Las Palmas
Before we went to Gran Canaria this time we had decided that this would be the trip down there when we finally made it to the capital of Gran Canaria: Las Palmas. We’d been to Gran Canaria thrice since April 2006 and every time we’d planned on going to Las Palmas but never found time to do so, and now it was almost starting to get a bit embarrassing not having made it there.
We were so serious about our “project” that we even stayed home the night before (and watched the two first “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies on DVD) to make sure that we would get up in the morning and not be hang over.
The trip to Las Palmas was surprisingly short, a little over an hour on the bus, and relatively cheap as well: about 5 Euros (the reason why I say about is that we paid two different prices going there and then coming back). We had done a little bit of research before going to Las Palmas, and knew that we should get on the double-decker tourist bus to get a sightseeing around the city, and that the house of Columbus, the older part of the city and the shopping centre El Corte Ingles might also be worth while seeing.
When the bus came to Las Palmas we got off at the wrong place according to our plan. We had planned to head to the centre of the city, to the main bus station, and get on the tourist bus from there. However, when the bus came to the bus station in the old part of Las Palmas we thought this bus station looked so big we thought we were in the centre of the city. Anyway, when we discovered where we were, we decided to get on the tourist bus from there – which according to everything we’ve read about it, shouldn’t really be a problem. Want to guess if it was as easy as described in all brochures and on internet?
We asked at the information office at the bus station where we could get on and they pointed us helpfully in the direction of the bus stops. We actually managed to find the right bus stop with the sign for the tourist bus, and we waited. Surprisingly we didn’t have to wait very long before we could see the tourist bus at the lights just 50 metres away, and eagerly we waited for it to pull up. When the light was finally green, what we hadn’t really noticed were the two regular busses in front of the tourist bus, which, as it turned out, also wanted to stop at our stop – and which caused us to disappear behind these regular buses and the tourist bus went on without stopping. So, we waited for the next one to come along, about 20 minutes later – to have the same thing happen to us again. You should think that these tourist buses should take care to wait and then pull over at their stops even if there are regular buses there when they arrive – because I mean – we can’t possibly have been the first ones ever that this happened to? Well, we decided to try for the tourist bus later and rather go on and do the sightseeing bit in this older part of Las Palmas.
We looked at the map and strolled into the city. Very nice old looking houses, and we managed to find Columbus’ house without any problems. This house is apparently a place where Christopher Columbus stayed on several occasions before travelling across the ocean to the new world. There were lots of old maps, and one of the rooms had been made to look like his cabin on board one of the ships. I guess it was fairly interesting, I would’ve liked to have taken some photos, but that was forbidden, so I thought I’d buy some postcards or something at the souvenir shop – but there wasn’t one! I did take a photo of the back of the house because that looked kind of nice.
We walked on to Santa Ana square which is said to be very popular with young people in love. There were hardly any people there at all when we came there, and honestly, I don’t get what’s so special with the square at all. There’s a huge cathedral next to the square, which we both would’ve liked to visit, but it was closed! This was when we decided that we were a bit fed up with walking around looking at old houses, and that NOW was the time for getting on that tourist bus that could take us to the centre of the city and El Corte Ingles.
Before we got as far as back to the bus station we sat down in a very busy pedestrian street with lots of shops for diet Coke and a Fanta Lemon. I got a Coke, my friend got a regular Fanta, they were warm, ridiculously small – and we had to pay about 5 Euros for them!! Which is just extremely expensive.
Oh, well, time to get on the tourist bus… or so we thought… want to guess what happens next????
We had no luck getting on the bloody bus this time either. I might of course just be us, but what on Earth are you supposed to do to get the attention of these busses, run into the middle of the busy 4 lane road when they come driving?
We decided to take a taxi to El Corte Ingles. We scanned the area around us and found that not very far from where we were standing at the useless bus stop – there was written in large white letters on the asphalt “TAXI”, so we assumed that that would be a good place to hail a taxi. Happy about our decision, we walked over there and started looking for taxis. Several of them passed us by while we were waving desperately for attention. Finally, one of them stopped to let a person off and we rushed over. I leaned in and asked, in English, if this taxi was now free. I got a very long answer – in Spanish! So I asked again, in English, “are you free?” but the man did not seem to understand what I was talking about. This was when I tried out one of the few Spanish words I know “libre”? He finally understood what I meant, said a lot of words, still in Spanish, and pointed across the road. Where we could now clearly see plenty of taxis lined up to pick up passengers. Apparently we were at the drop off spot!
Not very much later we arrived at El Corte Ingles.
We had heard a lot about El Corte Ingles before coming to Las Palmas. It is the biggest shopping centre not only in the Canary Islands but in all of Spain: 13 floors of shopping in two buildings. In our heads we imagined a large shopping mall with lots of different stores, and we were very disappointed when it turned out that El Corte Ingles is more like… “Army and Navy” for those of you who know English stores, and like “Steen & Ström” in Norway. Not really our kind of place for shopping at all. But as long as we were there, we decided to have something to eat, so we headed for the café on the 7th floor. This is where we get to the part which I’d like to call:
Don’t Eat There – Part I
The café at El Corte Ingles looks like the canteen in a medium sized industry in Norway. Plastic chairs, and plastic looking tables. There is something very strange with the big room as well, because there were only about 10 people there – but the noise was overwhelming, it sounded like 200. The strangest thing of all though: the waiters were all dressed in black suits – as if they were working in a five star exclusive restaurant. We made the wrong decision of course, and decided to sit down and have something to eat anyway.
We both ordered burgers, cheese burgers and chips. I can with no doubt in my mind say that that is the most bloody awful burger I’ve ever had in my whole life! I have a sneaking suspicion that it had been heated in a microwave oven, it was dry and pale in colour and completely tasteless, and eating it was like chewing on rubber. What I don’t get, if they heated it in a microwave, why on Earth could they not put on the cheese before the put the cursed burger into the oven? Because the cheese, a bit fat slice of it, was cold and had never ever been near anything to heat it. The chips were soggy from fat. We tried but not matter how hard we tried we could not force down the food, and at that price, oh, yes, we did try!
When the meal was over we both needed to stop by the Ladies room just to find that neither of the locks on the two stalls worked! That was when we decided to leave El Corte Ingles behind and never EVER go there again!
We walked from El Corte Ingles towards the centre of the city, without a big plan on what to do next. We checked the time and found we’d been in Las Palmas for a little over 4 hours, and so far we’d been so disappointed in it that we didn’t really feel inspired to try out anything else. Eagerly we headed for the bus station, which we couldn’t find, because it was under ground – but we finally made it there after having asked at an information office. On our way to the bus station we passed the starting point for the tourist buses, where no less than 3 buses were lined up and ready to go – but we were now so fed up we wouldn’t risk getting stranded in Las Palmas. When our bus to Playa Del Ingles arrived, we found that it was 50 Cents more expensive to get home than it was to get to Las Palmas – but we decided it was still a cheap price to get out of there!!
So, that was our trip to Las Palmas. We’ve been there, but didn’t enjoy it very much I’m afraid. I very much realize of course that you can’t really judge a city of 350 000 people based on a 4 hour visit – but I still think you can sense something from the atmosphere of a place whether you like it or not. I don’t think neither of us will ever fall in love with Las Palmas. We might still go back there at some point though, to check out other parts of the city that we just didn’t find energy or enthusiasm enough to visit now – but I don’t expect it to happen in the very near future.
We were so serious about our “project” that we even stayed home the night before (and watched the two first “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies on DVD) to make sure that we would get up in the morning and not be hang over.
The trip to Las Palmas was surprisingly short, a little over an hour on the bus, and relatively cheap as well: about 5 Euros (the reason why I say about is that we paid two different prices going there and then coming back). We had done a little bit of research before going to Las Palmas, and knew that we should get on the double-decker tourist bus to get a sightseeing around the city, and that the house of Columbus, the older part of the city and the shopping centre El Corte Ingles might also be worth while seeing.
When the bus came to Las Palmas we got off at the wrong place according to our plan. We had planned to head to the centre of the city, to the main bus station, and get on the tourist bus from there. However, when the bus came to the bus station in the old part of Las Palmas we thought this bus station looked so big we thought we were in the centre of the city. Anyway, when we discovered where we were, we decided to get on the tourist bus from there – which according to everything we’ve read about it, shouldn’t really be a problem. Want to guess if it was as easy as described in all brochures and on internet?
We asked at the information office at the bus station where we could get on and they pointed us helpfully in the direction of the bus stops. We actually managed to find the right bus stop with the sign for the tourist bus, and we waited. Surprisingly we didn’t have to wait very long before we could see the tourist bus at the lights just 50 metres away, and eagerly we waited for it to pull up. When the light was finally green, what we hadn’t really noticed were the two regular busses in front of the tourist bus, which, as it turned out, also wanted to stop at our stop – and which caused us to disappear behind these regular buses and the tourist bus went on without stopping. So, we waited for the next one to come along, about 20 minutes later – to have the same thing happen to us again. You should think that these tourist buses should take care to wait and then pull over at their stops even if there are regular buses there when they arrive – because I mean – we can’t possibly have been the first ones ever that this happened to? Well, we decided to try for the tourist bus later and rather go on and do the sightseeing bit in this older part of Las Palmas.
We looked at the map and strolled into the city. Very nice old looking houses, and we managed to find Columbus’ house without any problems. This house is apparently a place where Christopher Columbus stayed on several occasions before travelling across the ocean to the new world. There were lots of old maps, and one of the rooms had been made to look like his cabin on board one of the ships. I guess it was fairly interesting, I would’ve liked to have taken some photos, but that was forbidden, so I thought I’d buy some postcards or something at the souvenir shop – but there wasn’t one! I did take a photo of the back of the house because that looked kind of nice.
We walked on to Santa Ana square which is said to be very popular with young people in love. There were hardly any people there at all when we came there, and honestly, I don’t get what’s so special with the square at all. There’s a huge cathedral next to the square, which we both would’ve liked to visit, but it was closed! This was when we decided that we were a bit fed up with walking around looking at old houses, and that NOW was the time for getting on that tourist bus that could take us to the centre of the city and El Corte Ingles.
Before we got as far as back to the bus station we sat down in a very busy pedestrian street with lots of shops for diet Coke and a Fanta Lemon. I got a Coke, my friend got a regular Fanta, they were warm, ridiculously small – and we had to pay about 5 Euros for them!! Which is just extremely expensive.
Oh, well, time to get on the tourist bus… or so we thought… want to guess what happens next????
We had no luck getting on the bloody bus this time either. I might of course just be us, but what on Earth are you supposed to do to get the attention of these busses, run into the middle of the busy 4 lane road when they come driving?
We decided to take a taxi to El Corte Ingles. We scanned the area around us and found that not very far from where we were standing at the useless bus stop – there was written in large white letters on the asphalt “TAXI”, so we assumed that that would be a good place to hail a taxi. Happy about our decision, we walked over there and started looking for taxis. Several of them passed us by while we were waving desperately for attention. Finally, one of them stopped to let a person off and we rushed over. I leaned in and asked, in English, if this taxi was now free. I got a very long answer – in Spanish! So I asked again, in English, “are you free?” but the man did not seem to understand what I was talking about. This was when I tried out one of the few Spanish words I know “libre”? He finally understood what I meant, said a lot of words, still in Spanish, and pointed across the road. Where we could now clearly see plenty of taxis lined up to pick up passengers. Apparently we were at the drop off spot!
Not very much later we arrived at El Corte Ingles.
We had heard a lot about El Corte Ingles before coming to Las Palmas. It is the biggest shopping centre not only in the Canary Islands but in all of Spain: 13 floors of shopping in two buildings. In our heads we imagined a large shopping mall with lots of different stores, and we were very disappointed when it turned out that El Corte Ingles is more like… “Army and Navy” for those of you who know English stores, and like “Steen & Ström” in Norway. Not really our kind of place for shopping at all. But as long as we were there, we decided to have something to eat, so we headed for the café on the 7th floor. This is where we get to the part which I’d like to call:
Don’t Eat There – Part I
The café at El Corte Ingles looks like the canteen in a medium sized industry in Norway. Plastic chairs, and plastic looking tables. There is something very strange with the big room as well, because there were only about 10 people there – but the noise was overwhelming, it sounded like 200. The strangest thing of all though: the waiters were all dressed in black suits – as if they were working in a five star exclusive restaurant. We made the wrong decision of course, and decided to sit down and have something to eat anyway.
We both ordered burgers, cheese burgers and chips. I can with no doubt in my mind say that that is the most bloody awful burger I’ve ever had in my whole life! I have a sneaking suspicion that it had been heated in a microwave oven, it was dry and pale in colour and completely tasteless, and eating it was like chewing on rubber. What I don’t get, if they heated it in a microwave, why on Earth could they not put on the cheese before the put the cursed burger into the oven? Because the cheese, a bit fat slice of it, was cold and had never ever been near anything to heat it. The chips were soggy from fat. We tried but not matter how hard we tried we could not force down the food, and at that price, oh, yes, we did try!
When the meal was over we both needed to stop by the Ladies room just to find that neither of the locks on the two stalls worked! That was when we decided to leave El Corte Ingles behind and never EVER go there again!
We walked from El Corte Ingles towards the centre of the city, without a big plan on what to do next. We checked the time and found we’d been in Las Palmas for a little over 4 hours, and so far we’d been so disappointed in it that we didn’t really feel inspired to try out anything else. Eagerly we headed for the bus station, which we couldn’t find, because it was under ground – but we finally made it there after having asked at an information office. On our way to the bus station we passed the starting point for the tourist buses, where no less than 3 buses were lined up and ready to go – but we were now so fed up we wouldn’t risk getting stranded in Las Palmas. When our bus to Playa Del Ingles arrived, we found that it was 50 Cents more expensive to get home than it was to get to Las Palmas – but we decided it was still a cheap price to get out of there!!
So, that was our trip to Las Palmas. We’ve been there, but didn’t enjoy it very much I’m afraid. I very much realize of course that you can’t really judge a city of 350 000 people based on a 4 hour visit – but I still think you can sense something from the atmosphere of a place whether you like it or not. I don’t think neither of us will ever fall in love with Las Palmas. We might still go back there at some point though, to check out other parts of the city that we just didn’t find energy or enthusiasm enough to visit now – but I don’t expect it to happen in the very near future.
posted by Lena M Bakke @ 5:56 PM
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