Vegueta, Las Palmas

We'd booked tickets for an orchestral concert this evening, which was on in the concert hall in Las Palmas at 8:30. Las Palmas is the capital city of Gran Canaria, right up the top of the island about as far away as is possible from Playa del Inglés and Maspalomas, and we decided to make a day of it rather than just go up for the concert.

There's a multi-lane highway all the way, and once we managed to get onto this it was plain sailing all the way. Martin, whose place we're staying in, had recommended that we spend some time in the old part of the city, in areas called Vegueta and Triana, so we did as he suggested. We weren't very far away from where we'd left the car when the heavens opened, in the first of several downpours during our time in Las Palmas. Surprisingly, the rain was actually great fun, with the locals getting a great kick out of it and its adding to an already wonderful atmosphere. The first really impressive spot was the Santa Ana cathedral, with a fine square in front of it, then there's the Casa Colón, a building associated with Columbus which houses an excellent museum dedicated to him and his voyages. But the real star is Vegueta and Triana themselves, full of narrow streets, fine old buildings and more atmosphere than seems right to be squashed into a small area.

In fact, we were having such fun exploring that we decided not to go to the concert at all, but to hang on in Vegueta for our evening meal before driving back to Playa del Inglés. Before the meal (in a lovely setting, but not including great food) we spent a pleasant while at a rooftop cocktail bar. It's La Azotea de Benito, and we'd recommend it to anyone who happens to be in Las Palmas.

We got back to Playa around 10:00, pretty tired and not in any mood to finish the night in the usual manner. Another great day, even if we don't know what the concert was like