Tenerife

Well I'm back... Just about, after getting bumped from my flight, spending the better part of the day in the airport, having to fly home on a seperate flight to my husband, having no Kosher meal and having to make my own way home on the tube and train. Oh well, there's a week worth of rest and relaxation forgotten already!
But it was a great week. Tenerife -- 'Europe's Carribean' -- is best known, in the UK at least, for a horrible little town called Playa de las Americas, which is a sprawl of hotels, nighclubs and yobbish British tourists, and is probably the tackiest place on earth. The rest of the island (which still belongs to Spain, and is situated off the coast of Africa, 'opposite' Morocco) is magnificent. Firstly, there's the Teide, a snow-capped volcano in the middle of the island, which last erupted in the 1700's, and which is surrounded by a lunar landscape and stunning rock formations (I'm told part of Star Wars was filmed there). We went on a great hike and I hope I'll be able to post some pictures once we've developed them. The North of the island (which is really very tiny-- it only takes a few hours to drive round the whole thing) has lots of little towns with all the authenticity and character Playa de las Americas lacks, and is completely charming. One of its towns, Puerto Cruz, has the highest 'return rate' of tourists in the entire world, according to the Rough Guide. Another town, Santa Cruz, was the site of Lord Nelson's only unsuccesful battle -- and the place where he lost his arm. You can still see 'The Tiger,' the cannon supposedly responsible, in a local museum. Another attraction is a site full of ancient pyramids, which are supposedly the 'missing link' between the ancient Egyptians and Incas. Last but not least, this side of the island also has several beaches -- some with the island's famous black sand, and one stunning white-sand beach, which reminded me, lehavdil, of Sydney's Bondi Beach (lehavdil because all this beach's sand is imported). Which brings me to the island's best attraction, namely, its weather. The Brits were wrong to fight Spain Argentina over the Falklands, they should have gone against Spain for the Canaries instead!
Anyway, back to regular blogging tomorrow. Thanks to my dad for holding the blogging fort. Good night!