SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE

December 13, 2018

When we started out on our excursion this morning I had on an Old Navy t-shirt, a long sleeve shirt, and a light weight jacket and was very comfortable.  As we wandered around, first the jacket, then the shirt came off and I finished the day in the t-shirt.  It was that warm.  Knowing how the cold bothers me, you know it was nice.  And yes, I kept my pants on – for you smarties who were going to say something.

Checking email when we got back on board, my agent sent a list of Carnival cruises for next year and I told her about 3 we’d like to do.  I’ll give you more details on that after I hear back from her.

Jack and Pam, two of our table mates, have invited us to come and visit them next year in Las Vegas.  Jack said they have a master guest suite or he’d put us up in a hotel on the Strip.  I said, if we come, and we’d like to, we will stay with you.  I’d like to do a western driving trip, going to the Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, Yosemite, stuff like that.

Great entertainer tonight, Joe West from London.  He sang, tap danced, and played the flute, the clarinet, and the saxophone.  He did several old standards – appreciated by we old standards – including Sammy Davis, Jr’s “Mr. Bo Jangles,” and finished up with Don Quixote’s show stopper from the Man of LaMancha, “The Impossible Dream.”  He received a well-deserved standing ovation.

And now, to tell you about our excursion into town, the churches, the craft fair, and the scum bums who unzipped her backpack, I give you your mother, your sister-in-law, your friend – let’s give it up for Bonnie!

TTFN

In a church no less. We had come upon a church and the doors were open so we went into it. As we were getting ready to go in this young couple appeared to have come out. They actually turned around after we entered and followed us into the church. Your Dad was in the center aisle taking pictures and I walked up to the right side of the platform where there were candles set out that you could light for .20 euros. I was getting my coin out of my change purse and getting ready to put it in and I heard my pack back being unzipped. I thought maybe your dad had come up to get something. But as I said something the young girl walked from behind me up beside the young man who was positioned immediately to my left. I took my pack back off and it was unzipped. She had unzipped my pack and attempted to steal something. Unfortunately for her there was nothing of value except your Dad’s jacket rolled up in it. I should have confronted her but I didn’t. I told your Dad and we zipped it back up. They left the church. We did also after taking some pictures. That is the first time someone has every done this to us. They were just what looked like a young couple. How sad and in a church to boot.
Well, on to better stories. The dock and port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife looks very much like the island of Madeira and the city Funchal. We had to take a free shuttle bus in order to get into city center. The port area was very confusing.  We got up to the street level after walking through some sort of terminal and up some steps. We found an info booth but the young lady in it was more interested in trying to sell tickets to people than helping. We finally got a map to go along with the maps your Dad had printed and headed up the streets ( and I do mean up) to tour around.

One of the first things we did was visit a museum with old art works. It was two floors and there were some great old paintings. Well, worth our time. Then we found  a small chapel in a large church where they were getting ready to have a service. We took some pictures and stayed for a minute or two.  Then, off onto the streets.

Next we saw what looked like a park up above the street we were on so we climbed the stairs. Large trees, benches and the pathways in it were pretty muddy. They were setting a bandstand area for some kind of celebration and all kinds of tents. We wound our way through to the street beyond it. There was a tent set up and beside it were tables where people were making all kinds of crafts. One man was weaving baskets. We looked and the things they had out on the tables that were for sale and found some goodies for Christmas. We bought 4 things and the prices on them said 16 euros but when Dad went to pay she said no, no just 10 euros. It looked like this was a fund raiser for elderly people. The things they had were very nice hand made things.

We left there stopped in some small novelty type stores. I bought a diet coke and some candy.  It was after this we had our encounter with  the would be thieves. There were so many beautiful flower beds. They were many, many poinsettias.   We walked up and down streets looking in shop windows and at some of the statues and buildings. We wanted to visit other museums but couldn’t find them even though we followed the signs posted. Finally after about 4 hours of walking around we headed back to the shuttle bus pick up point. I did manage to find a newspaper that was printed in Spain on today and that was in English. Yeah me. As we got back to the building where the shuttle was there was a last chance touristy shop and we picked up a few more trinkets.  Then, onto the bus and back to the ship where turtle was patiently watching out the port hole for our return.

Off to the room to return stuff to the safe and drop off our goodies. Then, up to the buffet where today I splurged on 2 pieces of pepperoni pizza and your Dad had a cheeseburger and fries.  I also had 2 scoops of ice cream. Back to the room to read email and he napped and I started my 3rd crochet project for this trip. After nap time I dressed and went to watch the ship sailing away. He joined me when it was time for supper.

Supper wasn’t much. “Chicken noodle soup” where the noodles was spaghetti noodles and mainly broth, and a way to thick chicken and leek potpie followed by a sugar free Neapolitan dessert.

As your Dad said the show was great. Well, he has a talk tomorrow so we will be up early and off to breakfast.

Love you all, Mom, Granny and Bonnie