The next stop was to Tenerife, the largest of the seven Canary Islands.
Not only are the islands part of Spain, they also have the highest mountain in the country. You can see how the volcanic mountain rises out of the sea. It’s quite dramatic landscape. This is also a chance to see the outside of our floating city/home.
We and our Australian friends, Liz and Ash decided to rent a car and drive around the island. We docked in Santa Cruz on the eastern side and these next three images are from the west side.
Two very pretty ladies with the Teide Mountain in the background.
We decided that the mountain was so pretty that we wanted a closer look. So, we drove to the center of the island and took a gondola up to near the top of the 12,188′ peak.
Here is Ash.
The volcanic rock formations were quite beautiful. This volcano is the third largest in the world. Fortunately it’s been almost 100 years since the last eruption (1909).
As you can tell here, Ash was quite chilly. The temperature drop and wind increase was expectedly significant coming from sea level.
Another view of the peak.
Two rugged mountain men…
More of those rock formations.
Some random photographer.
This is a picture that Liz and Anna requested. Can you tell who was supposed to be the subject?
After the mountain, we headed to the beach. Unfortunately, the island is quite large and it took a little longer than we hoped to get around. That meant we had very little time to enjoy the black and white sand beach. It was still a welcome change from the chill of Northern Europe.
After a great day on Tenerife, we hopped back on the boat and sailed north. We came to more volcanic islands, this time owned (at least politically) by Portugal since the early 15th century. These are the Madeira Islands. We pulled into the port of Funchal.
Our intent was to go SCUBA dive, but the currents were too strong. So, we adapted the plan and decided to go up into the mountain and explore the botanical gardens. We heard that it contained all the flora of the islands in one place. Since we only had a day, we thought that might be a good way to experience the island.
This is another view of our home, Costa Serena.
These are a few pictures of the flowers. This flower is Anna’s favorite.
My personal favorite.
Then we met some friendly (or at least hungry) friends.
This guy didn’t appear to be quite as hungry.
Then, we took another gondola up higher on the mountain.
After we got to the top, we took a bus that careened down the steep, windy road back to the city.
On the walk back to the ship, we came across a carnival. Although the rides looked like lots of fun, we decided that watching would be enough.
That concluded our time on the Atlantic islands that are politically and economically tied to Europe, but geologically tied to Africa.
We enjoyed our time there.
Next up, return to Europe.
–Jim
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Our Family Story.