A Proper Excursion …

A side street in Puerto de la Cruz

Today, Captain Clarke and I decided that we should visit another part of the island to see what it is like. Of particular interest to me was the south because the majority of holiday offers are for that part of the island. We jumped in our trusted mini and set off. I must say that the roads here are very frustrating. On the motorways there are a mixture of drivers that either drive terribly slowly or ridiculously fast with very little in between. By way of example, on a 3 lane motorway with a speed limit of 120kmh, if you take the inside lane you will very quickly find yourself sat behind a vehicle doing 70kmh and with no way of pulling into the middle lane because there is a car right beside you doing 72kmh. If, on the other hand, you pull into the outside lane and are doing 120kmh, you will find that in seconds a car is right up your tailpipe wanting to do 160kmh! Pull into the middle lane and you’re back to the first problem!

Anyway, an hour and twenty minutes after departing Puerto de la Cruz we found ourselves in the streets of Playa de las Americas. Problem 1 – there is absolutely nowhere to park, it is rammed to the hilt. Problem 2 – there doesn’t appear to be any road that actually leads to the ‘playa’. Problem 3, (the biggest problem) – what a dump! Every street seemed to be occupied by either Brits or Germans wearing string vests and speaking like they came from an uneducated Essex! We had managed to find a space, (miles from anywhere), to park and decided to walk through Playa de las Americas. I don’t think we saw one bar or restaurant with a Spanish word on the menu or in the name. A truly dreadful experience! We won’t be returning there!!!

Plaza del Charco

We returned to our car forthwith and drove to Los Cristianos, (about 2 minutes drive). Now, I must say that Los Cristianos looked much better than Playa de las Americas. I say ‘looked’ because we never actually stopped. We could literally find nowhere to park the car. Many years ago Captain Clarke had been to Los Cristianos and stayed in an ‘Aparthotel’ called the ‘Cristina Apartments’. There are still there, but look pretty run down. He kept telling me that they were surrounded by scrub land when he stayed there – I kept having to remind him that that was over 30 years ago!! You may be wondering where the photos are of Playa de las Americas or Los Cristianos – there are none. Firstly, I wouldn’t want to ruin my camera in Playa de las Americas, (I’m sure that photographing anything there would break the lens), secondly, we couldn’t stop in Los Cristianos, so we took none there.

When we lived in Spain some 25 years ago, we used to be forced to go on what we called, ‘Compulsory Jollies’. A trip to the south counts exactly as one of those! We headed straight back towards Puerto de la Cruz and civilisation. On our way back I took a slightly wrong turn and ended up in Santa Cruz. Captain Clarke was busy trying to tell ‘Siri’ to find us directions back to Puerto de la Cruz, but he didn’t need to – I instantly recognised that I was in the road where El Corte Inglés is to be found, so I knew my way back from there!

Part of the Promenade

Driving back we were a little peckish and in need of a cup of coffee, (we had originally intended to have lunch in the south, but soon abandoned that idea!), and along the road was advertised an ‘Al Campo’ store. ‘Al Campo’ is a huge hypermarket chain in Spain. It is of a reasonable quality, but what is really good about Al Campo is that they almost always have a bar within the complex that will sell the most amazing coffee and tapas because generally only locals go there. It transpired that this particular Al Campo is very close to Puerto de la Cruz, so we decided to go there and get a coffee and a bite to eat. As we approached it we saw it from the motorway and took the signposted exit. We then spent the next 20 minutes trying to find the entrance, (or ‘Entrada’)! When we eventually found our way in we discovered that it is a huge complex with about 50 shops as well as a very large Al Campo. You will recall that I said that they almost always have a bar within the complex that serve superb coffee and tapas – almost, but not in this one! We went to a bar outside the complex, but the coffee was average and they did no tapas. Rather disappointing really. We did have a quick walk around the complex and Captain Clarke managed to find a new shirt, (which he was rather disappointed he had to procure in an ‘Extra Large’ size!).

And so we returned to our hotel. Relieved to be back in the north and in Puerto de la Cruz and somewhat tired from a long day excursion. Captain Clarke took to his bed for an afternoon nap whilst I sat on the balcony and read a little. It was all rather pleasant and reminded me that I really do love Spain – just not all of it!

The other end of town

For our evening meal we decided to return to the main town of Puerto de la Cruz. We took a taxi from outside of our hotel to the Plaza del Charco in the town. (Still only €3.45 – how do these people make money?!) We didn’t actually want to go to the Plaza del Charco, but it is the only address we know and it isn’t far to walk in the town! We walked through the side streets to the main promenade and had a walk past the restaurants there. I say walk, Captain Clarke was clearly not interested as he almost marched past them! On a slightly slower stroll back I did discover that almost every restaurant had its own live entertainment and that quite a bit clashed with others! What I also discovered was that the clientele tended to be of a certain age and many chose do dine and dance in the restaurants. I commented such to Captain Clarke – “I think you need to be of a certain age to eat at these restaurants”, I said. He replied, “Oh, so you want to stay here then do you?”. Amazingly he is still walking this morning! How dare he!!!

Restaurants for those of a ‘Certain Age’

After Captain Clarke’s vicious remark about my age, (he is also over the age of 50, but conveniently forgets this from time to time), we returned to the Plaza del Charco. You may recall we took lunch in a restaurant where a rather brash woman from Oldham worked. We decided that, as she doesn’t work nights, we might try it again as the food was good and the prices very reasonable. (She really is rough – she put the ‘U’ into ‘Ugly’ and the ‘R’ into ‘Rough’!) Anyway, we returned to the restaurant, (El Compostelana), for our evening meal. Sad though it is, I really fancied plain old chicken and chips, (and for those who think I eat nothing but chicken it is the first I have had since getting here!), and Captain Clarke fancied pork loin and chips. Jolly good it was too! We decided that as we had taken no photos of the south, we would include a few of Puerto de la Cruz in the evening.

Right, enough ramblings – we are going into town this morning for a wander around the shops and then a spot of lunch. I shall report on our findings in due course!