Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Saturday we decided was time for a bit more culture and exploring, this time to the south of the city to the old town area with the Casa Colon museum about Christopher Colombus. Christopher Colombus set off for the New World from Gran Canaria and therefore he is celebrated here. The museum is actually the Governor’s House of the period which they believe he would have to had visited in order to get funds, so the link is a little tenuous.
We walked south along the sea front and saw a hive of activity on the southern side of the marina where there is a big water sports centre of some sort. There were lots of people around and it looked like there was to be a race, there is a lot of bank and other sponsorship and everywhere we go in the Canaries there is so much water sport going on everywhere. There were probably 60 dinghies out in the bay racing some larger day boats round the corner racing, everyday off the beach there are windsurfers, sailors, people fishing and lots of local boats just cruising the area, but they really do seem to make the most of their leisure time here.


Active Watersports in the Canaries

We found the old town and visited a thriving 150 year old indoor market with fish, butchers and vegetable stalls busy with locals. We then wandered through the streets of the old town. It is not an extensive area, but the main streets are well preserved and it was really quiet and peaceful there without all the traffic. We soon found Casa Colon and had a look round. It was an attractive building with internal 2 storey courtyard spreading light throughout, ornate wooded sculptured ceilings, large stone archways etc. It appeared as you read those few signs in English that many of the features were reclaimed from various other old building now no longer standing. There were prompt cards in each room with English notes, but it was not the most informative museum, there were quite a few maps about Spain’s influence at the time but little about Colombus and his journey.


Exploring the old town area of Las Palmas

We walked back through the town, which turned out to be miles (literally of shops), we were 2-3 miles south of the city centre, but it seems the shops just extend all the way from the old town to the new. I don’t think there is any danger of the Spanish retail market being affected by the internet, shopping is obviously a big thing here. It was now about 3pm and the shops were closing for the day as we walked and within the space of about 30mins the streets were deserted. We decided to go to the supermarket and stock up ourselves for a quiet night in with a lovely homemade paella with fresh prawns, followed by a DVD.


There are sculptures and parks all around Las Palmas