Las Palmas, Gran Canaria

Today, after three bouncy, gruelling days at sea, persistently battling against a head-wind and a barrage of mad, incoming Atlantic storms, we finally arrived at the first of our Canary Islands.

The captain had hoped to get us in by 9am, but the prevailing winds and swell meant we didn’t arrive until 12 noon. The knock-on effect of that was for the morning to be treated as any normal sea-day, meaning that I had to rustle up an extra class – I chose Line and Wash.

Our original plan for Las Palmas was an on-the-bus-off-the-bus excursion. Since all morning tours were cancelled, however, tickets to the aquarium were being offered as an alternative. Not knowing what to expect, we accepted the offer – after all, an aquarium is just an aquarium, right? Well… apparently not… the aquarium in Las Palmas is nothing short of spectacular.

Once we’d been escorted from the ship to the aquarium, we were left to explore it by ourselves. I was a little concerned that the two hours allocated would be too much, and that we’d be out in no time. How wrong I was; we followed the recommended route through the attraction, and enjoyed every single second of it. Two hours was barely enough. We were told that the final tank at the end of the tour is the largest in Europe – and that is easy to believe. In fact, we were treated to the bonus of seeing scuba divers in the tank feeding the fish and the rays, and the sharks… fantastic stuff!

Afterwards, with only a relatively short amount of time left before we had to be back on board ship, we walked through the town to the beach where we watched the wild waves and the sun setting over the distant headland.