It is Gill's birthday today and I am pleased to say the holiday has improved from the first few days.
Yesterday we drove to Puerto de la Cruz which the guidebook describes as "A charming resort", pictured right.
I suppose some people might describe Blackpool as charming, we would not. The place is surrounded by high rise hotels, has lots of places selling inflatable crocodiles, English breakfasts, kiss me quick hats and English newspapers (they are printed locally so you can keep up to date with The Sun). The pavements and swimming areas were a bit smarter than the other resorts but it was not a place we would want to spend more than an hour.
Things improved in the afternoon when we arrived in La Orotava, a town famous for it's 16th century houses and a lovely botanical garden. We were staying in one of the oldest houses in the town, picture left, and for some reason were given a two bedroom suite, perhaps they thought we would argue in the night. The only snag is the streets outside are cobbled so whilst the cars drive slowly their tyres make a lot of noise and our bedroom overlooked the street so we did not get as much sleep as we would have liked despite and enormous dinner, some nice wine and over generous gins in the G&T's.
Today we have moved onto another old town called La Laguna which as well as having hundreds of old buildings has a couple of interesting museums which kept us occupied this afternoon.
As it is Gill's birthday we have pushed the boat out a little and are staying in quite a swanky hotel for two nights, tomorrow we will probably explore the far north of Tenerife before moving onto Santa Cruz for a night or two and then onto another island, not sure which yet.
Just to really annoy you all, the temperature has been in the 30's and, once the early mist clears the sky is blue.