Canary Islands 28th Sept to 12 Oct 2023

We arrived in Southampton where we stayed 2 nights at the holiday Inn and did some shopping there but in the afternoon I went off to see the Air Museum of the Solent. Flying boats started in 1913 and ended in the 1950s.  From London you had to take a train to Southampton the Laker River harbours. The Solent is between this part of the coast and the Isle of White between Pourtsmith and Poole. The boat makers realized that working with boats, wood and  canvas that they were skilled at and could produce the airplanes. Because airports had not been built and everywhere they needed to go had a place of smooth water. I923 the first passenger service began. In 1940 the main Spitfire factory was bombed but the machines were saved. Lord Beaverbrook  the head of supplies and munitions, insisted that they find a quick solution so they transferred the machine tools to the surrounding factories and within 5 days the parts were being produced and the planes were being assembled elsewhere.  The leading engineer was Mitchel. Southampton was bombed badly early on in the war. The writer Nevil Shute Norway was a plane engineer here before he became a writer. 

On the way to the museum is a memorial in a park to soldiers of the Crimean war 1855 to 1856, the Chinese war 1956 and for Gordon the Hero of Khartoum 1883

In the streets of Southampton there was a group of bicycle riders with carbon fibre or titanium bikes and said they were worth between 5 and 10 thousand pounds and you could not just leave them around locked..

We boarded the cruise and after a day at sea arrived at Oporto, a place known for its export of wine. In Oporto we saw a lot of construction going on in the city as well as them extending the metro but it has a lot of derelict buildings. We walked over a tram bridge between two parts of the city that are high above the river where you get a good view,then took the cable car down to where the old wine warehouses were for wine tasting. Below this bridge is another bridge joining the 2 banks of the river. 

The Isle of Tenerife we landed at the capitol port of Sant Cruz and were taken from the south to the north side of the island where the banana plantations are. At one time bananas used to be the biggest part of the economy but today tourism has taken over everything. They also grow mangoes and papaya. The island appears to be an  affluent part of Spain. It is because of the high mountains that they have rain but never enough. The soil is black from the basalt volcanic rock.

Lanzarote island. We landed at the capital Arricife and were taken to see great views of the island,then onto the Aloe Vera plantation where they produce cosmetics and jell against skin irritation only aloes with yellow flowers are suitable for this .  Then taken to the Jameos de Aqua an underground volcanic cave that has a pond of tiny white crabs.  This island has hardly any water because the altitude is so close to sea level and has no high mountains for the rain to precipitate on. The original settlers came in 500 BC. The houses are all white with flat roofs to trap water. Where ever anything is grown it has to be surrounded by walls and there are plenty of rocks to stack to make them. Grapes are grown on the ground, each vine  surrounded by a wall to shelter against the wind. The older rocks have slowly turned red or yellow from the lickens that get into them. Fields are covered with  2 cm of pumice ash so that the night condensation goes in and does not evaporate during the day.

During the 30s Manuel Diaz Rijo  born on the island 1928  wanted an  education but the civil war was on so went to the US and became an engineer and returned and became the President.  In 1965 he brought electricity and desalination of water so the island's economy could develop.but he would not allow hotels to build above 4 stories and made rules on preservation. Only on this island was I aware of a lot of solar water collectors and also electric ones. We saw 2 wind power farms. . These islands all have roads that look like they are in new and perfect condition and I think it is because it is on stable basalt and not manz storms. By 1980 German tourists who were tired of Greece began to arrive on direct flights so you see signs in Spanish, English and German. Fishing used to be a big part of the economy and you see many fishing boats.

Gran Canaris  We arrived at the port of Las Palmas where you see lots of high rise buildings of homes, offices and hotels. This could be any metropolis and the Island Has a permanent population of 380 000. A lot was established by the British including a golf club. You drive through lots of tunnels and hills of volcanic ash and probably very easy to bore through. There are high mountains of 7000 feet resulting in lots of rain and that side is luxuriously green with valleys of green fields and crops with 60 reservoirs of water and a desalination plant.We went up long narrow mountain roads with hairpin bends to see inside the caldera with crops growing inside you also get a view of the see. We were taken to 2 different basilicas designed by a student of Gaudi from Barcelona. We wandered through the village of Teror which has a different vegetation as it is built on clay and the houses get cracks in them and had to be rebuilt. At a vegetable shop we  were able to see a variety of fruits and vegetables available on the island. Agatha Christie lived here for a while in the 1920s and one of her early books was inspired by it. The island has a lot of movies made on it including Brad Pitt's Aliens. Other movies meant to be  in Cuba were made here. On Saturday the 7th Oct we heard of the Hamas terrorist action back home and this was very very upsetting for the rest of vacation.

Lisbon  Went for a tour on an electric tut tut that can seat 6 people but we were 4. We went up the hills to various viewing points to see parts of  the city and could see the castle on another hill. Before the castle is El Fama which is built on bedrock and it suffered very little destruction from the earthquake of 1755 compared to Baixa low down which was completely wiped out.In El Fama they pointed out some of the  oldest houses that are preserved.  When Baixa was rebuilt it was done with proper urban planning. We were taken to St. Vincent Cathedral, the patron saint of Lisbon, which is not used for prayer but for tourists to visit and different people take the chance to practice playing the organ. The bridge that crosses the harbour used to be called the Salazar Bridge but became the 25th Oct bridge after the dictator Caetano was overthrown in 1974. We ended up in a coffee shop and got typical fish cakes , Portuguese custard tart wine and coffee..It was the day of the Lisbon marathon and many roads were closed. When the ship left the harbour they told us it had a clearance of 6 meters to get under the bridge but on the deck it looks as if the antenna and also chimney will crash into the bridge until you were under it.We were able to get a good photo of the Jesus statue on the side of the bridge, this is the same as the one in Rio de Janeiro but smaller. 

Vigo This is the biggest port of northern Spain and we saw much of it on a previous trip. This time we went to see a mussel farm on the Rio Vigo estuary. The gulf stream current sends warm water into these rivers and they have lots of plankton. The mussels spawn in the sea and fishermen capture the spawn there and put them on ropes , a year later they are big for harvesting. These are harvested by pulling the ropes out with a crane. Each  platform gives off 60 tonnes a year. We were served wine and mussels as much as you wanted but I didn't taste them. This estuary had 900 floating platforms but in the whole area there are 4000 platforms. They also had oysters and scallops and you can go down to see the platform side through the glass bottom of the catamaran 

We came back via an old fishing village called Conbarpos. Here every building was made of granite and each house had a granit shed on stilts to keep their grain dry and so that rats can't get to them.  It was pointed out that the forests are pine and eucalyptus. There are no indigenous trees as these were replaced to grow  paper. Nowadays these forests are a fire hazard. The  long summers mean that you no longer get the autumn colors. The Basque language has a lot of words in common with Portuguese, so it is easy for them to learn it unlike the Spanish speakers. 

Even though Spain kept out of WW2 Vigo was used as a German submarine base and the Germans were building an airfield here.  

Entertainment we had the Barricade boys who used 4 voices to sing anything from opera to modern pop. A vast variety of songs with fantastic harmony. Then there was  Dominick Allen, a Scot entertainer who learned his trade from Sammy David Jr, Frank Sinatra and Liberace. There was always live music and dancing as well as a magician show, trapeze dancers and many other Broadway programs on every night.

This cruise of Celebrity Silhouette was excellent with a very high standard of food services and entertainment. It was 11 nights with 4 sea days. Many Brits had been on it more than once and their main purpose was to be in the sun, many were not even interested in the ports. The people on it were great to meet and very interesting..When Astrid booked this cruise the intention had been to visit  her aunt Brenda in Oxford also but she had passed away.