Canary Islands
We visited two of the Canary Islands, Tenerife & Lanzarote in 2007.
On Tenerife we visited Mount Teide in the Parque Nacional del Teide. It is a good area to hike and there are some unusual rock formations to look at. We took a driving tour of the island and saw the Tenerife Opera House in Santa Cruz which was designed Santiago Calatrava. It is a signature building with the sweeping arch over the roof. We also strolled through the black sand city beach & Botanical Gardens of Puerto De La Cruz and had lunch at the Meson El Monasterio in Los Realejos where they have a wall fresco of a Tenerife “wine saint”.
On Lanzarote we visited the Timanfaya National (Fire Mountain) Park to visit the active volcano. The scenery is very desolate but when you get to the peak you discover the Fire Mountain restaurant OVER the crater. There are demonstrations like dropping water down holes and watching steam geysers shoot up and/or pushing dry brush in holes and watch it burst into flame. The ground is very hot in spots so you will want to stay on the paths. The food at the restaurant is cooked over the volcanic vents and you can walk into the area where they are cooking and watch. We found this pretty amazing and would recommend a visit. There was a stop close to the park entrance for an hour camel tour where we rode a Dromedary camel through portions of the park, which is fun if you have never ridden a camel.
Our tour of Lanzarote included a stop at the Castillo de San José (Fortress of Hunger) which was built in 1774 by King Don Carlos III to help relieve the starvation that resulted from the 1730's volcanic eruptions. It is now both a restaurant and the Museum of International and Contemporary Art. We also stopped at a vineyard where the grape vines use low, curved walls to protect each vine from the constant wind as well as harvest rainfall and overnight dew rather than the more traditional trellising that we see in vineyards in France or Italy.
Read MoreOn Tenerife we visited Mount Teide in the Parque Nacional del Teide. It is a good area to hike and there are some unusual rock formations to look at. We took a driving tour of the island and saw the Tenerife Opera House in Santa Cruz which was designed Santiago Calatrava. It is a signature building with the sweeping arch over the roof. We also strolled through the black sand city beach & Botanical Gardens of Puerto De La Cruz and had lunch at the Meson El Monasterio in Los Realejos where they have a wall fresco of a Tenerife “wine saint”.
On Lanzarote we visited the Timanfaya National (Fire Mountain) Park to visit the active volcano. The scenery is very desolate but when you get to the peak you discover the Fire Mountain restaurant OVER the crater. There are demonstrations like dropping water down holes and watching steam geysers shoot up and/or pushing dry brush in holes and watch it burst into flame. The ground is very hot in spots so you will want to stay on the paths. The food at the restaurant is cooked over the volcanic vents and you can walk into the area where they are cooking and watch. We found this pretty amazing and would recommend a visit. There was a stop close to the park entrance for an hour camel tour where we rode a Dromedary camel through portions of the park, which is fun if you have never ridden a camel.
Our tour of Lanzarote included a stop at the Castillo de San José (Fortress of Hunger) which was built in 1774 by King Don Carlos III to help relieve the starvation that resulted from the 1730's volcanic eruptions. It is now both a restaurant and the Museum of International and Contemporary Art. We also stopped at a vineyard where the grape vines use low, curved walls to protect each vine from the constant wind as well as harvest rainfall and overnight dew rather than the more traditional trellising that we see in vineyards in France or Italy.
