Sunday – Santa Cruz, Tenerife
Today, we arrived in Tenerife.
Although it was a little overcast, and cool out on deck, to start with, the clouds dispersed throughout the morning, with blue skies by lunchtime.
We had no specific plans for Tenerife other than to head ashore and take a walk around, seeing whatever there was to see. A free shuttle bus took us from where the ship was berthed to the town, and we walked it from there.
It being Sunday, our hopes of encountering much activity, or finding places open, weren’t very high. A small craft market engaged us for a while, though, and we headed towards a large church in the centre of the town that looked like it might be interesting. A service had just come to an end, so we went in to look around, and found it to be quite impressive… so far so good…
After this, we came across a museum. As far as we could tell, it was a Natural History Museum, but with a distinct lack of English translations in the Reception area, and a 5euro entrance fee, we decided to keep our money in our pockets. There was a small cafe there, though, located in a pleasant, quiet quadrant; best of all… it was advertising free wi-fi… so we stopped there for a while, drinking tea and coke, and eating crisps, and checking up on emails.
After this, we decided to head towards one of Santa Cruz’s most prominent sea-front landmarks; the Opera House. Along the way, though, we came across what looked to be a small street market. As we entered it, however, it seemed to grow, and pretty soon we realised that we were experiencing an extremely large market that spanned many streets… and it was brilliant!!
Not only was it heaving with people (so THIS was what the good people of Santa Cruz get up to on a Sunday… it was like the Sunday Market at Catterick Racecourse, back home – only 10 times the size!!), but some of the stalls were selling some amazing vintage stuff. The stalls just went on forever; one street after another; then a crossroards, then more stalls as far as the eye could see…. it was awesome.
After the excitement of the market, which easily occupied a good couple of hours of our time, we finally reached the Opera House. What’s remarkable about it is that it vaguely resembles Sydney Opera House in its design, with barely a straight wall in the structure, and a huge, curling, pointy roof.
We spent a long time walking around the building, marvelling at the architectural achievement and photographing it from every angle we could find, before settling down at a table in the Opera House cafe. It was all rather lovely, sat there, looking out at the sea and the coastline, eating a chicken salad sandwich and drinking a very cool, and very welcome, beer (the sun was quite hot by now, and it finally felt like we were in The Canary Islands).
For all its creative statement and high-brow interior though, I have to say that the service in the cafe was truly abysmal. It took ages for the waitress to take our order (and it’s not like they were busy), and one or two visitors clearly got tired of waiting and left before being asked what they’d like to order. In contrast, one of the waitresses seemed to have taken it upon herself to wait on only one table, of four young men… there did seem to be a lot of flirting going on, and every order to their table was completed promptly and without fuss… hm….
It’s been an absolutely lovely day in Tenerife. The market itself was worth the visit, and despite the lousy cafe service, the Opera House was thoroughly worth the walk, and the look.
Back on the ship, we sat out out on the back deck watching the sun go down and enjoying a late afternoon drink.
Tomorrow, we arrive in Santa Cruz De La Palma. Only one more day to go to Madeira, and those fireworks……
