After eight days at sea, we struck land! Our first port after crossing the Atlantic
was Tenerife. Tenerife, Wikipedia tells
me, is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, and
also the most populated island in Spain.
What’s the point of having a blog if not to shame yourself publicly and
often? And so I add this detail: until I
looked up that article just now, I was pretty sure we were in Portugal that
day. I blame the culture-numbing combo
of cruising and small children. While cruising,
you spend so little time at each port that you’re barely dipping your toe in
the life and culture of the places your visit.
And with small kids, your attention is so fragmented that you don’t even
get to dip a toe into the culture, you’re basically just hoarking on in.
In our highfaluting cruisey-cruise days, we’ve seen quite a
few beautiful little island cities built into hillsides. What made Tenerife strange was that it was
really dry and arid. So much hard, dry
earth and short, squat cactuses.
Beautiful in its own way, just very different. We did very little here. We got off the ship, had a nice walk to the
city centre, then Sarah and her dad searched in vain for a bank machine (no
dice there, but it’s strangely easy to find a discotech or a place that bakes
gourmet biscuits for your dog). After
this, we came across a park and the kids were thrilled. Veronica found a train play area that kept
her happy, while Teddy worked the slide for an hour, happy but mystified why
the little Spanish children wouldn’t applaud for him like he demanded them to.
After eight days at sea, we struck land! Our first port after crossing the Atlantic
was Tenerife. Tenerife, Wikipedia tells
me, is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, and
also the most populated island in Spain.
What’s the point of having a blog if not to shame yourself publicly and
often? And so I add this detail: until I
looked up that article just now, I was pretty sure we were in Portugal that
day. I blame the culture-numbing combo
of cruising and small children. While cruising,
you spend so little time at each port that you’re barely dipping your toe in
the life and culture of the places your visit.
And with small kids, your attention is so fragmented that you don’t even
get to dip a toe into the culture, you’re basically just hoarking on in. 
In our highfaluting cruisey-cruise days, we’ve seen quite a
few beautiful little island cities built into hillsides. What made Tenerife strange was that it was
really dry and arid. So much hard, dry
earth and short, squat cactuses.
Beautiful in its own way, just very different. We did very little here. We got off the ship, had a nice walk to the
city centre, then Sarah and her dad searched in vain for a bank machine (no
dice there, but it’s strangely easy to find a discotech or a place that bakes
gourmet biscuits for your dog). After
this, we came across a park and the kids were thrilled. Veronica found a train play area that kept
her happy, while Teddy worked the slide for an hour, happy but mystified why
the little Spanish children wouldn’t applaud for him like he demanded them to.
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