Arrecife, the capital of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, has a rich and layered history that blends maritime significance, piracy, volcanic activity, and cultural evolution. Lancelotto Malocello, an Italian navigator, is credited with rediscovering the island for Europe in 1312, giving his name to Lanzarote. The Norman nobleman Jean de Béthencourt led the Spanish conquest of the island. Lanzarote became the first of the Canary Islands to fall under Castilian rule. In the 16th–18th centuries the town was frequently raided by pirates and slave traders, including Moorish and Barbary corsairs. To defend itself, Arrecife built key fortifications, the Castillo de San Gabriel (built in the late 16th century) and the Castillo de San José (built in the 18th century, now an art museum). Arrecife grew as a port town due to its protected harbor. Today Arrecife is a lively mix of history and modern life.

We arrived into port as the sun was rising over the city.

We had no excursion for today and decided to explore the city. Our was docked far away from the city center but we had to take a shuttle into the city as we were docked far away.  The shuttle was nice and quick and we arrived at the marina.  Many vendors had spread out their items to sell and Nana was in a buying mood…. more on that later.

We walked into the city and it was a very nice and clean city.  Our first stop was to the local church.  Nana can’t pass up churches.  The church was decorated for Holy Week and was a very old church.

Next stop was the castle which also house the Museum of History.  A very nice castle but unfortunately all the displays were in Spanish.

We stopped at a local cafe for lunch.  The cafe was named Papa Miguel and we met Papa Miguel.  We even had some crevasses and a Papa Miguel pizza.

Back on the ship and we had our normal dinner with 4 people that we have been having dinner with since the start of the cruise.  Frank one of our table mates achieved  the President’s club status.  The President’s club honors people that have 1,400 cruise days aboard Holland American ships.  Wow !  That is a lot of days on a ship  Nana and I are around 450 days……. 3 more years to go.  The President’s club currently has about 35 people on board our ship on the world cruise.  You get a lot of special perks for the President’s club on the ship.

We now begin our whirlwind trip in the Mediterranean Sea.  The ports will be coming faster and less sea days for a while.  We have a sea day tomorrow and then Gibraltar the next day and then Cartagena, Spain onthe day after.