Nov 15

We docked at Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain about 2:00pm.  The island group is part of Spain and Las Palmas is the largest city of the EU outside of the European continent.  Contrary to common misconceptions, the name has no connection to a tweety bird.  The Romans used the islands as a provisioning area and Canary is derived from the Latin "canaris", or dog (as in canine.)  The Romans actually believed that the original inhabitants were the fabled human body with dog's heads, hence the name.  As everywhere in Spain, all shops, except in malls, close from 1:30pm to 5:00pm so things were quite quiet around there.  We walked the streets and made our way to the beach on the opposite side of the split from the port.  It is a beautiful beach but, with overcast skies, 70 degree temperature and wind, the beaches weren't very full.  Bars & restaurants were open and busy.  It was an interesting walk and we were able to purchase some of the delicious Spanish olives and a delicious Canary Island white cheese.  The ship didn't sail until midnight that evening there was a BBQ on the pool deck followed by a local folkloric show.  We're not big fans of the nighttime BBQs so we joined another couple in the main dining room for dinner.  We were enjoying ourselves so much that we missed the show.  We later found out that other friends didn't think much of the crowded BBQ and that the show was underwhelming, so we really didn't miss anything.  We now have 2 days at sea ahead of us.