Tenerife: 14th December 2009
For the scenery part of the ‘culture, scenery and cuisine’ tour of Tenerife, our bus drove up into the hills, along narrow, winding roads that made me think of the joke about the Spanish bus driver:
‘When the priest preaches on Sunday, everyone goes to sleep. But, when Pablo drives his bus down the mountain, everyone prays!’
There were one or two stops at miradors, or observation points, to admire the view. Unfortunately, low cloud did not permit views of Mount Teide, the dormant volcano that is the island’s highest point. So, sadly, it doesn’t join the list of ‘volcanoes I’ve seen from a respectable distance’, but joins Mount Etna on the list of ‘volcanoes I would have seen, but for the haze’
I did remember the Mike Oldfield song Mount Teide … he got it wrong; it’s pronounced to rhyme with ‘lady’, not ‘side’.
It was starting to seem as if the tours on this cruise were visits to a succession of miradors, but they really are spectacular. The best was called Pico del Inglés … Peak of the English? Did us Brits admire a view any more than other nationalities, or something?
There seems to be quite a lot of forest there which I didn’t expect. Love the joke about Pablo. Sounds like a Sydney bus driver.
By: Selma on June 22, 2010
at 12:29 am
A lot of people have this pre-formed opinion of the Canary Islands as a rather tacky beach resort … maybe perpetuated by visitors who never left the beach areas?
Just shows you’ve got to go and see for yourself, rather than relying on what ‘they’ say.
By: travelrat on June 24, 2010
at 6:33 am