For our evening meal the previous night we thought we’d try Tapas @ The Mediterranean. Lyn has been very good with regard to food this trip. She even tried the amuse bouche when we were in the Dining Club and this was tomato based thing but tomato dialled up to 11. The expression on her was like she’d just eaten some sick… someone else’s. But at least she tried which is way more than she would have a couple of years ago. Good girl Lindy!
You’re supposed to select just 3 items each from the tapas menu but the very friendly waiter said because it was our first time he would bring over everything. We should have stopped there but we then made the mistake of ordering the house speciality, espetadas, basically a meat kebab which was enormous and we should have ordered one between us instead of one each. Nevertheless it was still a pleasant if very full meal.
Our last stop was La Gomera. Unlike the other islands I’ve never heard of it. I automatically assumed there wasn’t going to be a lot to see here. Firstly because we weren’t going to get there until noon and would probably have to leave early to get back for flights the next morning. The other thing was that according to ‘Cruise News’ the daily pamphlet, a highlight here was Valle Gran Rey a ‘green ravine’.
As we pulled in I got a very ‘Symi’ feel for the place. For those who haven’t read that or can’t remember this was when Matthew and I got stuck on the island of Symi for 7 hours with nothing open. It struck me that La Gomera would be a great place to come to if you wanted to hide, either from life in general or the authorities.
We didn’t have a tour booked as the most exciting one was something to do cheese and instead wandered in to town. The weather was nice (so it was already better than Symi) and there were some shops open despite it being a Sunday. Lyn has been desperate for a packet of crisps but refused to pay the onboard price. We found a Spar and Lyn went in while I waited outside. As soon as she left the shutter came down. I looked at my watch, it was 13:30, siesta time.
We completed a circuit around the town taking a few pictures. It’s quite picturesque in places. There were some tat shops so we did a last minute bit of shopping. One thing I have noticed is that normally we like to buy a print or even a painting of where we’ve been but the hasn’t been any. The closest we got was a painted tile in Madeira. Cafe and bars were open but we didn’t fancy that today. There was a ‘24 hour market’ which was closed and had a note in the window saying they’d be back in 2 hours which says it all really. We then made our way back to the boat.
For our last meal on board, as the main restaurant had been a little underwhelming and there was nothing on the menus that either of us fancied we decided to go to the other half of the Mediterranean restaurant which does build your own pizza. The food was good but the drink service was terrible.
Normally I might wait a few days or even a week before I did a ‘final review’ but I don’t think time would help solidify my thoughts on this holiday so here goes.
Thinking about the pluses it’s been nice to have a break and get away which was of course the whole point. Madeira was definitely a big plus and I’ll look forward to returning to it some day. Despite my day one rant the ship has been good and in some respects had a more adult feel about it than the Explorer 2, with more food options and little bars dotted about the place. Even though this ship does allow children we’ve hardly seen any of them. Apparently it would have been a different story the week before. As one of the points of this trip was to see what it was like in that respect I would happily book a non adult only cruise again. As long as it was in term time and it had the right itinerary which brings me on to the minuses.
On our previous cruises we haven’t wanted to get off the ship even if it was just going around to the same places again but this time we are both ready to come home. It’s been a combination of things, the weather, Lyn hasn’t felt great, the food was not quite up to the same standards but most of all it’s the Canaries themselves. They don’t hold any interest for us whatsoever. I’m not going to go as far as to say I wouldn’t come back if you paid me, of course I would. I just wouldn’t spend my own money to to do it.
Comentários