Canarian sun (?)

The typical UK weather in January / February isn't too appealing really. So, until we are berthed permanently somewhere warmer, we tend to try and find a spot in the Canary Islands for a couple of weeks winter sun - but by plane. This year, Tenerife was the lucky recipient of our cash / time -mainly because the crew's mum was going to be out there for her 80th birthday and we thought that we would take her out for the day.

Flying from Cardiff airport was as easy as last year. Why they get all 180 passengers to queue up at a gate with vestigial seating so long before the plane is ready to board in such a tiny airport is beyond us though. The whole organisation there is unimpressive - upon our return they took over 45 minutes to deliver the first piece of luggage and they only had one plane to worry about! Think we might try Bristol airport in future...

So, what did we find? Well, after our trip across Loch Ness last summer, we were surprised to find the Loch Ness restaurant complete with a superfluous hyphen. Since when was pizza a traditional highland Scotland dish?

Our hotel was near Los Gigantes, home to some of the tackiest trip boats we have witnessed:

The crew had attempted some sort of pirate dress code too. All a bit much for our tastes....

The real joy of the Canary Islands at this time of year is to be able to wander around in a T shirt and shorts without getting your bits frozen. Even though they were reporting the coldest winter on record (overnight temperatures down to 13 C) we were fine - it just wasn't as sunny as in prior years. The walks and little villages were as nice as ever though. Los Abrigos has some good artists:

One sad part is the number of abandoned part completed new buildings. This one had found a niche though, acting as a home for dead and decaying fishing boats:

We picked up the crew's parents from their hotel and took them to Garachico, a lovely little town. They looked pretty active and happy despite the cloud cover:

The crew needed to check and see if the horse that took us on a little carriage ride was real:

Yes, it was - it drank, ate and then produced suitable waste products into the dinky little bag you can just see behind it in the picture.

The capital, Santa Cruz, is a delightful place. Lovely old buildings, friendly feel, sensible priced car parking and cheap coffee:

We really like the place even if the shops shut early on Saturday - all very civilised compared to our 24 hour UK shopping opportunities. One drawback of the island is that dog owners tend not to clear up after their pets at all, despite nice reminders like this one:

No trip to Tenerife is complete without doing two things. One is a visit to Teide, the mountain / volcano that pretty much formed the island. Beautiful views and sun as we were above the clouds - yes our little Citroen hire car had quite a climb that day. Here are some impressions:

What is the second "must do"? Well, you will have to contain your thirst for knowledge for a while. That treat will be in our next post.