Hotel Jardin Tropical 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 ...

... Jedyne o czym marzylam, to o prysznicu i pojsciu spac. Ronnie zapukal do mojej kabiny. Jego wspollokator mial goscia, spytal, czy moze tu posiedziec. No jasne. Jak bralam prysznic, to slyszalam, ze odbiera dzwoniacy telefon. Pomyslalam: "zdurnial? odbierac telefon z MOJEJ kabiny? czy nie wie, jak szybko plotki sie rozchodza na statku? Nim zdazysz umyc zeby, cale 700 osob zalogi bedzie wiedzialo, kto byl u mnie w pokoju." Ale jak wyszlam spod ...

... thoughts on Tenerife - it has great weather and it's an easy life - but it has a retirement home feel, especially where we were staying. There isn't much Spanish culture here - the most culture is that 'created' by the British tourists and the businesses that cater to them. Maybe the other islands would be a little more interesting. Santa Cruz was interesting but it's weather isn't as good as in the south.:-), Goodbye Club Tenerife - Diamantes II condo - back to hotel living....

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 ...

Today was all about suntanning and homemade tapas. First we decided to walk to the cliff just to the west of our condo and try finding a secluded suntanning spot along with a little exploration. We walked along the beach and then across a rocky patch until we were at some cliffs with gigantic boulders beneath them. It was very quiet where all you could hear were the waves crashing against the shore and rocks. It was ...

Today we just walked around the beaches and shopping areas of Los Cristianos and Los Americanos - the 2 resort areas of the southern tip of Tenerife. It looked like it was going to rain in the early afternoon but it again cleared up and was a beautiful 20 degrees. Andy and I had a wonderful pistachio ice cream cone on sitting on a bench by the beach. We also had a lousy burger ...

... 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.