ARRECIFE, LANZAROTE

Today, we arrived in Arrecife, on the island of Lanzarote, and parked alongside Fred Olsen’s Balmoral.

Since the quayside was quite some distance from the town, a shuttle bus was provided. The last time we visited (on the Marco Polo, way back in 2019), we were berthed much closer, and was able to walk in.

Once we’d left the shuttle bus, we followed the throngs of cruise ship passengers (there was another, larger ship in the closer berth) into the town. We slowly made our way around the harbour taking photos of the boats, and then out to the coastline, where a fort and old pier are accessed by long stone walkways. Here, we took our time enjoying the sunny day and the fresh sea air. We didn’t bother going into the fort because of the queues (we went in it last time anyway), but we did walk to the very end of the old pier, where we watched a mass migration of small yachts, before heading back to the town.

Once back in town we did a little bit of shopping. I needed a new razor, and found one in a shop similar to Boots. At €4.95, it was incorrectly price labelled (it should have been €11.50, so the shop gave us a complementary pack of stuff for our trouble – they didn’t need to – it realy wasn’t any trouble – but it seemed to be their policy anyway).

For lunch, we bought Pringles, peanuts and chocolate chip cookies from a small shop and ate them by the harbour, with a cold drink before heading back to the shuttle pickup point. There were a few crafty stalls there, which we browsed and purchased a new leather belt for Tracey for only €10. The stallholder also gave us a free belt loop that we’d managed to lose yesterday when going through security, so it was a win-win all round.

We finished the day off with a Mr Whippy ice cream back at the ship, and a Formal Night.