport so. . .

Anyway, we had been in contact with Michael’s sisters (who were safely aboard) and told them which bag held the passports. One bag was delivered outside our cabin door, but it wasn’t the right one. Well, Linda was on it! I think she chased down every luggage deliverer to find our missing bag. And she did!

Thank goodness!

We boarded with time to spare, but I am not gonna lie: I had a nervous stomach for about 45 minutes.

Michael and I decided to spend a few days in Iceland before we went on a cruise with two of his sisters. It had long been on my bucket list to visit Iceland! Without going into a great deal of detail, here’s what we saw each day prior to the cruise.

August 12: The Golden Circle

The Golden Circle is a 155-mile circular drive that visits three of Iceland’s most popular tourist attractions: Gullfoss, Geysir and Þingvellir National Park. It also includes Kerið Crater. Here is the route (we didn’t actually start and end in Reykjavik, but from out hotel):

Located within el Parque Maria Luisa, La Plaza de España was built by Spanish architect Aníbal González Álvarez-Ossorio to symbolize the country’s peace and bonding towards its American colonies. The plaza houses unique tiles (azulejos) for each of Spain’s provinces, and opens towards the Guadalquivir River – through which colonists used to send back findings from the “New World.” One can rent a boat for a small fee to paddle around the plaza, which we did.

This post consists solely of pictures of this stunning plaza.