Annie, one of my two best friends, and I have had a holiday together every couple of years for about 12 years now on and off. My John hasn’t been well of late and so I was feeling a bit worried leaving him for a week, but he was feeling better and I left him with lots of food in the fridge and freezer and a shopping list for the following week. He will be fine, I’m sure as there is family and friends around and anyway, its one week where he has control of the TV remote LOL! This year Annie and I returned to Tenerife, we had been there before and stayed at Golf Del Sur, but this year we wanted to be nearer the coast so chose Los Cristianos.
To avoid boring everyone, I’m going to blog a couple of days at a time and hopefully once my photos are downloaded I will be able to add in some of the highlights of our trip.
PART 1 – WE’RE ALL GOING ON A SUMMER HOLIDAY!
Monday 24 March – 2.30am
So here we are, John and I, up and ready to go and pick up Annie and for John to drive us to Gatwick for an Easyjet flight to Tenerife South airport at 7.00am. Reached the airport in plenty of time and had a good breakfast at the Wetherspoon Red Lion pub. It wasn’t cheap and the coffee wasn’t the best but it filled a hole and we felt set up for the journey ahead. As usual, Easyjet were very efficient and we had a very good flight apart from their dreadful “Coffee in a bag” and Kenco Capochino coffees! Oh they were dreadful and should be removed from sale immediately. Still one good thing, there was 20% off some things in the Boutique brochure including YSL Touche éclat! Result, might get another one on the way back! LOL!
Arrived in Tenerife at around 11.15am expecting to be picked up by the apartment owners. Nobody was there! Rang the resort and was told to go to the El Mar desk and wait there but it was closed so rang again and were told to wait! Finally a man arrived with a placard with no names on but just El Mar. Turns out it’s the company who will be taking us to the apartments, along with another couple for another resort. Finally, we arrive at Paloma Beach Apartments. Its right at the end of Los Cristianos and near the Arona Gran Hotel (which is beautiful by the way!). There were a couple of long ramps up to the pool area and across to the reception and it aggravated my tennis elbow (OUCH!) pulling the cases up the ramp!
We were taken to our apartment on the first floor No. T1-166 by Marco. It was very clean and tidy but we were disappointed that it was a bit dark and very tired looking but it would do us nicely for a base and the view wasn’t bad. It overlooked a car park, but also a mountain and the sea! It was just so nice to sit on the balcony and watch the sea sparkle in the distance. The apartment was privately owned and had lots of touches like books and games and the wardrobe was full of their cases and golf clubs under the bed! Sort of felt like we were intruding but it was homely.
Popped out to the local supermarket for provisions and ended up buying a hat and we each bought a dress! As you do ! LOL! Had lunch in The Surrey Arms restaurant/bar, we both had the steak and chips and it was quite good for the price, but basic. Back at the apartment we decided to stay in and relax on the balcony and enjoy the view and in the evening watch TV as shattered from the early start. TV was Freeview with UK programmes and some were a bit pixelly, but we had free WiFi which we put to good use with emailing family to let them know we were OK. Got a call from Meryl (Redqueenmusings) who we have come to know through her brilliant blogs and we arranged to meet up with her on Wednesday to be Tenerife Ladies Wot Lunch!
Tuesday 25 March
Oh what a beautiful morning! Up at 9.30am after a good night’s sleep and breakfast on the balcony was absolutely wonderful. I could get used to this! Popped down to reception and got a safe deposit box organised. Set the new code and then tried to open the box. oops! Hadn’t done it quite right and had to get the guy from reception to reset it! We felt so daft!
Decided to book a trip to Santa Cruz on Thursday through reception – €56 for the two of us seemed like a good deal for a day out. The off we went to walk to Los Cristianos and see if we could find any sign of the Carnival. Los Cristianos is a lovely place and despite looking up the side streets, sadly, we couldn’t find any sign of Carnival at all but still enjoyed walking along the paseo, looking in all the shops, stopping for refreshments and watching the world go by and admiring the amazing sand sculptures. It’s amazing how they don’t seem to be vandalised – they would be in the UK! Life is wonderfully slow-paced and means that we find ourselves relaxing into the Tenerife way of life just enjoying the sights and sounds of this great place.
In the evening we took a walk along the road by Paloma Beach and had a look at all the bars and restaurants to find somewhere to eat. A couple of the bars were closed but then again we do eat earlier than most locals so we thought they may open later! We settled on Crestella Creperia, which was a funny little place but very smart inside and got to say, has the best loo we visited all week! Its owned by a Chinese family, the chef and assistant chef are Chinese but the maitre de/waiter was from Tenerife (we think). He was very charming and persuasive and so we went in as our tummies were rumbling and with both of us being diabetic we need to eat as soon as possible! The menu was a strange mix of Chinese, Spanish, Italian, British – you name it and it was on the menu! However, after a short deliberation we ordered avocado with prawns to start, then Annie had the fillet steak Diane and I had the Seabass libaina (spicy) and Canarian potatoes to go with it. I’ve tried to do them at home but don’t seem to be able to get it right!
Got to say that the food was a revelation! Unfortunately I’d not got my camera with me and the battery was low on my phone so didn’t get any photos of the food! The starter was wonderful, Annie’s steak was amazing and my fish was delicious. I decided I would have a dessert and plumped for the cheesecake and OMG! It was absolutely gorgeous, creamy, with a wonderful almondy biscuity base, I don’t think I’ve ever had better! So we decided there and then we would be back another night and we would try to find out the recipe for the cheesecake! This is a place I would certainly recommend you try if you are down that way.
Part 2 to follow……
ceejayblue 
Thoroughly enjoyed reading and now looking forward to part 2 xx
Initially did it in the pages section and wondered why nobody had responded LOL! Had to move it over to Posts! Had a senior moment and then realised what I’d done LOL! Part 2 tomorrow, still got to write the rest of it! Had grandkids over for John’s birthday yesterday so got nothing done LOL! xx
Hope you spoilt John, xx
He’s not been feeling 100% this week so we just had a quiet day, will treat him to something special when he’s feeling better.