Gran Canaria

Monday 21 March 2005. We dock into Gran Canaria for our last day of cruising and take a coach excursion out for the morning.

Mogan is a gorgeous colourful village set around a harbour. Buildings are whitewashed but with touches of colour, there is lots of purple bougainvillea draped over alleyways and buildings and plenty of palm trees.

In the harbour are colourful boats and tropical fish of various colours whilst every now and then you catch sight of a razor-toothed barracuda. It was hot and the signs for fresh strawberries with cream and ice cream along with a tall glass of something cold and refreshing was just too much and we succumbed thankfully, sinking into seats at a table and letting ourselves be pampered.

The afternoon was spent lazing on the Pool Deck with waiters waiting and more temptations to tempt us. Ah, it's a hard life, but someone has to do it... Once we had had afternoon tea, more ice creams and an evening meal though, I stirred myself, shook myself, added a twist of lemon and trotted back off the ship to take a few photos after dark.

Although dark, it was still very warm and we walked all the way back to the entrance to the port and the small shopping precinct. Admittedly we weren't rushing but it took us a good five or ten minutes good hard strolling...

This would be our last night onboard the Carousel. She had been built as the Nordic Prince in 1971 for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, sold to Sun Cruises and renamed Carousel in 1995 and spent ten years with them. Although she had been sold to Louis Cruise Lines in 2004, she had been chartered back to Sun Cruises, her last cruise for them being in the May of 2005. She underwent another five name changes until, as the Pacific, she was decommissioned in 2014 and sent to India for ship breaking in 2015.

She was our introduction to cruising and this was our second trip on her. At time of writing (March 2023) we have taken 27 cruise holidays and loved every single one. With a new place to see and explore every day, it's an experience hard to beat.

The pool deck is practically deserted at night apart from the odd person walking off their meal. It's around 10:00pm.

Miss Franny wants a final go on the slot machines in the casino. I buy a fiver's worth of tokens and mainly watch as she gets through them. She gives me a handful and I wait for a machine to become empty and almost immediately win 70 pounds causing the woman who had just vacated it to stare venomously at me as tokens tinkle down into the tray. I cash them in smartish...

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Last Stop Gran Canaria!

8 March 2004. Today is our last day on the MV Carousel as she sails on the Atlantic Isles cruise around the Canary Islands. Today we are visiting Gran Canaria.

We dock in the large port of the island's capital, Las Palmas. Then we are on a morning excursion today so we get onto a coach which takes us for a look at the Sahara-like dunes at Maspalomas - or as we say; just like St Annes near Blackpool!

Then we have some free time at a wonderfully picturesque little resort called Mogan. It's an absolute delight with a colourful harbour, whitewashed buildings but with colours running in vertical and horizontal lines over their architectural features. The harbour is ringed with bars and restaurants and colorful tropical fish are playing over the rocks on the bed of the harbour.

This is one of the most beautiful resorts in Europe I think and all this without a great heritage of grand buildings to bring people to it. We were reluctant to get back on the coach at the end of our 45 minutes there.

We arrived back at Las Palmas to find an older two-funnel cruise ship moored in front of the Carousel.

We had lunch onboard and then decided to get off the ship again for the afternoon and walk into Las Palmas.

Las Palmas forms a peninsula and so by walking in a straight line from the port, in fifteen minutes we crossed from one coast to the other and found ourselves at this beach - Playa de las Canteras. We found a couple of people from our dinner table and spent a while chatting. A signpost was reading the temperature - 34 degrees! It was warm and we needed a drink. I could count up to five in Spanish and say "please" and "thank you" (and thanks to John Wayne "Where is the booty?"...) so we wandered into a shop and I asked for "Dos Coca-Cola por favor?" feeling ridiculously pleased with myself until a stream of unintelligable Spanish came back at me. We were in a Burger King and Coke came in three sizes...

The Carousel was our first taste of cruising and we were undoubtedly hooked! Since that first cruise in 2004 we have cruised every year, looking on it as a great way to wake up in a different place every day, have a choice of going looking at places or relaxing on the ship and with all food free of charge, it's not as expensive an option as many think.

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