Pot Roast on the Plane

We finally left Gatwick after an uneventful four hours in which we tried some tea and a terrible croissant. The flight down to Tenerife was fun because now that we switched from American Airlines to British Airways, we finally got free alcohol. They must know it's a tourist and holiday trip because they passed the drinks out freely. We read the silly British trash mag, drank our drinks, and relaxed. Jeanette ate a yummy salmon dish while I had pot roast. (We had played with special meals on the flights for Jeanette.) So much for variety for me. I promised to get the seafood option from then on.

There was a great sunset right before we arrived in Tenerife. It turned out that at that time of year, the Canaries were on the same time zone as London. Also, as a bonus, because they are more southern, sunset happens about 20 minutes later than in Colorado. I was glad to have as much daylight as possible for our trip.

Our arrival was flawless and we proceeded to rent a car and withdraw some cash. I started to panic a little when one machine kept telling me that my card was declined. We decided that it must have been that particular machine or bank because it worked fine at another ATM.

The air outside the airport was wonderfully mild and we caught the scent of flowers right away. Looking around, we could see that even the airport parking lot was filled with flowers and also sported palm trees. We found our little Opel hatchback, got in, and drove to Los Christianos right away. On the highway, traffic stayed steady, but turned out to be pleasantly easy to navigate.

Los Christianos is a small town with traditional European winding, narrow streets. We spent about an hour driving around, trying to find our way on a map, only to discover that we had the wrong map! We stopped, used some Spanish to buy a map, then found our way immediately. (I taught myself basic Spanish before the trip, but at the time of our trip, Jeanette was purely an English speaker.)

We decided to stay at Pencione La Playa on Calle La Palma. We paid €24 for the night and got a double room with no bathroom and two tiny twin beds. It was fine, though. Te place was clean and cute and convenient. We stayed right on the town's walking mall so we were able to simply go down and find a place to eat.

Although Jeanette already blistered her feet with some new sandals, we walked around a bit, till we decided to eat at an Italian place near our hotel. We decided on some anchovy and olive pizza (yummy) with a little salad, marinated squid, and house wine (all equally yummy). The food was good and the place had a ton of charm and atmosphere.