Many of you know and love the smaller Canary Islands. Liz and Tim Cracknell (my sister and her husband) frequently have holidays on La Gomera.
The Allens are regulars in Lanzarote.
Jane and I regularly spent Easter school holidays with Louise and Mike in the Canaries. The Costa Canaria Hotel in Tenerife was a favourite but we also enjoyed the Maspalomas Oasis on Gran Canaria. Later Jane and I had a number of golf holidays in Tenerife.
Interestingly, since I blogged about Madeira earlier this week, I have heard from my sister Liz who told me that the family of her son in law, Titus Sharpe (married to her youngest daughter, my niece Carrie) went to Madeira in the 18th century to help the Blandy’s to develop the Madeira wine company. Some of his relatives still live on the island.
I have also heard from Mags Hook, who tells me that she and Roger have had holidays with Nick and Yvonne Fiddian at the Palheiro hotel for the last 3 years and have met the Blandy family. She gave a glowing report of the hotel, the food and the staff.
As Cunard failed miserably to provide any tours in adapted vehicles in La Palma and failed to provide any contacts who might enable me to book such a vehicle independently, we walked to the quaint town. We had been there before but as we walked down the familiar streets it started to rain. We found a bar with excellent coffee and when the skies cleared we moved to the waterfront and found these wonderful houses.
By the time the ship was ready to leave La Palma. the weather had deteriorated. The wind was blowing hard and the sea was lumpy. It was a fairly rough night as we sailed towards Gran Canaria.