Dublin and The Canary Islands

We made our first stop in Dublin, Ireland for just one night. We managed to have a good time, despite being very tired from the trip.

REVIEW: JetBlue and Aer Lingus
We made it to Ireland via JetBlue and Aer Lingus. We were impressed with JetBlue airlines. They got to JFK from Buffalo quickly and efficiently. We waited all of five minutes to get our bag as it came right off the carousel. The only complaint we have is their check in process. We thought that using the check in machines located in front of the counter would be quicker. However, their “touch’ screens are extremely difficult to touch. It shouldn’t take THAT much effort to type something in. And once we got up to the counter to check our bag, the woman printed us off our “official” boarding pass. Apparently, if you use the pass printed off the machine, you will have to show ID at the gate. A waste of paper and effort if you ask me. I wish we could say that we were impressed with Aer Lingus, but not so much. It seems that it is more of a discount airline than a regular scheduled airline. It was actually worse than flying a charter airline – Air Transat is actually better. First, there was confusion on whether or not we would be getting a “free” meal on our way to Dublin. For a flight that left at 6:00pm, I figured that we’d get the meal after we reached altitude. I was wrong. After reading in the book that we may have to buy our meal, I wasn’t thrilled as I hadn’t really had much to eat all day. We did end up getting fed, but it was a bit later and there was no brekkie in the morning.

To get on with our Dublin experience, we didn’t have much time so we took the bus and walked around the city as much as we could. We hit the Guinness museum and found out more than we ever wanted to know about the brewing process. I actually got to start my own brew! While the building we were in is not the main brewing factory anymore, they still brew some beer. Eight times a day, they start a brew and have one of the visitors push a button to physically start the brew. I volunteered and was counted down by the control room, which is in a building across the street. I was told that in 9 to 10 days, I’ll be getting an email as to where my brew will be going. It could end up anywhere in the world that Guinness ships to, but not Canada as they brew their own under license, as we were informed. I’ll also find out if mine is regular or extra strong. The last part of the tour includes a fantastic view of the city and a free pint of Guinness from the “gravity bar.” This was nice as the sun was setting and there was a 360 degree view of Dublin.
The next day we were off to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. Since this is winter, the weather in the Canaries isn’t that great. It’s certainly better than freezing temps and snow, but for visiting a group of islands, you’d hope the weather would be at least warm enough to enjoy the beach. The numerous European tourists had no problem jumping in the ocean or a cold swimming pool. We, on the other hand, never even made it into our bathing suits and I had a jacket on for most of the time. We still managed to do and see a lot. On arrival to Lanzarote, it was so covered with clouds that the pilot couldn’t even see the runway! We ended up having to make a second attempt at landing. This was NOT fun. I don’t like flying and when the plane all of a sudden starts to climb when it is supposed to be landing, it’s not fun. It is not fun while the pilot comes on and informs you that she can’t see the runway either. Thankfully, we made it in one piece. On the next attempt, the clouds had cleared a bit and the runway was clear.
The island of Lanzarote is the 4th largest Canary Island. We ended up driving around most of the island during our 3 day stay. And I also learned how to drive a standard car here. It’s always more difficult and more expensive to rent an automatic car in places where standard is the norm. Mark had taken a lesson prior to the trip and he did great. I’ll never make another comment about his inability to drive a stick. By the time we left the Canaries, he had no problems. I, on the other hand, did ok, but still need some practice before I can drive in high traffic and high pressure situations.
Most of the Canary Islands are made up of very touristy resort areas. This is to the Brits and Germans what Mexico and Cuba are to Canadians – cheap vacation spots. There’s not much authentic Canarian cuisine to be had – it’s mostly British or Irish pub food or Italian cuisine.

REVIEW: Lanzarote Attractions
In Lanzarote, there are a couple of sites to visit and we just about hit them all. We drove all over the island visiting small towns and sites along the way. The Cueva de los Verdes is, hands down, the worst thing we have ever paid money for…ever. It’s a cave created by a volcanic eruption. We paid 16 Euros to go with a group of about 60 people and walk through a 1 kilometer cave. You have to be accompanied by a guide even though the cave is completely lit and even has very annoying music pumped in throughout. It was not worth an hour or more of our time and definitely not worth 16 Euros! Our other main excursion was to the Parque Nacional de Timanfaya. This is in a region that was completely destroyed by volcanic eruptions in the 1700’s. There are hikes available, but we went for the regular bus tour. This was better than the Cueva de los Verdes, but still it’s quite exploited for the purpose of tourism. Again, the only way to see it is either by walking or through a bus tour – the majority chooses the bus option. If you go during a busy time, you’ll likely end up waiting a few minutes to catch a bus. The landscape is quite dramatic and this is something worth seeing, especially if you’ve never seen any volcanic craters before. The audio tour that is provided in Spanish, English and German was good, but I could have done without the dramatic Star Wars music at certain points. There’s also a restaurant on the top serving meat barbequed using the heat from the earth below. If you’re lucky and get lost on the way…signage in the Canaries isn’t that great and for such a big attraction, it had very little signs pointing us in the right way…you’ll come across more land that was devastated by the eruptions. You can pull over to the side of the road and explore some yourself. We found a path leading out to a mountain. We aren’t sure if they really allow you to hike by yourself, we did and so did others, but do respect the landscape. Lichens grow all over the volcanic rock and something that took many years to create can take just a few minutes to destroy by stepping on it.

From Lanzarote we took the 30 minute ferry to Corralejo on the island of Fuerteventura. Even though Fuerteventura is a larger island, we still managed to see quite a bit. One of the main attractions is the Parque Natural de Corralejo. The park is home to the impressive sand dunes. You pretty much just drive on the road and pull off when you want to get out and take a look. From there, you wander through the dunes by yourself.
We went from the top of the island to the bottom. Along the cost, there are some beach resorts. The main ones are in the south of the island on the Peninsula Jandia. This is a HUGE resort area. Tons of people, especially Germans. In fact, most signs were in German and Spanish. The beach was nice, although much too cold for us to go in. We enjoyed a walk down the beach, until we encountered a group playing bocce ball – naked. In that area of the beach, most people were completely naked. I’ve now seen more than I ever needed to see.

REVIEW: Binter Airlines
From Fuerteventura we flew to Tenerife on Binter Airlines. It’s an airline of the Canaries and was actually not bad. I’m always a bit nervous flying some random airline and flying in a small prop plane, but this wasn’t too bad. The plane can hold about 50 people or more, so it’s not that small and for what we paid, it wasn’t a bad deal. We got some water, a granola bar and candy. This is way more than we got on our Iberia flights…more about that later. In another note, Binter airlines seems to be connected to the car rental agency Cabrera Medina or Cicar. This agency is all over the island and is the rental company we used. They provided good maps and usually good service.

Tenerife seems to be the most populated of the Canary Islands. In Santa Cruz de Tenerife, it is mostly locals, very few tourists. The tourists flock to the resorts in the south. I enjoyed Tenerife and Santa Cruz the most. We visited some of the tourist resort areas and we also headed to the big attraction – Parque Nacional de Teide. Teide is the highest peak in Spain at 3700 meters. It’s very impressive and we were disappointed that we couldn’t go to the peak. Actually, we couldn’t even get close. It was closed due to snow on the peak. There’s a cable car that will take you within 200 meters of the peak. At that point, if you have a permit, you can climb to the top. Apparently, even though it’s only 200 meters, it takes about 20 minutes. We also weren’t able to see the top as it was covered in clouds. It was freezing up there as well. Close to zero Celsius. On the way back, we were driving through the clouds as they had descended lower as the weather got worse. It’s pretty scary to be driving on a mountain roads with cliffs on one side and not be able to see a thing!

REVIEW: Iberia Airlines
Our original tickets did not allow for a stopover in Dublin or in Madrid. However, we knew we wanted to stop in those places. Changing the flight out of Dublin was no problem. Changing the flight into Madrid turned into a nightmare. On arrival at the airport in Fuerteventura, we went to the Iberia reservations desk. It’s always a pain to make phone calls in foreign places and we thought we would just do this from the airport. Well, it only takes one person to misunderstand and mess things up and we found that one person. He was very nice and it’s not his fault, but it really was a pain for us. He cancelled us off our flight from Tenerife to Madrid and couldn’t book us on a new one because of a technicality. This meant, we had to call American Airlines in the U.S. to fix it. Except that they wouldn’t fix it either as the guy at Iberia had done something so that only someone from Iberia could put us on a new flight…but no one at Iberia would do this because of a stupid mistake that AA made when originally writing the tickets. This cost us mucho Euros and time to fix. We were finally put on a flight to Madrid and got our stopover. And here goes my review of Iberia – they are, by far, the WORST airline we have flown! How they can be considered a scheduled airline is beyond me as we’ve gotten more “frills” from a no-frills airline than we did with Iberia. We arrive at the airport in Tenerife to a ticket agent who had no idea what she was doing. She was hesitant to put us on the plane. After that, she couldn’t figure out where our bags should go to – Madrid or Cairo. Even though, the computer clearly showed that we were ONLY going to Madrid that day. Next, the flight is delayed for an unexpected amount of time. Because the room at the gates in the Tenerife airport is non-existent, most people scatter. We are able to board earlier than expected, but not many announcements are made. Hence, people take their time getting on the place. Once again, we lose our spot to take off and have to wait. At this point, it’s well past lunch and Mark and I haven’t eaten anything. Hoping that we will at least get a snack on the plane and something to drink. We get nothing! If you wanted a drink of anything at all, you had to pay. As well as for snacks. Not impressed at all. There’s absolutely no entertainment either. Our flight to Cairo from Madrid was awful as well. The leg room was equivalent to a charter airline and again, no entertainment besides the horrible elevator music they piped in that only had about 6 songs on rotation. The planes were old – or at least looked it as they were filthy. Especially the plane from Madrid to Cairo. It was horribly filthy.
After being delayed, we didn’t arrive in Madrid until the evening and we were tired and hungry. We walked around a bit, but I didn’t get to see much. The next day was spent organizing our hotel for Cairo. I got to visit the Prado museum, but after that it was time to get to the airport for our flight to Egypt.