Melenara Beach, in Gran Canaria, makes us feel like kings of the sea for at least a day.

Sculptor Luis Arencibia carries the sea in his piercing stare, as did poet Rafael Alberti. The Atlantic glint in his eye has an explanation and an origin. As a boy, the artist used to swim out to the point of volcanic rock that poked out over the sea on the south side of Melenara Beach, in Telde (Gran Canaria). Many years later, Arencibia would create a four metre high bronze sculpture of Neptune that still towers over the area to this day, and which allows the lord of the seas to look out over his kingdom from his watch tower.