Day 7 Sunday 10/3/24
I woke up at an ungodly hour (7am) to have a wee and couldn’t get back to sleep again. You know how it is. I tried all the counting stuff and saying goodnight to my feet and legs, but Morpheus would not welcome me back into his arms. So I got up and watched nerdy YouTube videos on my phone.
I like videos about rockets, construction, physics, engineering and geography. If I was to put those on a dating website profile, I would probably end up with Prof. Brian Cox. He’s a nice guy, but really not my type.
After Julie woke up, we had coffee n’shit, we set off on today’s Big Adventure with Jo and Dave, a cycle tour of Las Palmas. Our cycling host was Jose, who is a professional cycling teacher, mostly for 6 to 12 year olds. At weekends he takes tours with grown-ups.
The first leg was Vaguata and Triana, the oldest parts of the city. To be blunt, I’ve seen it already, so not exciting for me. After coffee in San Telmo Park we cycled north to see some parts of the city we hadn’t seen before. I haven’t got many photos since I was fully engaged with riding my pillar box red “Dutch style” bike. It was what I would call a ladies bike with a basket on the front. I forced myself to accept that there is diversity in the bicycle world, and in 2024 they should not be Gender Specific. I would have preferred a crossbar and darker paint job, but we are living in a Post-Barbie world and I have to reject Ken’s outlook on cycling.
Jose took us to the Santa Catalina Hotel, the best in town. It was built by The British in 1890, when there were lots of Brits conducting business in the city. Las Palmas is on trade routes for steam ships to the Empire, so Brits built La Luz port to handle the trade. The city expanded massively after the port was built in 1885, and is the third largest in Spain.
Just as we got to the hotel, the Bilbao football team were getting onto their coach on the way to a league match with Las Palmas. I took some photos of the players, I think this guy might be famous, lots of kids wanted his autograph.
The tour continued as far as the promenade at Canteras, which was heaving with weekend visitors. We had a brief look at it and then crossed the isthmus to the eastern side where there were two bloody great cruise ships tied up. After that it was a 20 minute ride along the coast back to Veguata and the end of our tour; Adios Jose!
The 10k ride took about 4 hours, so not very taxing. Nonetheless a post-cycle beer at a cafe behind the cathedral was very welcome. We then went for a late lunch at Allende Triana. My main course was called Iberian Pork with Crispy Fries. It was strips of pork served with some sort of herb dressing in little dish. The fries were freshly cooked crisps, without any seasoning. It was tasty, but a bit simple and basic. Pork and Crisps, I don’t think it will catch on. The waiter (he told us he was from Cuba) was brisk and efficient, but had all the charm of a Macdonalds server on a bad day
Here’s a picture of my lunch, it was a vegetarians nightmare.
So it’s back to Canteras beach tomorrow, and possibly the Science Museum if the weather is bad.
timharnesstravels 