Tenerife Part 2

We enjoyed several more days of relaxation, reading and sun. We both got a massage at the spa in our hotel - yeh! Jason needed one after sleeping in a cramped airplane seat for 6 hours! I got a salt scrub with my massage which was heaven but ended up leading to a sun poisoning rash. L I think the combination of the salt scrub and my skin not seeing sun for about 5 months was not a good combination. I only had it on my feet for the second half of the week and it spread to my hands and neck on the last day but some calamine lotion helped. We had considered traveling to the next island, La Gomera, but it was over 100 Euros and we were not sure if Jason was up to a boat trip yet.

We did find a great British pub for fish and chips – they also had 1 Euro pints which was cheaper then the tiny sodas. We ended up back there for a 2 for 1 burger lunch as well one day -which was excellent. We had a nice dinner on of the last evenings in a cute restaurant- we shared Paella which was also excellent. We loved the cheap food and drink. We found that in the grocery stores you could get beer for as cheap as .17 Euro cents and a ½ liter of box wine for .67 Euro cents. I don’t think .67 Kroner cents could buy you a stick of gum in Norway.

The last day we rented a older convertible and toured the rest of the island. We headed through the middle of the island to El Teide, which is the inactive volcano that created the island. It last erupted in the early 1400’s and it is the tallest point in all of Spain. The ride up was twisty and scenic. We went through several changes in plant life and temperatures. We had our Garmin GPS with us to help with directions but we finally had to turn it off when Garmin took us on a “shortcut”. That shortcut ended up taking us up a tiny road with a 55% incline (no joke) – we ended up meeting a car coming down the hill – Jason did an excellent job of stopping and restarting on the hill in a stick car! Then Garmin wanted us to turn on to a donkey path – not a dirt road but literally a donkey path. So we turned it off and headed back to the marked roads!

El Tiede was pretty impressive – you can take a cable car almost to the top but it was 25 Euro so we just hiked around the base in the cool rock formations for awhile. It was pretty cold (about 50 F) so we hiked quick and headed back to the car. The volcano is neat because you can see the lava flow tracks as they came down the mountain. We then finished the trek across the island to the city of Puerto de la Cruz. This is another tourist beach town but it is less populated and felt much more Spanish which we liked a lot. We had an amazing lunch of Jason’s absolute favorite – Tortilla Bocadillo. Then we headed around the north tip of the island back to the east side. We stopped in Candelaria – which is a tiny town that is famous for it’s basilica, which holds the patron saint of the Islands. Then we went on to tiny town that was built into the volcanic rock and had a tiny volcanic rock beach but an amazing view. Then back to the hotel for our last meal at the British pub for our last burger and beer fix.

Overall the trip was great. The weather was perfect – we got lots of relaxing in and some quality food. We also got some sun and warmth that was much needed. We don’t think we will be back to the Canaries but it was good to see them. Our flight home was a 10am flight. Unfortunately it was full and had tons of kids on it. It literally felt like we were in a kindergarten playground at a few points! Back in Trondheim- all the snow has melted!!! The dogs were excited to see us and Matt and Kathryn who had been watching the dogs had dinner waiting for us- what a great way to return home. Luckily we had Monday off as well – Easter 2 they call it here!