Sunday May 19, 2024 – Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Today Sunday, we are in Santa Cruz Tenerife Spain, and as we have been here before we opted not to take any tours and go on a short walk into town, find a church as it was Sunday, and wander around and see what there was to see. A fun day, totally different from the rush, rush, rush of the tours of other cities, enjoying a wander around the town. Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the capital city of the island of Tenerife, which is the largest and the most populated island of the seven principal Canary Islands having a landmass of over 2 thousand square kilometers and just under 1 million inhabitants, which is about 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. We docked, port to the dock on the inner harbour dock, which is always better as one can easily walk into town. Last year we docked on the outer dock on the larger Queen Mary II, and had to take a five minute shuttle bus to the entrance of the port as we were not permitted to walk from the dockside to the entrance of the port. From the entrance to the port area, there are a couple of bridges over a busy dual carriageway and you’re right in the center of town. The Plaza España, one of the principal squares in town, has a large circular pond and very attractively done with some monuments and cafes.
Today after breakfast in the Britania, where we had a chance to see and chat with Nikolai, we left on our own after all of the crowds had boarded their coaches and walked up a couple of side streets to find the Catholic Church that Anne had found – of the Parish of Saint Francis (La Parroquia de San Francisco) and being Pentecost Sunday it was an important day to be attending church. It is a very attractive church very ornate, which is uncommon amongst the Franciscan Order but really gorgeous. The microphone system wasn’t working well so it was difficult to understand the priest, but we were able to have a nice church service. Being Sunday, as we started wandering around the streets, we found that many of the shops and cafes were not really open. We managed to enjoy a coffee at one place that was open, and eventually found a pedestrian street (Alfonso Betancourt) where we had had a very nice meal last time (April 19, 2023). We found that restaurant – Lateral 27 – but it was all closed up being Sunday. We then wondered around and eventually walked over a bridge (Salvador Valentin Sanz) and found a thriving market (Mercado de Nuestra Señora de Africa – La Renova). Inside the building, they were the usual stalls selling meat, chickens, vegetables, and so on and the place was crowded with locals all getting their food for the week or at least for the day. Just outside the building for about four or five blocks there was an open air market where anybody could put up a little tent and sell whatever they happen to want to sell. There were clothes stalls, coins, old tools, telephones, antiques, paintings, indeed anything you could possibly think of including fake Rolex watches, fake designer clothing, and so on. Lots of fun to be amongst the local people wandering around looking for a bargain, or that special item. As we walked through the market, we found a luggage stall and decided we needed to replace the suitcase (from Malaysia) that had been broken when we boarded the ship a couple weeks ago. We really only needed the large one, but we bought the three all nesting inside each other so for the rest of the afternoon we were wheeling that around, but it wasn’t too bad as all we were doing was going to have a meal and then getting back to the ship.
We eventually made our way back to the Main Street where we had eaten last time and found a different restaurant – The Eagle – (El Águila – Plaza Alferez Provisional, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 38002 España; +34-922-27-31-56; http://www.elaguilarestaurante.com )- and enjoyed tapas with some local beer. Total walking today was 9.4 Kilometers.
Once back on the ship, we had some tea, Anne went to do some exercise and then off to dinner and the show which featured John Evans. I believe we’ve seen him before as he is Liverpool‘s most sought after comedian and he really is very amusing. He has done lots of television appearances and performed on many ocean vessels. So a good day, very different from what we had done before but a nice way to just wonder around and see what there was to see in Tenerife
Roger & Anne Travels 