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

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Wonderful photos, brilliant scenery!

Magnificent vistas!

 

:) yeah, I know -- La Palma just rocks!

 

 

 

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

 

:pNever say never --- :( or are you in no physical condition to hike at all? At least the upper trail is doable with a weelchair.

 

 

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

 

:D both! There were about 50 of them ... Just didn't take a picture of all of them.

 

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

Catch the ship Tuesday...

 

:) Have a safe flight and a wonderful cruise. Right now we have a heatwave (today 35 degrees Celsius -- tomorrow supposedly 39:eek:) mixed with thunderstorms in our area ... Lol -- and Denmark isn't too far away, so at least you won't be cold while on the Baltic sea-- which is not always the case in summer .... So I guess it's a good thing. Have fun! Come back with many pictures and stories!

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Plutofan,

 

:p no need to be sorry! I love his reviews as well and since I've never been to Norway yet, I gobble up the free advice too:D.

 

Stef

 

PS: Sorry everybody, no time for new posts today and tomorrow. I'll try sunday ... but for sure promise to be back no later than monday:o.

[Elmartellama]

Don't tell me about the heatwave! We've had minimum temps well above 25ºC for more than a week, maximums are around 37ºC daily :eek: It's just too much, even if we're air-con ready it is so uncomfortable.

 

@pluto: now that I think about it, since you're travelling in late July the sunrise will be later than mid-June, so just adjust to sunrise. We were in our balcony until 06:00 aprox, when we went up on deck, and then we rested a little bit at the buffet, which was open for coffee and juices. It was just too cold to be outside for a long time. Can't tell you about aft balconies, but the best views are lateral.

[spinnaker2]

:) yeah, I know -- La Palma just rocks!

 

 

 

 

:pNever say never --- :( or are you in no physical condition to hike at all? At least the upper trail is doable with a weelchair.

 

 

 

:D both! There were about 50 of them ... Just didn't take a picture of all of them.

 

 

 

:) Have a safe flight and a wonderful cruise. Right now we have a heatwave (today 35 degrees Celsius -- tomorrow supposedly 39:eek:) mixed with thunderstorms in our area ... Lol -- and Denmark isn't too far away, so at least you won't be cold while on the Baltic sea-- which is not always the case in summer .... So I guess it's a good thing. Have fun! Come back with many pictures and stories!

 

Stef

 

Thanks for good wishes.

And heat wave advice.

That's the kind of temp we have in south Florida where I reside.

I was thinking it would be cooler in the Baltic.

Have packed layers.

As far as hiking, not likely I can do just because of air capacity due to only one lung that works.

Phrenic nerve injury collapsed the other.

So I have no issues unless I have to climb or ascend to high altitude where I cannot breathe.

Skiing, which I loved, has become a huge chore. I am pretty good at commpensating otherwise.

Life however is good.

Enjoy the weekend.

 

Also as to Norway, and the OP ,I would get up early and go on deck.

The fjords are best seen from the outside.

Glorious and well worth the effort.

Take coffee and go out...

[denisey]

It is about that hot here also, and we rarely get those kind of temps, 24 is normal! So no one has air conditioning!

 

The cat keeps yelling at us to make it stop!

 

I was interested in the advice for sailing into the Fjord. We are considering a cruise that sails into the Columbia river. We usually get aft cabins, so I think it would be worth getting up early that morning and watching the approach from an upper deck. I've seen ship do this on TV and it looks pretty dramatic.

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

La Cumbrecita trail – ascend from Los Roques to La Cumbrecita

Well. After enjoying the view at the Mirador de los Roques, there was nothing left to do than to return to the parking lot at la Cumbrecita.

You pass a locked door, leading into the mountain:

Here’s another one:

And a little off the path is this little cutie:

I thought it’s some religious shrine … we’re in catholic Spain afterall ….. but no – when you stick your head into the hole at the side…

… you can hear it gurgling – a water pipeline! There is an ancient, not working anymore faucet inside this little hut. Cool!

They have a camping place in the Caldera as well, but it was closed…

Too bad that nothing indicated this at la Cumbrecita … I would have been pissed to have hiked here with heavy camping gear, just to find out I could turn around and do the steep path to the parking lot all over again – just this time --- uphill!

This is the reason, why I recommend hiking the trail in the direction, which we did … the last part between Los Roques and La Cumbrecita is steep! You have a rocky floor and lots of curves and little steps.

It’s quite strenuous to walk up --- but walking down would probably kill your knees … So just decide for yourselves.

Back at La Cumbrecita we tried to get a taxi … it wasn’t as if there were not many of those standing around afterall. Half of the parking lot was filled up with them …. But they didn’t transport just anybody … they actually waited for THEIR group to return...

… ????? …

Seriously?

I mean – this would mean hour-long waits for each and every taxi-driver … We personally took our time on the hike to soak up everything and were out and about for almost three hours. It just doesn’t seem like a very efficient way to do business to me … but after all, they seemed to truly enjoy their chats among the parked cars … so maybe efficiency is not the most important approach to handle things on this island.

There is a sign set up with a phone number, which you can call to order a free taxi up to la Cumbrecita though …. One of the waiting taxi drivers was nice enough to call one for us … and about half an hour later --- tadahhh! Our nice taxi driver who drove us up in the morning showed up and brought us back down to the visitor center. What a coincidence.

 

Next up: the Visitor Center

 

Stay tuned!

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

The Caldera de Taburiente Visitor Center

When the taxi driver dropped us off, we were greeted by this guy:

Lol, although he didn’t drop on our shoulder like the one in Denisey’s review, it managed to impress us nonetheless. It was about a foot long and had a blue green dotted glow on the sides. Pretty!

But let’s head into the visitor center:

First thing to explore was the coke machine.

Tanja was pooped and stayed on this bench with an ice cold coke, while I went exploring.

The center has 33 info posters set up --- and yes, I took a picture of every single one --- but don’t be afraid, I’ll only share this one with you:

I must admit I was also unable to concentrate at the time, my brain was still overly full with all the amazing impressions from our hike. I just thought, that if I took pictures of the posters, I could take my time reading them back home. Lol – I still haven’t started in depth – but then again, I’m busy writing this review. But the fact that the Caldera has it's own weather day after day fascinated me -- and I was happy that we were here in the morning to check out the sunny part of it. Although I bet the cloud-waterfalls dropping from the ridges must be quite a sight as well.

Anyway, they also have a cinema, but we didn’t check it out. Oh – and this very cool model of the island:

As you can see, it was starting to fill up.

Time to leave.

Waiting for the bus back to port

 

On the bus we saw this guy who had smuggled the cutest little puppy into the bus:

see it sleeping on the seat?

Oh by the way, on the Canaries the public busses aren’t called “busses”. They’re called “Guaguas”.

Back in town, we returned for the ship to enjoy some lunch and relax for a bit. After that, we headed out again to check out the town of Santa Cruz de la Palma itself. But I’ll tell you about that in the next three posts.

Stay tuned!

Stef

Edited July 7, 2015 by Kreuzfahrtneuling

[denisey]

brrr-rrrrr-rrrr! Lizards!

[Lovincruisin1321]

The Caldera de Taburiente Visitor Center

When the taxi driver dropped us off, we were greeted by this guy:

Lol, although he didn’t drop on our shoulder like the one in Denisey’s review, it managed to impress us nonetheless. It was about a foot long and had a blue green dotted glow on the sides. Pretty!

But let’s head into the visitor center:

First thing to explore was the coke machine.

Tanja was pooped and stayed on this bench with an ice cold coke, while I went exploring.

The center has 33 info posters set up --- and yes, I took a picture of every single one --- but don’t be afraid, I’ll only share this one with you:

I must admit I was also unable to concentrate at the time, my brain was still overly full with all the amazing impressions from our hike. I just thought, that if I took pictures of the posters, I could take my time reading them back home. Lol – I still haven’t started in depth – but then again, I’m busy writing this review. But the fact that the Caldera has it's own weather day after day fascinated me -- and I was happy that we were here in the morning to check out the sunny part of it. Although I bet the cloud-waterfalls dropping from the ridges must be quite a sight as well.

Anyway, they also have a cinema, but we didn’t check it out. Oh – and this very cool model of the island:

As you can see, it was starting to fill up.

Time to leave.

Waiting for the bus back to port

 

On the bus we saw this guy who had smuggled the cutest little puppy into the bus:

see it sleeping on the seat?

Oh by the way, on the Canaries the public busses aren’t called “busses”. They’re called “Guaguas”.

Back in town, we returned for the ship to enjoy some lunch and relax for a bit. After that, we headed out again to check out the town of Santa Cruz de la Palma itself. But I’ll tell you about that in the next three posts.

Stay tuned!

Stef

 

Enjoying your posts.

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

City stroll through Puerto de la Cruz de La Palma

When you walk off the port area first of all you pass a peculiar Mc Donald’s restaurant … why peculiar?

Mc

Auto

????

And a Bic Mac with

chicken

????

…but once you passed that, you enter the small streets of the city. Santa Cruz is the “official” capital of the island – however, if you’d ask any local, they’d tell you that the true capital is actually on the other side of the island – the city of Llanos.So we definitely have to return to La Palma to check that one out as well on another visit.

Hey, look ! It’s the puppy again!

Those nuns were tiny. Tanja is already further away in the picture but STILL looks a lot taller.

Whoohoo -- a colleague --- and what a wonderful place for a clinic ---- with a direct seaview! I’m a bit jealous.

Lol – the prettiest spot of the city is supposed to be a place called Placa d’Espagna. We actually walked passed it 5 times, always checking around the blocks, because we just couldn’t believe

this

could be it…. Let’s just say we weren’t overly impressed:

More to come!

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

City explorations continued…

Pretty gutters …

but we got photobombed by foreign feet!

Let’s try again:

Ahhhh, that’s better.

Pretty palms:

And very beautifully tiled entrances to many houses along the streets.

I took a picture of this with a flash …. Tanja got annoyed, that she couldn’t activate the flash as well on her own camera… now she was on a mission ... this is her trying to set it up:

Ggrrrr, where’s that darn flash button --- aaarghhhhhh

Blitzzzzzzzzzzz:

Lol --- this was the moment she accidentally found it! We both laughed like crazy for minutes after checking out this involuntary picture.

More to come

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Finishing our city stroll

Pretty balconies all over:

Lol – this one was so tiny that one would have to crawl to get on it.

We bought a magnet with this logo:

Yup, we wholeheartedly agree to that! The island did its magic -- we feel totally happy and relaxed. We’ll come back! For sure!!!

We strolled back to the ship to enjoy the sailaway and catch some last glimpses of our new top favorite island.

 

Stay tuned!

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Enjoying your posts.

 

:p thank you! :p

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

without words:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

more to come

 

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

leaving La Palma continued...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

thank you La Palma for a wonderful experience!

 

 

 

 

 

 

stay tuned!

 

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

lol -- Denisey, just for the record: Our preferred travelling speed on the freeways is between 140 - 160 km/h, which is between 80 and 100 miles per hour.

 

:cool::eek::cool:But with our new truck we can easily drive 200 km/h as well ... which we also do occasionally when the roads permit it.

 

But not everybody drives that fast .... but there's a law saying you may not drive less than 60 km/h on the right lane and no less than 100 km/h on the left lane. But I've never ever seen anybody actually going as slow as 60!

 

 

lol -- and of course we say "Gesundheit" .... although the new "Knigge", which is sort of THE guidebook of good manners suggests not to say that anymore, since you're implying somebody is sick when you whish him health after he sneezed. Now you're supposed to not say anything at all and pretend it didn't happen .... I dunno --- I think that's rude ..... we stick to saying Gesundheit as does everybody else I know. Screw the Knigge.

 

 

Stef

[denisey]

lol -- Denisey, just for the record: Our preferred travelling speed on the freeways is between 140 - 160 km/h, which is between 80 and 100 miles per hour.

 

:cool::eek::cool:But with our new truck we can easily drive 200 km/h as well ... which we also do occasionally when the roads permit it.

 

But not everybody drives that fast .... but there's a law saying you may not drive less than 60 km/h on the right lane and no less than 100 km/h on the left lane. But I've never ever seen anybody actually going as slow as 60!

 

 

lol -- and of course we say "Gesundheit" .... although the new "Knigge", which is sort of THE guidebook of good manners suggests not to say that anymore, since you're implying somebody is sick when you whish him health after he sneezed. Now you're supposed to not say anything at all and pretend it didn't happen .... I dunno --- I think that's rude ..... we stick to saying Gesundheit as does everybody else I know. Screw the Knigge.

 

 

Stef

 

The B.F. prefers to drive very fast also, but here you always find the silly person driving very slow in the left lane!

 

That is very funny with Gesundheit and the Knigge! It almost sounds Japanese to not say anything, so as not to embarrass anyone! I'm sticking with Gesundheit also!

[denisey]

I can see why you loved La Palma so much, it is very beautiful! I don't know why, but I was surprised to see the "big" town at the port. It makes sense that it is there...but I had the beautiful country side and the quaint town with balconies in my head!

 

Looking forward to Tenerife...

 

And I am putting the Canary Islands on my wish list!

[Elmartellama]

Gesundheit and Entschuldigung are the first words every student of German knows :D

 

Regarding La Palma, the fact is that there is actually no official capital of the island. The capital is only the province capital, which is Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

 

The same happens with Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. But there's usually a de facto capital or bigger town sometimes, which in the case of La Palma is clearly Santa Cruz de la Palma.

 

Out of curiosity, doesn't Mac Auto exist in Germany?

[Cruiser 4 Life 66]

lol -- Denisey, just for the record: Our preferred travelling speed on the freeways is between 140 - 160 km/h, which is between 80 and 100 miles per hour.

 

:cool::eek::cool:But with our new truck we can easily drive 200 km/h as well ... which we also do occasionally when the roads permit it.

 

But not everybody drives that fast .... but there's a law saying you may not drive less than 60 km/h on the right lane and no less than 100 km/h on the left lane. But I've never ever seen anybody actually going as slow as 60!

 

 

lol -- and of course we say "Gesundheit" .... although the new "Knigge", which is sort of THE guidebook of good manners suggests not to say that anymore, since you're implying somebody is sick when you whish him health after he sneezed. Now you're supposed to not say anything at all and pretend it didn't happen .... I dunno --- I think that's rude ..... we stick to saying Gesundheit as does everybody else I know. Screw the Knigge.

 

 

Stef

 

Yes, we have a similar thing in America where some (annoying) people are now saying you shouldn't say "Bless You" after someone sneezes and that you should say nothing.

"Screw that" as you say. If I sneeze at work and none of my colleagues says "Bless You" I feel like they don't like me. Luckily they usually say it.

 

For the driving in Germany, I was there recently on a bus tour, so we stayed out of the fast lane, but it always scared me the speed at which cars went by us in that left lane.

It was like a rocket shooting past us.

 

I also giggled every time I saw your exit signs since they say:

 

Say it fast and it's like the two rude words of.....well I can't say the actual words but you can figure it out ;)

[bdoster]

I can see why you loved La Palma so much, it is very beautiful! I don't know why, but I was surprised to see the "big" town at the port. It makes sense that it is there...but I had the beautiful country side and the quaint town with balconies in my head!

 

 

 

Looking forward to Tenerife...

 

 

 

And I am putting the Canary Islands on my wish list!

 

 

Canary Islands and Azores are similar in terrain and quaintness; all are beautiful lush is spots, rugged and harsh in others. Santa Cruz de Tenerife is large, I was surprised at its size. Mount Tieide is just stunning.

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

:osorry, guys ... being lazy this weekend ... well, actually not really -- we'll be on a road trip to a Joan Baez concert .... so we're pretty excited. Will be back on tuesday!

 

cruiser4life66:

 

lol --:eek::D:rolleyes: I never saw that! But now I'll probably smile everytime I pass one!

 

 

 

Elmartellama:

 

:)They have Mc Drive .... the phrase saying Auto instead is just weird to my ears.

 

 

 

see y'all!

 

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Dinner day 6

Thin slices of smoked marlin marinated with dill

Feuillete d’escargot

Risotto alla zucca e tartufo

Crepe parcel filled with vegetables and cheese

More to come

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

dinner day 6 continued

 

 

 

 

 

desert!

 

 

 

 

 

Today was the baked Alaska parade :).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mhhh, yummy!

 

 

 

 

 

But Tanja sticked to her cheese plate as always:rolleyes::D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tonight's show:

 

This evening we didn't take any pictures of the show called "nature". We didn't like it at all, sorry to say. It basically was a bunch of costumized dancers and acrobats, who hopped around the stage dressed as a frog or something like that .... sigh --- it just wasn't appealing to us. The aestetics of a lady doing quite nice acrobatics with lumpy huge frog-feet attached to her lower limbs is lost on us.

 

Anyway, let's start with day 7 ! Our last day on the cruise to write about. Lol -- about time I get finished with this review ... I didn't intend for it to get as long as it ended up. One more day! bear with me guys, almost there!

 

 

Stef

[denisey]

So how was the concert! I'm sure it was great!

 

Note to self: don't read the food posts BEFORE breakfast...that cheese looked really good this morning!

 

Denise