King Alfred the Great

King Alfred ruled Wessex from 871 until his death in 899. His base was in Winchester which he made the capital of England.
He has an impressive statue on the main street of the city, and it was the first thing we saw when we walked in from our campsite.
It is a very blustery and rainy day, so we were very fortunate to disembark from our cruise yesterday after a very calm passage across the Bay of Biscay.
We met some lovely people on the cruise at our dinner table each night, and when we said we were coming to Winchester, they broke out into song. Apparently 'Winchester Cathedral' was a popular tune back in the day!
The Cathedral was very elegant, as was the Buttercross, see pic 3. Our leaflet says that it has been on the Main Street for over 600 years. Strangely, a couple of hundred years later, someone must have thought it a good idea to build a large shop within a couple of feet of it.
Still very beautiful though.

Madeira

Last port of call on this trip today in beautiful Madeira.
We got the bikes out again and cycled along to Camara de Lobos which is a little fishing village. It was a favourite destination of Winston Churchill who used to sit at a viewpoint and paint.
Today there were lots of fish drying in the sun.
In the background are the second highest sea cliffs in the world, but we gave them a miss and just admired them from afar.

Balconies, bananas and boats

Having a bit of a day off today after our exertions of yesterday. We are strolling around La Palma, which is the steepest island in the world.
Another good reason to stick to two feet and no wheels.
Apparently, it is renowned for its beautiful balconies although this example also had a pretty spectacular window box.
It also grows millions of bananas and in the background of the third picture is our boat - Oriana.
Just enjoyed two local delicacies, sangria and new potatoes in a spicy chilli sauce.

Hors category climb

No wonder we were tired after our mountain climbing on Tenerife. This is a screenshot that says we cycled to a height of nearly 1,000 on our little folding bikes.
On Strava which Darren recorded for us, we came 37th out of 39 people to climb to the top. I am really chuffed that we at least beat two people!
Unfortunately, it also told us that we took 2 hours 28 minutes and the fastest person did it in 52 minutes. However, that could easily have been Bradley Wiggins.

Col de Tenerife

I was in two minds when we arrived at Tenerife this morning. Should we catch a tram to the local town and have a lazy day, or should we have a bike ride?
We found a round trip cycle route that we thought might be a bit hilly, but should be a nice bit of exercise, hopefully with pretty views, so we went for that.
We also knew that a lot of the professional cyclists on the Tour de France do their winter training locally, so we would be in good company.
We started with a flat, easy 10 kilometres along the seafront, and then it was a steady 21k climb that took us along all of the roads in the first two photos.
It was beautiful, but also never ending, and we kept thinking after each corner we would reach the top. Eventually we got there, but not before Darren's legs were shaking and I was considering crying.
We then cycled along the ridge at the top of the mountains where we could see right down to the sea on both sides.
The downward ride through the trees was brilliant, although, just like in the Tour de France, I could have done with a newspaper to put down my teeshirt as it got pretty chilly.
Fantastic day overall, although it was easier to appreciate it once we were back at sea level.

Lanzarotte

Arrived this morning at Lanzarotte and we have been trying really hard to find Cesar Manrique's house. Apparently, he is Lanzarotte's most famous son, and the house is built in lava bubbles underground, but we have had to give up as although it is somewhere nearby, we just can't find it.
Instead we have been to a Sunday morning market that seemed to hold the whole of the population. It was almost 16 kilometres gradually uphill so we then freewheeled down through the amazing landscape to the sea.
It looks as if it hasn't rained for years and even the fields are just dry, black soil surrounded by walls made from lumps of lava. Very strange.