Alcohol Free Days
And so, following an exceptional night’s sleep, we find ourselves on our first full day in Puerto de la Cruz. The weather forecast is wrong … again. There is no rain – just beautiful sunshine. It
Black sandy beaches!
did rain in the evening for about 3 minutes, but that was it! Following a leisurely breakfast, (sausage, bacon, egg, beans, mushrooms and a small loaf to accompany it), Captain Clarke and I decide to take the courtesy bus from the hotel into the main town of Puerto de la Cruz. We have been here before, but it was 23 years ago and neither of us have any recollection of what it was like. A certain FD was correct, our hotel, beautiful though it is, is definitely on a very steep hill. The journey down to the town in the courtesy bus demonstrated just how steep the hill is! However, having arrived in the town we took a walk along the promenade to where I vaguely remembered us having stayed previously. I had forgotten just how black the black sand really is!
There is no tonic in this glass yet!
We enjoyed a stroll around the town and stopped for a small drink along the way. I had an acai berry juice, (not to be recommended but apparently very good for you!), and Captain Clarke had a small gin – well, actually a gin that you could either drink or go swimming in, it was so big!! Following Captain Clarke’s gin we took a walk around the shops. I wanted to procure some shorts. I have shorts but since we weren’t planning a holiday, I left them in France on our last visit. I ordered some new shorts online, but because of the complete carnage of traffic jams in the village on Thursday, my friends at Amazon failed to deliver them. So we wandered around the shops and found a shop selling shorts that fit me, (no mean feat!), and at a price that was very agreeable. One thing we have discovered here is that everything is very cheap.
Captain Clarke’s brandy!
It seemed only right that we should stay in town for a spot of lunch. Having toured around a myriad of different bars and restaurants we were eventually lured into a bar by a rather brash lady from Oldham! We were perusing the menu outside when we were accosted by her. We thought we were smart in suggesting to her that we were looking for a ‘Pepito de Lomo’ which wasn’t on the menu. To our surprise she went and asked the bar owner if he could do us a Pepito de Lomo and he said yes. We were then left with no option but to stay for lunch. Actually the lunch was very good – the pepitos were exactly as they should be, the wine was tasty, the coffee good and, once again, Captain Clarke managed to procure himself a brandy which, frankly, he could swim in again! The whole lunch cost us a massive €20! Following this exorbitantly expensive lunch, (not!), we took a taxi back to the hotel at a cost of €3.45 – it is almost embarrassingly cheap here and one feels slightly guilty at not giving more!
A pond in the hotel grounds
Now, about this hotel. Firstly, let me say that there are not many 5 star hotels in Tenerife and that this one came as a bit of a deal. Expedia really did come up trumps on this. Apparently, when the King visits the Canaries he always stays at this hotel – though this doesn’t seem to be the hotel’s proudest claim as whenever we have heard mention of the hotel, (both in the town and within it), we have consistently heard that ‘Michael Jackson stayed at the Botanico when he was in Tenerife’! Apparently that was somewhat better than Royalty! In order to give you a flavour of the hotel, I have added a small gallery below. Suffice to say that it is stunningly beautiful and that both inside and out are exquisitely, (oh crumbs, I’ve used the ‘E’ word!), decorated. The gardens of the hotel are beautiful with strelitzias growing abundantly as are crocosmias, croton plants and a variety of palms and other plants.
A Thai meal in the hotel!
Now, the observant amongst you, (are there any), may have noticed in my rumblings of yesterday that there was a buddha in the photo of the hotel lobby. Actually, the observant amongst you may notice that there is a propensity of items around, the hotel that would be more usually seen in Thailand. There is a reason for this. Completely unbeknown to me when booking the hotel, it transpires that the hotel is actually owned by the Thai Ambassador to Spain! There are strong ties to Thailand both in the hotel and also in the town of Puerto de la Cruz. The hotel has Thai artefacts throughout and one of the five restaurants in the hotel is called the Oriental and is, of course, Thai. We decided to eat there on our first evening and had a thoroughly enjoyable meal.
Our hire car
And so, dear friends, I promised a look at our car. I should admit at this point that having parked it on Thursday evening, we have not touched it since. Although there may be a plan afoot for an excursion to ‘El Corte Ingles’ later today which is in Santa Cruz – a short drive away. The car is great, although we have no idea how to turn things on and off in it and we have no idea where we are going the majority of the time. El Corte Ingles for those that don’t know, is probably the best shop in the world! It is a chain of stores that are spread throughout Spain, but it is absolutely the best place to buy almost anything. No self respecting visitor to Spain would leave without a trip to El Corte Ingles! I did think we would need the car to enable us to visit the Botanical Gardens, (somewhere I am looking forward to going to), but it turns out that the clue is in the name of the hotel – the hotel Botanico is next door to the Botanical Gardens!
A small Ficus Benjamina
Talking of Botanical Gardens, I cannot resist an opportunity to share with you a photograph of a small Ficus Benjamina. Those of you that are familiar with the world of Migration Confusions will know that in the corner of Mr Manning’s office is a wonderful Ficus Benjamin Variegata. Mr Manning has recently taken it under his wing and is nurturing it to flourish in its new surroundings. It make take a few days, but I am quite sure that in the fullness of time he will have it looking just as this one does – although we might need to build a somewhat larger office! Anyway, that is quite sufficient ramblings for one day. We are off shortly to watch a demonstration on how to make ‘Papas con Mojo Picon’ – although exactly what there is to demonstrate about potatoes cooked in salted water with a parsley or spicy sauce, I really don’t know!
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