A Perfect Ten on Tenerife

Katja and I spent a wonderful six days in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. We accumulated our Spanish skills and got by with hola, adios, buenos dias, gracias, por favor, agua, and other elementary words. The fact that most things were printed in multiple languages and the majority of people spoke English or German was also helpful. But relaxing on the black sand beaches (black because it’s a volcanic island) didn’t require much Spanish anyway. We soaked up the sun, swam in crystal clear waters, enjoyed warm breezes, and inhaled the ocean air to much delight.

Our few day/afternoon trips included a visit to the Auditorio de Tenerife in the capital of Santa Cruz. I think I drove Kat crazy with my eagerness and desire to visit this building. The one hour bus ride was worth it: the building is extraordinary. Too bad 99 percent of the people I questioned about this auditorio (how to get there, was the building open to the public on non-concert days, etc.) had hardly heard of it. Its wave, or wing, is breathtaking and only matched by its location: on the harbor overlooking the ocean, sharing the same spot where Christopher Columbus made a sojourn on his way to the Americas.

Walking around the bustling streets of Santa Cruz I noticed another architectural work underway, a cultural museum/center by the Swiss architecture firm and 2001 Pritzker Prize winners Herzog and de Meuron. They designed the new de Young Museum in San Francisco, the Tate Modern in London, and are actually working on a project here in Hamburg scheduled for completion in 2009. Tenerife’s tourism industry must be doing well for this small island to be able to commission these great architects and ambitious projects. I hope Canarians will embrace the beauty and power of architecture as their officials seem to have done.

Outside of the capital, in La Laguna and Vilafor, for example, the architecture was more modest and typical Spanish. Surrounded by such natural beauty, it makes sense in a way to bow to the impressive volcanic peaks, cliffs, and endless sky and ocean (based on my previous two paragraphs, am I contradicting myself here?). One outstanding natural wonder is the tallest point in Spain – Mount Teide reigns at 3,718 meters above sea level. We took a half-day trip to the mountain, which rests above the clouds and offers magnificent views of the mountain-side towns and tips of the other Canary Islands.

A trip to Los Gigantos proved somehow less impressive, but perhaps that’s because we expected the almost two-hour bus ride to only take about 25 minutes. When we got back to the hotel, we were happy to grab a chair at the pool and enjoy our last day in the warm weather.

Other highlights included celebrating at the Banana Garden with flamenco dancing, pina coladas, dancing, and sparklers; playing tennis, but otherwise being totally lazy; getting a massage on the beach; and just spending time and laughing together with Katja.


If you made it through this long entry and are still interested in more photos of this beautiful island, additional shots are on Flickr (click on the box on the right hand side of this page).

Adios amigos!