January 15 Onward to Santa Cruz
It is a changeover day for us, so we said adios to Puerto de la Cruz, and hola to Santa Cruz. The cities are about an hour apart on a bus which runs round the motorway across the north of the island. We took the TITSA bus from the Intercambiador (bus station), paying about five Euros each to the bus driver. The buses have a big luggage compartment underneath, which makes it great for travellers. We only take a small wheeled case with us, so getting around is easy.
The bus delivered us to an enormous bus station in Santa Cruz, with a lobby the size of Terminal 5. The Intercambriador is close to the sea front, but our next accommodation was not. After consulting Google maps, it appeared to be half an hour’s walk away, no sweat for people used to walking for miles around Bushy Park. Fundamental error! Bushy Park is flat, Santa Cruz (like everywhere on Tenerife) is on the side of the biggest mountain in Spain!
Then we foolishly dragged our wheely bags for half an hour up hill to our next place Edificio Bruja. Later we found out that there was a No. 14 bus directly from the bus station to the flat, doh! The Edificio is quite upmarket with a concierge who told us three ways to get into the flat (card, door combination, and phone app). The flat was on the eighth floor looking down hill towards the harbour. It was three times as big as the last one, with two bedrooms! There was a small balcony on two sides, which was good but quite windy. However on the 10th floor there was a proper sun terrace on the roof with a swimming pool, jackpot!
First things first, we had to get some milk to go with our M&S decaf teabags. But regular pasteurised milk is difficult to get hold of in Spain for some reason. On the ground floor of the Edificio (all buildings are called Edificio) there was a Spar, so we got some bread ‘n shit and had lunch on the balconioni. Not shit literally, that wouldn’t be nice, but cold meat and cheese.
After a small argument about me not making decisions about where to go, I manfully decided that we should get the tram (as suggested by the concierge) down hill into the city centre and see what’s what. The tram is very quick and efficient, a great way to travel around the city.
Santa Cruz has a population of about half a million, so it is a proper big city and one of the capitals of the Canaries, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is the other. It has one of the biggest commercial harbours in Spain, and from our flat we could see enormous cruise liners in the port.
At the Tourist Information in Plaza de la Candelaria, a friendly security guard showed us bullet holes from the civil war and told us how Franco had been flown out of Tenerife. He was keen to emphasise that the pilot was English, but to be honest I wish he had left Franco in Tenerife drinking sangria, instead of starting the civil war.
INTERESTING FACT
The escape plane was a De Havilland Dragon Rapide. There is a Dragon Rapide based at Duxford airfield near Cambridge which regularly flies over central London. The English pilot was Cecil Bebb, who later got a medal from Franco.
Close to the Tourist Info is Plaza de Espana, which normally has a circular pond in it. Except the pond is drained for repairs, so its just a blue painted skateboard park now.
Close by I saw a plaque which proudly explains how the Spanish garrison of Santa Cruz defeated a British raid 1797. Nelson was injured in the raid and had to have his right arm amputated, it was his worse defeat.
The Spanish are very proud of this victory, and claim that it was a cannon ball from a bronze cannon called El Tigre that injured Nelson. The cannon still exists in a museum (I saw it, I touched it), but I think if he had been hit by a cannon ball there wouldn’t be much of Nelson to fight at Trafalgar.
After mooching around the compact old city centre we went to the TEA modern art museum to see an exhibit about Oscar Dominguez, a Tenerife Surrealist. His pictures are quite good, but don’t have the sophistication of Dali, and I wouldn’t want one on my wall. But the museum is an interesting place to visit, and free. Like most male artists of the time (enormous generalisation), he hung out in Paris and was a serial shagger.
It was dark when we emerged from the gallery, so we headed into the city centre and found a lively tapas bar where we had dinner (Julie nachos and Tim ribs) and ONE glass of wine. We wanted several glasses but showed fortitude, very difficult on holiday.
We had a lovely day, apart from dragging the bags up hill like pack mules, when we could have got the bus! But I do think that all exercise is worthwhile.
January 16 Exploring the Sights
On Thursday morning we walked downhill into the city centre, downhill good, uphill bad. The route was more-or-less out of the edificio and turn right. We went back to the tourist office, which is house in a big 18th century merchants house. At 10.30 we joined a guided tour around some of the historic buildings of old Santa Cruz. There aren’t very many.
The guide, Jose, had a habit of repeating himself like Donald Trump.
“This is the original city water fountain, water fountain. It brought water twelve kilometres in wooden pipes, wooden pipes”.
I almost expected him to say “It’s the greatest fountain in the world, really tremendous”.
However he took us to a few interesting locations, including the parish church of St Francis. In typical Spanish style, it’s full of colourful religious statues and paintings. In the 18th century there was a cholera epidemic in which thousands of people died.
They paraded a picture of Jesus, and the epidemic stopped. There was another epidemic in the 19th century and once again Jesus was paraded and it stopped. Jose clearly thought it was divine intervention. I was wondering if they checked if sewage got into the aforementioned water fountain?
Julie wondered if they paraded Jesus during the COVID19 epidemic, surely He would have sorted it out in no time.
Close to the TEA art gallery, there is the African market, named after a nearby church, Our Lady of Africa. I was expecting African stalls like you see in Brixton or Peckham, but it is a lovely building built in the 1940s, which is quite upmarket. There are stalls for fruit, veg, meat, fish, and souvenirs for tourists.
On the lower floor, there was a café where we tried another barraquito liquor coffee, which was a decent size and had a bit of booze in it this time.
Next we headed along the sea front , floating in the harbour there were two huge floatels, which are accommodation blocks for drilling rigs. They are brought into Santa Cruz for repairs.
The most eye-catching building on the sea front is the Auditorio de Tenerife Adán Martín, a modern concert hall shaped like a Greek Corinthian helmet.
The Palmetum is built on an artificial hill that was once the town dump, redeveloped in the ’90s. It offers a peaceful and beautiful escape, featuring one of the largest palm collections in the world. The garden is divided into zones representing different regions, including Oceania, India, the Caribbean, and Madagascar. Visitors can enjoy stunning views of the Atlantic Ocean from benches, perfect for soaking up the sun and admiring the sea. Additionally, near the pond in the center of the palms, a small caravan sells beers, allowing us to relax with a drink in the sun while watching butterflies flutter around.
We took the bus back to the Bruja building and we settled ourselves on recliners by the pool on the 10th floor. The water is very cold, but the sunshine is delightful!
In the evening we took the tram up hill to the old capital city of La Laguna, a few miles inland from Santa Cruz. It is uphill all the way, and about 1750 feet high, so a lot cooler than Santa Cruz and I needed the coat I took with me. The city centre is full of beautiful old buildings and a grand cathedral, it is a university town so has a youthful vibe.
We went in the first good looking restaurant we saw, the Dehli Darbur. It is a big and very stylish Indian restaurant, which served us a very good Chicken Biryani with Onion Bhajis to start. We could have been in Twickenham!
January 17 A visit to the beach
They have a very good public transport system in Santa Cruz, every ticket is 1.25 Euros. On Friday morning we took the 26 bus down to the Intercambriador, the terminus for buses and trams. We took the 910 past the cruise ships and docks to Playa de Las Terestitas, a long sandy beach protected by a stone breakwater. It’s probably 1000 metres long, and the sand is imported from the Sahara. Two recliners and an umbrella next to a cafe is 6 Euros, quite a bargain. It is lined with palm trees and small cafes, so it’s a great place to visit
So for the next few hours we planted our bums on the beds and read our books. I kept reading Julie the funny bits about Jackson Lamb in a Slow Horses book. I can read it an imagine Gary Oldman saying it, its very clever writing.
I went for a swim for a short while, which was more or less splashing about, but very refreshing. We ate a picnic lunch (again) because the bread is so good from the Spar at the bottom of the Bruja building.
Mid afternoon we took the bus back to the city centre and walked up to Parque de Garcia, which is incredibly beautiful, and crowded with the same tropical trees we have seen in the Jardin de Botanico and the Palmetum.
Some of the residential areas of Santa Cruz are very attractive with graceful 19th century houses. Walking back to the flat we came across Plaza Veinticinco de Julio de Los Patos, which is constructed from very colourful tiles with benches advertising old businesses.
Santa Cruz isn’t a tourist city, but there is a lot to see and do for a few days, and it isn’t full of tourists. Apart from 5,000 at a time who get off the vast cruise ships in the harbour. But they don’t get much further than the city centre.
For our last night in Santa Cruz we couldn’t face getting the bus into the town centre, so found a local place called Kokora cafe in the local park ten minutes walk away. It was surprisingly good! I had a big and tasty prawn Pad Thai, and Julie had Prawn Tacos. The red wine was great and 3.5 Euros a glass, what’s not to like?
timharnesstravels 