Author: marionvermazen

I am a traveler, hiker, avid reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, Spanish and French language student, knitter and genealogist. I am retired after working for almost 30 years in the Computer Industry. I live in Reno, Nevada with my husband Duke.

London to Tenerife in the Canary Islands

This morning we flew from London Gatwick to Tenerife in the Canary Islands. The Canaries are a part of Spain. They are located off the northwest coast of Africa. The latitude is similar to the latitude of Florida.

Gatwick Airport
Gomera Island in the Canary Islands

The airport in Tenerife is right next to the ocean. We rented a car and drove to the Parador Cañadas del Teide. The Parador is at an altitude of about 7000 feet on the side of the the Volcano Teide in the middle of Las Cañadas Del Teide National Park. We explored a bit and then relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. We can see the volcano Teide from the window of our room.

Viewpoint on the road to Teide National Park
Teide Volcano
Enjoying our welcome drinks in the Parador bar.

The road from the airport to our Parador was very good but also very narrow and winding. We saw a lot of bicycles both going up and coming down the road.

Parador Cañadas del Teide.

The height of the Teide Volcano is more than 12,000 feet. It is the highest point in Spain. There is a cable car (teleferico) that would take us to within 500 meters of the top of Teide but it is very windy here today so the cable car is closed. I don’t think we’ll hike up!

Our room price includes dinner and breakfast. We celebrated our first dinner in Spain and first Parador of this trip with an excellent meal

Tuna and a salad
Steak
Date ice cream with raspberry sauce

London – Day 2

Neither of us slept very well last night but we still managed to get to the 20 Frenchchurch Street building by just after ten so that we could go up to the Skygarden without a reservation. What fantastic views!

The Tower of London and Tower Bridge.
The Skygarden

We had a great lunch at a pub near our hotel.

Steak and blue cheese pie.
Sausage Roll

Then we visited the Museum of London. They had exhibits from before the Romans, through the Angles and Saxons to the present day.

A model of an old London Theater

This evening we are staying in a micro room at a hotel In Gatwick Airport. Early tomorrow we head to the Canary Islands.

For those of you who are interested I have a YouTube channel where I post trip videos every few days. If you subscribe to the channel it will help me get my own domain name eventually. In the meantime this link will take you to the channel. I just posted my first video of this trip.

London

We are staying At The Rookery Hotel in the Smithfield area of the City of London. The Smithfield market, a giant meat market, is just around the corner. The signs say that it is open from 2am to 10 am. We walked through this morning just before they closed.

We ate breakfast at a shop near our hotel. Here is Duke’s full English breakfast.

We walked a lot today. We were going to go up to the Sky Garden at the top of a new building that is called The Walkie-Talkie. Unfortunately it turns out you need to book in advance so we were turned away. The information guy outside told us that we could probably get in if we were there when they open at ten in the morning so we will give it a try tomorrow.

A few weeks ago I booked a class about online parish records at the Society of Genealogists. I really enjoyed attending the class this afternoon. Genealogy is a passion of mine.

For dinner tonight we ate at a nearby pub, The Fox and Anchor. We shared a chicken and leek pie and a pork chop with potatoes and a duck egg.

On the Road again – Europe 2020 – San Francisco to London

Duke and I are on the road again. We just arrived in London from San Francisco. We will be in London for three nights as we adjust to the jet lag and then we fly to the Canary Islands. If you would like to see our full itinerary you can see it here.

We arrived at London Gatwick on an overnight flight then took the train into London. We had to wait a few minutes for our room to be ready the receptionist offered us a cup of tea while we waited.

After a nap we went for a walk. We are staying near St Paul’s Cathedral.

Before we went back to the hotel we had dinner at a at nearby pub. Bangers and mash for me and fish and chips for Duke.

From Huilo Huilo Biological Preserve, Chile to Home

When we changed our itinerary because of the unrest in Chile we decided to return our car to Puerto Montt where we had rented it and fly to Santiago from Puerto Montt. Our flight was at 1 am on Saturday so Friday we swam at the hotel in the morning and then drove south. We stopped, took a walk and had dinner (including a Pisco tasting) in Puerto Varas before turning in the car and catching our plane. There was an overnight stay in Santiago and the long flight back to San Francisco was uneventful.

It was a wonderful trip. It’s good to be home. We are beginning to plan our next trip. It will be to Europe probably leaving in February.