Atalaya Court Aparthotel 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'.

... Dusche, eigener Toilette, Schraenke und Schubladen in die man sei weniges Hab und Gut einordnen kann...Ordnung halt.
Wahnsinn!!!
Als Naechstes in den riesengrossen Supermarkt in dem man so ziemlich alles kaufen kann was das Travelerherz nun begehrt...doch hier faengt nun wirklich die Eingewoehnung an:
Beim Zahlen an der Kasse muss ich, genau wie die wohlbekannt und gefuehrchtete Oma vor einem in der Schlange, erstmal jede Euromuenze umdrehen um zu sehen ...

... It is an attractive hotel built in an Andalucian style with white walls decorated with mosaics. The hotel faces the sea with two swimming pools, The hotel has a fine reputation for its standard of food particularly in it's ...

... do bialego rana albo i dluzej. Zeszlismy na dol, ale gdy dochodzilismy, Ronnie jakby zwolnil. Tak, jakby chcial, zebym weszla przed nim. Mialam dziwne przeczucie, ze cos sie swieci. Gdy otwieralam drzwi, spojrzalam na niego, a on jakby sie cofnal o pol kroku. Otwarlam, a tam zgaszone swiatla i nagle fanfary "Happy Birthday..." bla bla. Zatkalo mnie. Piekny tort, kolaz zjec, i prezenty. Tego sie nie spodziewalam. Musialam sie powstrzymywac z calej sily ...

... wifi access I was using. Our condo unit was just out of range of a neighboring wifi shop so to get proper signal strength I had to sit on the tile floor behind the wall of the outdoor cafe - not very comfortable.... For the evening, we watched our final sunset with our favourite glass of wine - Jaume Serra Cabinet Sauvignon - Roble 2005 from Spain. ($4.40 E - I'll have to check back home if it's available). John, Dale and I went to Corinto, a restaurant we had visited ...

... because we of course had to stop at a little town for the 'opportunity' to buy local crafts/souvenirs. The tour included a guide who spoke German and English (no Spanish!?) The tour guide sounded like Steven Hawking with a German accent! In a word, he was terrible as we could barely understand him and he seemed so bored and uninterested in what he was reciting. We did learn that the 'Canarian potatoes' are prepared by cooking in sea water which ...

... homemade tapas, we had our John's coconut shrimp, Andy's Cesear salad, 'croquettes' (frozen from supermarket, cooked on stove), bread and cheese, prosciutto and ham, olives and finally, red wine. It was very good and much easier then trying to figure out which restaurant to go to! Afterwards, we played Kaiser again (and drank a wonderful Spanish bottle of cabernet wine) and as usually, John and Andy kicked our butts.

... 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.

... a taxi outside big enough to carry the 4 of us and our luggage (luckily they had station wagons). The taxi driver drove like all taxi drivers - fast. The speed limit was 120 and he went 130. But after the fast 15 minute ride, we arrived at Club Tenerife - the cono timeshare that John and Dale booked (Dale's mother owns a time share that they generously allowed us to share). It is a beautiful 2 bedroom corner end condo unit which has great views of the city ...

... band, ticker tape cannons, and a firework display, all in all a memorable farewell. 18:00 We've just been informed that the weather is forecast to be rough with winds force 7-8 and seas of 4-5m so it'll be interesting. Fortunately our only reservation has been allayed and we been blessed with good company at our dinner table, with 4 of the other 6 doing the whole journey whilst the other 2 disembark at Sydney. Our table's made up of 2 Scots, 2 ...