Picture heavy fun review - MSC Armonia - Canary Isles and Madeira - incl. DIY trips

[suekay]

You're both already smart, fit and confident☺ All you need now is the silver hair and you're ready to go!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

You're both already smart, fit and confident☺ All you need now is the silver hair and you're ready to go!

 

:p:o:p nice of you to say so suekay, but I beg to differ ... we still have a looong way to go to reach their style and class .... but we're working on it and I hope it's not impossible. Lol -- the hair is the easiest part .... just waiting till the color changes, no effort here. But there's so much we still don't know about music, cultures, languages, art, history, nature .... the whole spectrum ... but I guess one of the things I admired about the seniors on La Palma was the fact that they still seemed to be eager, curious and openminded for new impressions. Maybe it was this "not wanting to stop learning new stuff" attitude that impressed me the most. Well, and of course the stuff they DID know already (like changing effortlessly from a small friendly talk to the bus driver in Spanish back to French, German or English for communicating to each other) and the respectful yet attentive manner in which they interacted, their whole attire, everything....

 

:):o I just was never so humbled by completely foreign senior citizens before -- and I just like the newly aquired knowledge that such a community exists, and therefore might exist for us as well in the future -- that's all.

 

La Palma retirerees! --- you impressed me to the max! Thank you! Oh, and your island is beautiful as well! Good choice! (Lol, since YOU chose it, it must have been the right choice, since you're my new retirement-heroes:D)

 

 

Stef

[bdoster]

We really enjoyed La Palma in 2008. Beautiful place!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Taxi drive up to La Cumbrecita

At the visitor center, we were tempted to visit the exhibition right away, since the place was still beautifully empty, but the Pass would probably be as empty this time of day as well – and since it is THE attraction on the island, this wouldn’t stay this way for much longer. Let’s find the taxi stand :

We had read online, that they offer group taxis for a fixed rate. Well, there were no people around yet to possibly form a group with, but one lone taxi stood next to the completely empty parking lot in the back and we went ahead to ask the driver if he’d do the trip for two people as well …. Yup. 20 Euros to get up there. Normally it would have been 12 per person for both ways in a group taxi. So we’d face 40 Euros altogether instead of 24 … But we would get to go right away and see the Caldera basically deserted. Very cool. Let’s go!

Here are the pictures of this beautiful drive:

And here we were spit out:

The view from La Cumbrecita early in the morning.

Even if you don’t hike one step … even this partial view of the Caldera is worth the trip already! Again this is a place that pictures don’t do justice.

Let’s check it out in depth and start our hike!

Stay tuned!

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

La Cumbrecita

Okay I changed my mind … it’s my review, so hey, I can just do that ;-)

We won’t start hiking quite yet, because first I want to show you about the spot and the views of la Cumbrecita itself.

The view of the Caldera right from the parking lot for busses and taxis

That’s a MSC tour bus, which we saw after (thank Goodness for that) our hike. The trail starts right behind the bus.

A few steps up the road is the parking for the 12 regular vehicles I told you about:

From this place you have a great view of what's beyond the

outside

of the edge of the crater:

You can see the prominent ridge, which is running southwards almost to the end of the island.

We liked the looks of this tree

:DOkay … but in the next post we

really

will start our hike … for sure.

Stef

[dhill]

Canary Islands and Madeira overnight on the MSC Armonia

Hello everybody! Welcome back to a new review!

Let’s not loose time with telling about who we are … if you don’t know me yet and would like to learn more, just check out my former reviews. Usually my reviews grow bigger and bigger each time… this one coming up will however be quite a quickie. Lol – no worries, It’ll still fill many pages with text and pictures … but just not quite as much as last time.

As always we’ll start with the preps for the cruise, continue with a detailed ship description and finally get to our day to day port adventures (which are my favorite part). We always explore DIY, never took a ship excursion yet and don’t plan to do so in the near future.

Warning: This review will -- as always – take some time, because I write the text and upload the according pics as I go along. Thanks for joining in ---- let’s have some fun!

 

Our itinerary:

Saturday Feb 28th Gran Canaria - 22:00

Sunday Mar 1st Fuerteventura 8:00 – 18:00

Monday Mar 2nd Seaday

Tuesday Mar 3rd Madeira 9:00 --

Wednesday Mar 4th Madeira -- 14:00

Thursday Mar 5th La Palma 8:00 – 18:00

Friday Mar 6th Tenerife 7:30 – 21:00

Saturday Mar 7th Gran Canaria 6:00

 

Cruise Preps:

Lol – this was our most spontaneous cruise ever. Our kid would be gone for a school ski-trip in the middle of the school term and we found quite a bargain for a MSC cruise for a week, which included the flight and transfers to the ship. A chance to travel – two adults – no teenager along – outside of the insanely pricey school-holidays?

:)It was a no-brainer… we booked.

Now we (meaning I) had merely a month left to plan:eek:. Gulp. If you know me at all, you have quite the idea of what a stressy, whizzing-around-in-light-speed person I turned into for the remaining weeks because of that:rolleyes:. Poor Tanja. But we took care of not doing any “hooray, we’ll go on a cruise” hollers around Tarik … he wouldn’t join us afterall and his bad mood about being forced to go on an unwanted ski-trip was bad enough already.

Up front: Don’t worry, he ended up having a great time!

I won’t show you any packing pictures this time… It was a cruise for a week to a somewhat warm destination (or at least that`s what we anticipated:rolleyes:), so there’s nothing special to add to the packing list.

Oh, wait ...

... one little complication … maybe you can relate: It was the end of February … we had a looong dark and miserably wet winter behind us … plus the Christmas season. Imagine food … yummy and lots of it … and no exercise what so ever for half a year….

... And now imagine pulling out your formal dress from last summer’s cruise …. Get my drift?

:DIt wasn’t pretty.

So besides whizzing around for a month, I also dieted …. Big time. Proud to say successfully:cool:.

Okay, I didn’t quite achieve the kilo-goal I had set at day 30 to go till the cruise, but I lost enough to feel comfortable and to fit into 2 new formal dresses. Lol – I bought them a little earlier, when I got scared I wouldn’t achieve my weight goal soon enough. The new ones were more stretchy and I could be sure to fit no matter how much more I lost till the cruise. So let’s skip the packing and get going right away!

Coming up: Saying goodbye to my parents and Tarik and then on the road to Düsseldorf.

 

Stay tuned!

Stef

 

Well thank you

[Elmartellama]

Catching up here!

 

La Palma looks stunning, it's one place I really long to see someday :) Thanks for the hard work Stef.

 

We also have a lot of europe-wide retirees where I live, living the dream.

 

By the way, I also have a Northern Germany + Norway / Fjords review pending. Still processing pictures and text, but no rush whatsoever ^_^

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Well thank you

 

Hi dhill,

 

:D well, you're welcome. My pleasure!:)

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Catching up here!

 

La Palma looks stunning, it's one place I really long to see someday :) Thanks for the hard work Stef.

 

We also have a lot of europe-wide retirees where I live, living the dream.

 

By the way, I also have a Northern Germany + Norway / Fjords review pending. Still processing pictures and text, but no rush whatsoever ^_^

 

Hi Elmartellama,

 

Whoohoo, I missed ya on here. Good to hear from you. I hope your trip to the Fjords was fun and I can't wait for your review!!!!! When will you start it again:)??? No pressure:rolleyes::D.

 

Yea, I know about the Mallorca retirees. One of the most hip soaps in Germany is called "Good bye Germany"( yes --- really in English!) ..... it's about Germans emigrating to other countries in search of ....mhhh, something...a better life, love, more money ... anything......and guess where most of these people emigrate to ? .... of course Mallorca. Sadly most of the people which they do their documentary on are people on welfare, that hardly scratch the money together needed to get there....you can see where this leads. Sigh, I guess, that's just what the people wanna see. People who fail, so they'll feel better about themselves. Sickening sometimes .... But rant over now. Sorry for that. I had a hell of a weekend. It'll go down in history as the "Caesarian weekend " from now on. I'm pooped. I'll return on tuesday.... tomorrow I definitely need a day off.

 

Will be back,

 

Stef

Edited June 28, 2015 by Kreuzfahrtneuling

[Elmartellama]

Really? I had no idea they did that kind of shows in Mallorca! Sometimes this island is like parallel universes all linked in the same place :eek: I'm surprised about that, actually, because most German seniors have generous pensions actually, as compared to other countries, and also most foreign people I know that age are not in a bad position. But of course what sells on TV are problems / scandals and that kind of thing...

 

We'll see about my review, hope to have it ready soon, but there's too much going on by now

 

Hope you recover from the weekend and are back on track soon enough!

Edited June 29, 2015 by Elmartellama

[denisey]

Okay Stef...day off granted! I know, so generous of me, since I haven't posted anything on my trip since Wednesday!

 

I do want to say....

 

1. it is amazing, the scenery does look like Montana!

2. I was glad to see the close up of Tanja...it is always nice to see her, but I was interested in the hats made of cork, and could see more of that in the picture

3. I love the picture of the two of you with the hill in the background!

 

and

 

4. I think you are well on the path to being one of those interesting, intelligent, worldly people...it is a journey and I'm betting if you had asked any of those people on the bus, they would have said they are not there yet!

 

And personally I am fighting the grey hairs!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

La Cumbrecita trail – upper trail to Lomo de las Chozas

You best start the trail in the back of the bus/taxi lot. All in all it’s a round trip, so you can of course go the other way around starting behind the parking lot for cars … but I advise to go this way … you’ll find out why.

Let’s start:

The trail starts off even and wide.

The sun is just about to crawl over the mountaintops … until it did it got a wee bit chilly in the shade

Pretty scenery:

Again:

And one more:

More to come

Stef

Edited June 30, 2015 by Kreuzfahrtneuling

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Upper trail continued

The path to Lomo de las Chozas is real easy and fast … I’d even say it’s wheelchair accessible to the upper portion of the lookout, though it might be a quite bumpy ride.

See me?

A try to do a panoramic shot

I got the feeling Tanja really likes this place.

Sun finally coming through

Almost there

Stay tuned!

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

:p thanks Denisey!:p

[spinnaker2]

just awe inspiring!

[Pluto_fan]

Wow, Stef! Your photos are just unbelievably beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

 

Elmartellama...any chance your review will be up by 29 July? I'm leaving for Norway that day. :D Or any absolute highlights you'd like to share now?

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Lomo de las Chozas

After about 15 – 20 minutes you arrive at the first lookout point – Lomo de las Chozas. There is an upper and a lower platform.

Right behind me are the steps that lead down to the lower one.

See?

…and this is the view from the lower platform:

It was soo wonderful…alone in this grand nature, the sun warming our faces ….sheer heaven.

Proof, we were here:

We climbed up the steps again to check out the upper lookout point -- just to find:

eeeks --- people had arrived in the meantime.

We didn’t feel like company, so we dumped the upper platform, which you can see in the picture, to keep on romantically hiking alone.

Stay tuned!

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

La Cumbrecita trail – lower trail to Mirador de los Roques

First of all you walk back the way you came from along the upper trail. You can choose the right or the left trail around the little hill, it doesn’t matter … both trails reunite right after surrounding the little hump. This of course is true for the original walk to Las Chozas as well … forgot to tell you about that. Sorry.

After circling the little hump either way, you see this sign coming up to your left:

The trail leading up to the right is the upper trail which we already took and the one leading down to the left is the one to the Mirador de los Roques.

Let’s head that way and start on what I’ll call the “lower trail”.

I think this lower trail is left out by most hikers, which is a real pity, because it was the most beautiful part of the whole deal. We saw a total of only four people while on this stretch. It is however a little scary (not at all wheelchair accessible!) because it basically consists of a real narrow path cut into the side of the mountain. Since this path tilts downwards you not only have to face a steep drop directly next to you, but also have to be careful not to slip on the loose gravel/sand floor.

On the worst stretches Tanja held my hand, which gave me more security and additionally enhanced the romance-level. Suddenly the steep drop didn’t bother me at all anymore. Lol – I sneakily took this picture to remember it:

Remember the little bridge on Madeira, which I didn’t dare to pass?

Tadahh! I’m back on track! But maybe you’ve noticed I’m wearing my seabands … lol – from now on I guess I’ll wear them on every port day. I hate being seasick while on firm ground. They really help me.

More to come!

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

wow Denisey -- I loved the dropping lizard story .... but your pictures of Siena blew me away! I gotta go to see that horse race -- I just have to! Plus the Duomo of course --- lol, not to leave out the statue of the naked women;).

 

 

wow, wow, wow!!!!!

 

 

 

Stef

[denisey]

How great to have this beautiful place mostly to yourselves! That was a great plan to do the hike before the crowds got there, even if the taxi cost a little more.

 

And I had to say "Aaaaaaw! Cute!" at the hand holding part!

 

Thank you on the compliments on my blog. Siena is a pretty magical place...and when there isn't the horse race, it is romantic to stroll at night.

 

I just checked and there is a race tomorrow (2 July) and another on 16 August this year. I'm not sure if you can find any TV coverage on it, but I'll bet there will be internet pictures/movies.

Edited July 1, 2015 by denisey

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

More pics of the lower trail:

The view while standing on the little bridge

 

Local wildlife

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lol – always staying close to the “safe” side

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lowest part of lower trail. After the little dry creek the path will lead you upwards again.

 

Creepy stone piles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almost at the Mirador de los Roques

Stay tuned!

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Mirador de los Roques

 

 

 

 

This second lookout spot blew us away!

 

 

 

 

 

It's supposed to be less of a view than at Lomo de las Chozas, but we thought it was absolutely breathtaking. It was impossible to get it in one picture ....

 

 

 

lol, so I fiddled around a bit ... here are two attempts of a panoramic view:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and here is my (pretty lousy) attempt to combine the two into one overall impression:

 

 

well, okay -- I know it ain't perfect, but you do get a feeling for the vastness and impressivness of the scenery, don't you?

 

 

 

 

 

and of course the mandatory proof we were here pics:

 

this one was taken with the timer and running

 

 

 

 

 

 

this one was taken by a nice person also hanging out at the Mirador. Okay, we didn't have this place entirely to ourselves ... but there were only four other people here.

 

 

:DWell, alrighty, we can share the Caldera with you, no problem.

 

 

 

Sigh, even the most stunning hike must come to an end sometimes ... so let's head back to la Cumbrecita in the next post

 

 

Stay tuned!

 

Stef

[spinnaker2]

Wonderful photos, brilliant scenery!

Magnificent vistas!

I will never get to see that except thru your photos.

Thanks for sharing. On another note, did those stone cairns look old or new?

 

We are getting ready for our trip. We leave for Copenhagen on Sunday.

Catch the ship Tuesday...

[Elmartellama]

Loving the excursion in La Palma!

 

@plutofan: can't be sure! My most important advice though, if you do the same cruise as we did, is to wake up at 04:00 the day you sail in Geirangefjord. I know it hurts but it will be so worth it ;)

[Pluto_fan]

@plutofan: can't be sure! My most important advice though, if you do the same cruise as we did, is to wake up at 04:00 the day you sail in Geirangefjord. I know it hurts but it will be so worth it ;)

 

Thanks! I'll keep an eye out for a review...I loved your Fantasia review. :) Question on the Geirangerfjord sail-in...will the view from our aft-facing balcony give us the full effect, or should we be up on deck? I'm much more likely to drag myself out of bed at 0400 if I can just step outside in my bathrobe, than if I have to get dressed and be around other people. ;)

 

Sorry Stef...back to your wonderful review!