Tenerife Day 6

A really challenging day! We had an early breakfast as we had a scooter to collect at 9:30, but things are never that simple are they..... At the bike rental place the guy said that there had been a mistake and the 250 scooter was unavailable until tomorrow.... but we could have a 180cc Piaggio. I told him we wanted to go up the mountain, and asked if this bike was up to it.... he eyed Jan and I up and said “the 250 will be available on Sunday”.

“Sunday is no good, we're leaving then”, I explained, I also pointed out that as they'd messed up perhaps they could let us have the BMW 650 instead, at no extra cost?,,,,, Yes! So off we pootled, up Mount Teide on the “Beemer”!

It has been overcast all day, the worst day of the week actually, and as we climbed into the hills it got cold and miserable, in fact it got so misty as we entered the clouds that I considered turning back. We broke through the mist, and the weather was beautiful at high altitude, we were actually above the clouds and the sky was fantastically blue.

We had a great ride, I was very impressed with Jan siting on the back like a seasoned veteran! The roads were clear and smooth and the views were magnificent. We got to the cable car base, (which carries you up to the summit if you so wish – although it wasn't running due to the strong winds), and had a break.

Coming down was a bit bleak, the clouds were thicker and so it took a while to get through them, and I was frozen by the time we reached sea level – no gloves or biking kit remember, we had to stop at a cafe to thaw out!

We have returned safely to the hotel and are chilling out now, where to go for our last evening meal is the pressing problem now.....

Tenerife Day 5

A bit of a change today, we decided to go for a trip along the coast, to a resort called “Los Gigantes”. The name refers to the towering cliffs above the sea - (The Giants). Anyway we took a service bus and the journey was just under an hour, we hadn't thought about it, but as today is Good Friday, a holiday in Spain, the bus was very busy with locals, we couldn't get the first bus that stopped, it was full, but eventually we made it.

The trip was worth it, Los Gigantes was a nice place, I thought of it as a Spanish Whitby, more older buildings and some really twisty little roads – a nice harbour with big fish swimming about the boats.

It was late afternoon by the time we returned so no poolside chillin' today, after a siesta in the room it's off to find somewhere to eat......

Tenerife day 4

Wow! The excitement has been difficult to bear! Today we went on a tourist “bus”, (meant to look like a little steam train), around the resort.... We saw all the sights, the tacky boutiques, (including a Thai Sex shop no less!), the apartments and time-share units, the authentic “Irish” pubs, (with “live folk music, Mon, Wed, Fri”), more boutiques and plenty of pastey tourists... Oh the culture and history!

Any way I had a hair cut and now look dapper and well groomed..... so no change there eh?!

Jan fancied a trip to a Water park type place, so we made enquiries, seems that the “Loros Parque” is quite a journey away, so it may not happen, we'll see how we feel tomorrow.

Took some Bobby Bear pictures for school.. on the bus ride, and at the poolside.