Iberostar Hotel Las Dalias 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 ...

... and Tobago The Canary Islands and in particular Tenerife are regularly visited by our staff, I last visited Tenerife in September. During the 4 hour flight from the UK you try to forget that you are travelling to the ...

... the whole photogs mafia went for a lunch to our favourite chinese restaurant. Yep, I spent my Birthday in Tenerife, Canary Islands. And it was a really nice one. I really didn`t need anything else to be happy. But 2 nights later on something totally unexpected happened. It was right after formal night, which technically meant I felt super tired. The only thing I was dreaming of was showering and catching up with sleep. Suddenly Ronnie knocked on my door ...

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 ...

... darker thena the surrounding ground and no vegetation had taken hold yet. We had 1 more stop where we had the 'opportunity' again to buy stuff such as catus berry jam and spreads. We didn't. And then we arrived back to the resort area but it took an hour to deliver all the other people to their hotels before we arrived at ours. While I loved the views, next time we would book a private van or a smaller tour group so we could have more time ...

... 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.

... 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.

... we'd won big time. Thursday 15/01/09 Tenerife - Canary Islands Arrived to a beautiful sunrise and temps of 17-18°C, we went for a full day's excursion of the island today, our tour guide was none other than Diana Moran aka the Green Goddess of BBC fame, another classic example of a professional person with a complete lack of common sense. Having boarded the coach she told the driver to start off and then realised she didn't know how many were on ...