For the love of life

Tenerife - 8 March 2013

A great start today.  Up and early and up on the sun deck by 7.15 am.

Too early for Andy

Had a huge bowl of fruit followed by poached egg on toast.  Then more toast and marmalade with coffee.  Gorgeous!

The gangplank to portside was okay, not too steep.  

We know there should be a shuttle bus to take us into Tenerife but can't see any that will take a wheelchair.  Nobody we ask seems to know.  First they say '10 mins' and then have no idea.  We then learn that there is one wheelchair accessible bus servicing 3 of the cruise ships that are docked that day.  I don't like the sound of that because I'm thinking about coming back to the ship and whether we will have to wait so long we could miss the ship.  

My toe makes an appearance!

Other people in wheelchairs join us and we all agree that this disembarkation could have been better organised.  All the coaches taking the able bodied passengers are passing us and there are lots of them.  But none for us.  50 minutes later we are still there.  The other people in wheelchairs are in manual chairs and their carers are pushing them into town.  My chair is too heavy to push when in manual mode and the journey is too long especially going both ways so we wait.  Very disappointing though.  And yet again I'm thinking 3rd class citizen, it's hard not to think that.  There would be an outcry if there hadn't been any coaches for the able bodied passengers.  Seems it's okay for wheelchair users to be excluded.

I don't want Andy to miss out so I decide to give up waiting and head back up that gangplank.  That way Andy can go and check Tenerife out.  I plan to take my kindle and have a good old sunbathing session up on the sun deck.

Not much sun in Tenerife

As I get all settled and start enjoying my book (Diary of a FleetStreet Fox), it starts to rain.  Brilliant!  I take cover near the Horizon Grill section which overlooks deck 12.  Not many people out on the sunloungers.  Despite many people having got off the ship to visit Tenerife, you usually get people who don't leave the ship.  But the weather wasn't very good for sunbathing.

View of Tenerife from the stern of the ship

Tenerife is supposed to be Tropical but it feels a lot fresher than that.  And that's the English definition of fresh.  As in fresh = cold!

Wishing I could be onshore with Andy.  We love going to coffee shops and people watching.  I'm not watching many people up here.  Apart from one man who chooses to stand right behind me and smoke a cigarette!  He has the whole ship but no, he has to be near me.  Maybe he's lonely.  Anyway I go and find another place to sit and freeze.  A waiter offers me ice cream.  'No thank you' I need warming up, not cooling down.

By 2pm Andy returns.  He took a couple of photos but not many because he said there wasn't much to take

Globe cacti

 It's great to see him and we go indoors into the Plaza buffet for lunch.  I have some delicious Welsh rarebit with salad followed by a petit dessert

Delicious

We spend time this afternoon taking photos of the ship.  It really is beautiful. The most beautiful place is the atrium, I think it's stunning.  Andy takes some great photos.

These two are both taken from inside the glass lifts.

Tonight's dinner is a posh fish and chips.

Our table flower

We sail off from Tenerife and have another nice view from our table

Andy's dinner, yum

And my favourite dessert on the cruise EVER!  Summer Pudding .... and I can't put into words just how delicious it was.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Summer Pudding

Thank you for visiting and I will return next week with our visit to Gran Canaria.