Gran Canaria 2

More on our long weekend in Las Palmas. Below find two different views of the island as seen when we drove around. On a clear day one can see Tenerife, another of the Canary Islands. This is a golfers' paradise since you can play every day of the year, Spain's first golf course was inaugurated here in the late 1800's .

Left above: this is a picture of the old town near the cathedral. Didn't see anything spectacular but small, colorful, well- kept colonial buildings. Some still kept the carnival decorations in the balcony! Carnival is a long-standing tradition on the island.

Find below the governors' house where Christoph Columbus is supposed to have lived while he stopped in Las Palmas to get food supplies for his trips to the new continent. And then there is a snapshot of the patio inside, "stolen" at the entrance as they didn't allow pictures inside. The small palace houses nowadays a museum with permanent exhibition rooms, a library and study center as well as several spaces reserved for temporary activities, such as lectures, seminars and exhibitions. On display are pre-Columbian artefacts, ship models, a replica of a cabin of 'La Niña', one ship of Columbus' fleet, navigation instruments, nautical maps and charts, paintings as well as many other items related to voyages made by the famous navigator and the history of the Canaries and their relationship with the Americas. Notice the blue bikes outside : they belonged to a large cruise company.

Many cities around the world have chosen one sculpture to repeat around the city: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has the "dogo canario", the canary dog. The oversized sculpture of this dog (horse size!) can be seen in all colors and decorations. Last, but not least, a culinary specialty: papas arrugadas which are small potatoes, boiled in little water with sea salt and covered with a damp towel, this way they "sweat" and the skin is wrinkled ("arrugadas"). They are normally served with a typical sauce called mojo picón ('mojo' meaning 'sauce' in the local dialect), pictured here with a spoon, made with fresh coriander, cumin, hot pepper, sweet pepper, olive oil and vinegar. Perfect anytime!

Update: Just because everybody is doing it:
In a few hours on wednesday at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be
01:02:03 04/05/06

The countdown in central Europe: