Gran Canaria - last couple of hours at Canaries
Added: November 02, 2011
We used the last day of our trip until last minute. Literally. We flew back to Gran Canaria afternoon and wanted to go to Palmas de Gran Canaria. Our flight back was scheduled on next day at 6am, which was a bit inconvenient considering a need to find our way to Palmas, look around, find some accomodation to leave it early in the "morning" to gat back to airport.
So we changed our plan at last possible moment and I have studied Lonely Planet to find out what we could do instead while waiting at the airport in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Our new plan has been born - we will rent a car and go to the south of island to check how it looks like.Tenerife - hike at El Barranco de Masca
Added: November 01, 2011
Masca is described in Lonely Planet as a place similar to Macchu Picchu and you could get impression you have just discovered this place if you arrived before 10am. But after 10am, buses with tourists arrive and shops open... They got that after 10am part correctly.
The place is very nice, but small. Fortunately it is not just Masca what you can see here. There is also El Barranco de Masca - a gorge, where you can spend 3-4 hours walking in beautiful and narrow gorge down to ocean. And optionally the same time walking back.
It is time to get some proper and lasting sunshine that summer holiday destination should offer. The best way to achieve that on Tenerife is to go above cloud level. OK, our plan was not exactly to get sunshine, it was just nice to have side effect. We wanted to visit Pico del Teide - a volcano in the middle of the island and also the tallest mountain in Spain.
I usually don't write much about accommodations and I never dedicated whole post just to describe one.
But that is going to change now. Albergue Rural Mamio Verde deserves it as it was most entertaining accommodation we have been to (I need to say we are not looking for fun at hostels and hotels we are staying at. A place to sleep is sufficient).
After we finished our Chinobre walk we went to San Cristóbal de la Laguna. Just a short stop to see its historic center with colorful buildings. It attracts Zuzka as an architect and me as a photographer. We had a lot of green today, it is time to get some reds and yellows too.
On our way to La Laguna we stopped in some restaurant for lunch. To our delight they served a goatling or cabrito in Spanish. We did not prepare especially for this vocabulary, but goat cheese (queso de cabra) was our favourite self-catering stuff, so we were able to recognize it. We like goat cheese and it was much cheaper than in Slovakia.
What else is cheap in Tenerife? you could ask. Well, that is easy - petrol. And car rentals are not expensive too. There are so many competitors there.
We never heard about rain forests in Tenerife. And when you look at a map, it looks like Northwestern part of Tenerife is not interesting at all. Fortunately we had Lonely Planet and it mentions Anaga Mountains in its Higlights section. Especially Zuzka was, for some reason, interested in this region and persuaded me to check it out too.
OK, let's go there, now we just need to find a nice walk over there...
Canary islands are synonym for summer holidays at beach. That is not kind of holiday I prefer (but Zuzka says I will get used to it with time). Regardless, we have been to some beaches on Tenerife.
Not only that, we went to beach on our first day in Tenerife - in the afternoon after visiting Auditorio de Tenerife.
I did not post anything new for a while. There were so many distractions and things to do during last couple of months, I simply could not find enough time (and I still cannot find it for other things, but I am going to post about our recent trips now).
We were thinking about visiting Tenerife while we were still in UK, but at that time we considered just single weekend due to all holidays being spent before. That did not work out well, so we jumped on an opportunity back home when I learned there will not be enough work at my job in May. It nicely coincided with Ryanair opening the route from Bratislava to Gran Canaria in April. We decided to go for a week. Perfect!
Our short 3 day trip to Spain ended in Alicante. It was more convenient and cheaper to flight back from there. Also beach was more conveniently located (regarding train station and bus to airport) than in Valencia.
That suggests we did not see much - after ariving to Alicante we headed directly to beach and stayed there until it was time for return. But looking back, I could take more photos of beach. I just did not want to attract any attention. That means I don't have many photos to show this time.
Important part of Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias in Valencia is oceanographic park. It was designed by Felix Candela and it makes whole complex much more interesting.
I really liked shapes of all those buildings as well as clever passages connecting them, either underground or surrounded by water. And fish and other animals were amazing too. I mean dolphins, penguins, fish of coral reef as well as sharks and sting rays.Architecture of Santiago Calatrava in Valencia
Added: September 19, 2010
It was on Zuzka's radar for years. We have to go to Valencia to see amazing buildings Santiago Calatrava designed in Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias. Nearly before every bank holiday we checked times and prices of flight tickets and this time we liked what we have found. Apart from small detail that more convenient flight back to Bristol was from Alicante. OK, why not? We can see 2 places in 3 days instead of one.
Weather forecast was favourable (if temperatures over 30°C could be named favourable) only later some web sites suggested it will be raining on Sunday. That had an effect on our plans. We will see whole place from outside on Saturday, then we will go to beach and interiors will be left for Sunday. We need to get to Alicante on Monday, let's go there early in the morning and we can spend more time on beach there. Or to climb the hill with castle (but that is not very probable we would like to do that in hot weather).
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