Altamira Playa de las Americas

I first visited Tenerife in 1970 with my parents, it was our second holiday abroad. I have been returning ever since. First with my young children, and now just my wife and I. Although the children, now adults in there 20s still ask, 'when can we come'.

A couple of years ago, we bought a second home just outside Puerto de la Cruz, with a view of spending the winter months here in our retirement. In the meantime we come out two or three times a year 'on holiday'.

Ein bisschen wie nach Hause kommen...
im Anflug auf den Nordflughafen kommt der so oft erklommene Teide mit seinen nun allerdings betrachtet ein wenig laecherlich anmutenden 3817 metern in den Blick,
ein Schritt aus dem Flughafengebaeude und man ist in bekannten Gefilden, wartet auf den seit Jahren bekannten Bus und steht eine halbe Stunde spaeter vor dem wohlbekannten Appartement in Puerto de la Cruz...
mit einem eigenen Herd, einem Kuehlschrank ...

... Sharm el Shiekh, Hurghada and Taba Heights) the Arabian Gulf (Dubai, Oman, Qatar and Abu Dhabi), the Indian Ocean (Goa, Maldives, Seychelles, Sri Lanka) the Caribbean Islands ( Antigua, Grenada, Nevis, St Kitts, St ...

... Ronnie zdecydowal, ze musimy isc cos zjesc na stolowke. Jak wrocilismy, 15 minut, i przypomnialo mu sie, ze zapomnial stamtad czegos. Widelcow. "Po co nam widelce, przeciez tyle co jedlismy?" "Zjemy sobie makaron z naszymi ludkami w laboratorium. Oni tak ciezko pracuja, drukujac cala noc..." No tak, byla noc formalna, a z 3 drukarek tylko 1 nam dzialala - juz drugi miesiac. To oznaczalo, ze jesli drukujesz po "formalinie", to bedziesz tkwic w ...

Andy was feeling better after the sleep - his cold is still bad but at least his ear ache is better. Today we just took it easy - preparing for the flight to Barcelona tomorrow. John and Dale did laundry (3E each for wash and laundry!). The weather was overcast with a light drizzle a couple of times so no sun tanning today. I went to a cafe that had free wifi if you bought a drink so I had a couple of cups of coffee as I caught up my blog, surfing etc. It was alot easier than the ...

Today, we caught our tour bus at 8:30 am (man it was tough to get up that early! Yes, we are spoiled...) to Mount Teide. Mount Teide is the highest volcano on the island, at 3700 meters. (for more info see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teide). The 1/2 day took us to the mountain and we paid to go up the cable car to take us to 3500 meters above the sea. The bus was full with about 40 people picked up at other hotels. The ride took about 1 1/2 ...

... relaxing. For lunch, we went to the 'Penny Farthing' restaurant. Not very Spanish but very British. The hamburgers ($4E) were very good as well as the pint of beer ($1.5E). All of the other patrons were watching some football (ie. soccer) game on the telly. For the afternoon, Andy and I just read while lounging on the balcony at the condo. John and Dale walked up the cliff and had a wonderful view of the coast. For ...

... the balcony watching the evening lights come on also helped make for a great dinner. We decided to try a couple of bars we had seen on the internet but when we arrived they weren't open. The 1 bar only opens at 10pm, we were told by an arriving employee and the other after midnite! Well, that's much too late for old ***** like us so we went back home and had a nightcap there.

... around in shorts and a t-shirt. We had lunch on the boardwalk at Chuoky's - half chicken and fries for $4.50E. For dinner, Andy (mostly) and I (helped) made dinner - cous cous with vegetable and chicken on a bed of rocket lettuce. It as very good. After dinner, it was a time for a couple games of Kaiser - Dale and I against John and Andy. We usually lose but I have to note (since this is my journal) that we won the 2nd game 52 to 10 - a crushing win for a change.

... throughout the day and there's certainly more people about compared to yesterday, I even had to wait a while to be seated for my breakfast! By afternoon the wind and seas had subsided somewhat leaving a pleasant day with temperatures around 12-13°C. I've never had so many positive comments about my age before with most people thinking I'm in my 40s, it left me feeling great, until in a moment of vain reflection I realised that they we all ...