6,000 miles and 29 hours after leaving the house, we’re in the Canary Islands. (Actually, only about 23 hours in transit – I got 6 hours sleep in our hotel before sitting down to write.) Feeling fine, but the journey required stamina.

I should note that the massive ship in the title picture is *not* our ride. We’re on a smaller, 300ish-person boat, operated by Windstar.

The journey started badly, as United/Swiss Air moved our departure time back four hours (!) the morning of the flight. That meant (a) our for-hire scheduled ride from Orange County airport to LAX was useless and had to be replaced, and (b) we would need a hotel room on the destination side in Gran Canaria, a room booked at the *very* last second. That was a lot of stress I didn’t need on the front end of a big trip. In younger days I rolled with the punches better, but these days I don’t like last-second changes from a plan.

Lessons learned: First, never, ever use these guys for transportation again. 24-7 Ride says they will shuttle you between Socal airports for reasonable rates. That’s what I needed, because I hate driving to LAX and the parking there is crazy expensive. But it doesn’t say that they are 1000% inflexible. Airline changes your schedule, you change your schedule, anything changes your schedule…their contract says “fuck you, pay me”. So I paid them for nothing and cancelled the ride I had schedule home in a couple of weeks. They even charged me 30% of the estimated ride fee just to cancel, ten days out. Assholes.

But we got an easy Uber ride and the last-second hotel reservation turned out great. Sometimes you get lucky.

We did have an uncomfortable moment upon arrival at Las Palmas airport at midnight. We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel. Based on online maps, I had the impression that the hotel was close to both the airport and the cruise ship terminal. Yes to the ship terminal, nope to the airport. Our taxi driver took us on a wild 20-minute ride at high velocity through parts unknown, driving like Mario Andretti. I began to worry that I had booked us at some ungodly place on the wrong side of the island. So…uncomfortable. But all turned out well, and here we are.

Here’s a shot from the hotel roof this morning. It’s a big, busy harbor. Gran Canaria is home to about 800,000 people, and Las Palmas is where more than half of them live. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but it isn’t the boonies.

Weather is cool and humid, a nice mix. We board the ship later today, and the relaxing part of the journey begins.