First impressions of Tenerife

Getting up at 3am was a bit of a culture shock. I usually get up at 6, so early mornings are a thing I’m used to, but even so I found it quite hard. We got to the airport just after 4, and grabbed breakfast at the airport. The food was slow to arrive, and slightly cold by the time it did, but was still very welcome. Coffee was also achieved, following which there was a painfully slow crawl from the gate to the plane, which ended up taking off about 20 minutes late due to what was described as “carnage” at the airport, but which just looked like mild disorganisation.

I’ve never flown with Monarch before, and I was pleasantly surprised. the seats were comfortable, there was a handy slot for my iPad in the back of the seat in front, and I largely managed to escape into four hours of familiar music (Belle & Sebastian and Cardiacs), as well as taking a few photographs through the window as we were landing. The landing was quite bumpy, but it wasn’t long before we were out of the plane, had collected our baggage, and were standing in the Tenerife sunshine waiting to get a bus to Santa Cruz.

We drove along a coastal road for around 50 minutes, with the sea to our right and a series of impressive looking scenery to our left. One day I will come back to this island for a waking and climbing holiday, but this is not that trip. As we headed north the scenery changed from arid and water starved earth to something lush and greener, and soon we were pulling into Santa Cruz, which I later learned was the capital of Tenerife.

Staying with family always makes for a different sort of holiday, with the differences in this case being reliable internet, a large black cat, and having people around who can show us the sights from the perspective of a local. That quite useful for me, as I usually treat holidays as an opportunity to try and live in a new place for a week, and to make a judgement as to whether it is a place I would want to live for a longer period of time at some point in the future. The jury is still out on Tenerife, but it’s good to know I’m getting better quality data than I manage in a lot of places.

Our first wander around Santa Cruz involved looking at a couple of interesting old buildings, and some statues and sculptures that seemed to combine standard Catholic iconography with something more nautical (as I would expect for an island). There is more history on display here that I had expected, and plenty of things I want to read up on either while I am here or once I get back home. There are also plenty of small cafes and bars to grab a relatively inexpensive coffee or glass of wine, and we grabbed one of each before calling it a night relatively early (getting up at 3am will do that).

I was awake before dawn, and have in fact learned that dawn happens much later than in the U.K. at this time of year. if this is the pattern the week is going to follow then I should have chance to sit and write for an hour or so before the hustle and bustle of the day begins, which should be plenty of time to keep my blog up to date rather than posting a big long essay at the end of the holiday as I’ve done on previous trips abroad.