Homeward bound

So, Saturday morning dawned lovely and clear blue - typical, that was the first day that happened.   I felt quite ropey on Friday evening, took some of Matt's drugs and woke up quite perky on Saturday morning.  Matt was still looking quite rough, so I ran him a bath and then pulled out the suitcases and filled them with our laundry (the worst thing about hotel holidays - the laundry on your return!).  I also had to include an almost full bottle of whisky.  Now you know Matt's been ill if he has bought a bottle of whisky and then doesn't drink it, especially whilst on holiday.

Mt. Teide from the air

We headed down to breakfast and so had our last slices of the lovely lovely loaf they had there every morning.  We also found Sandra and said our goodbyes.  I got quite emotional and had no idea why?!

Anyway, we went back upstairs, finished our packing and then went for a last stroll around Puerto de la Cruz in the blazing sun (typical) before checking out.  We then got our transfer to the airport.  We were enjoying our first clear views of the coast when I looked behind us and lo and behold, there was Mt Teide - the huge volcano which dominates the island.  I didn't realise quite how close to Puerto de la Cruz it was - it was stunning and absolutely huge.  Luckily Matt managed one photo of it before it disappeared round a bend.  Such a shame we didn't get to see it during the week - it was quite a sight.

Sleeping with a sloth

We had an uneventful trip back to the airport, and then a lovely swift and easy check-in and security check in to Tenerife airport, lunch in an English restaurant (there were only English shops / eateries on offer!!!!!) before boarding our plane to Glasgow.  We were delayed half an hour on the tarmac leaving Tenerife but still got to Glasgow early so can't really complain.  Oh and we got more great views of Mt Teide.

So, I fell asleep on the flight back home.  This is almost unheard of, I have trouble sleeping on 16 hour flights, so how come I do so on a 4 hour flight.  Truth was I was beginning to feel terrible.  Matt on the other hand was beginning to look much better.  I spent most of the flight dozing and then had trouble finding an appetite on arrival at Glasgow (we decided to have tea at the airport so we could drive straight back)  It hurt to eat and drink - sore throat - oh hummmm.  Oh get this our suitcases were number 1 and 2 off the plane - that has never happened to me before, but was fantastic.



I was really glad that Matt was feeling better as he offered to drive and did so the whole journey.  There was no traffic on the roads at all and we were home in 2.15 hours!  We arrived, tossed Tom into bed and then crashed into bed ourselves.  I was asleep in seconds.

Sunset over Ireland

So feelings on Tenerife: it was a nice place.  We all quite liked Puerto de la Cruz.  It was very much the German resort on the island, but we quite liked that as it made us different and it meant there were a lot of good cafes around for sausages and cakes.  Tom was pretty much the only child in the hotel even though it was half term - not sure how / why?  As we didn't get to do much due to illness, I would like to go back to explore.  Mainly to go to the top of Mt Teide, but there were also some other interesting places to explore.  We didn't even get to Santa Cruz (the capital).  The southern resorts on the island, I think, were mainly inhabited by British tourists - when Tom and I went to Aqualand the most overheard language was English.  Oh and despite Brexit and the bad exchange rate with the Euro, everything seemed very very cheap.

Next time we go, I would suggest getting an AirBnB property with a communal pool (if at all possible) in a resort so we can eat out and rent a car so we can enjoy the sights at our own leisure and maybe go a bit later in the year so we are more likely to get proper sunshine.