Birthday in the sunshine.

On Friday (the Birthday!), we took the bus from a somewhat murky and cool Las Palmas and headed south to Playa del Ingles, where the sun was blisteringly hot ……….

…….. and where we had a couple of beers and a pizza ……..

……. before walking along to the gloriously sandy beach (which looked very similar to the Sahara Desert!)  Relaxing here for an hour gave us excellent top up sun tans.

Getting back to Las Palmas we found that the cloud cover had remained all day and that we had made a lot of (temporary) enemies!  The sunset however, was wonderful and “Oriana” was in the spotlight for a short time.

While in port in Gran Canaria “Oriana” had her annual underwater inspection - hence the floating bund.  Evidently the inspection is carried out in the Canaries as the water is so clear.

Dinner in the evening on Friday ended with Doug being presented with a birthday cake and a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” by the ‘choir’ of table waiters.

Jan, James, Doug, Derek, Jane and Clive all enjoyed a piece of cake - even though they had no room for it.

Derek and Jane joined us after dinner for a great show by the ships entertainment company in the Theatre Royal.  Then it was drinks on James in the “Harlequins” dance bar until sometime after midnight.

Today (Saturday) we berthed in Santa Cruz, Tenerife at 8 o’clock in the morning and, learning from yesterday, we took the bus to the south of the island to Playa de las Americas where (again) the sun shone magnificently.

It was an hour and a half ride along the coast on the bus but we had time enough to bask in the heat before returning to Santa Cruz ……….

……..just making it back to “Oriana” before she set sail!  Santa Cruz nestles beneath the awesome backdrop of the mountains.

Ono of the most striking new buildings in Santa Cruz is the Opera House right next to the ocean.

Tenerife was our last port of call before having to cut the cruise short and head back to Southampton.  P & O have modified their compensation offer to include a free cruise on any of their ships and we think they have been more than reasonable in their total offer of recompense.  So -Southampton here we come.