November 1 - Madrid Spain

We both overslept very late this morning and missed breakfast at the hotel.  So Mary walked down to the market and bought fruit for a late morning snack. 

We spent the early afternoon working on emails and photos and then headed out mid-afternoon for lunch and to walk the town.  It turns out that the day after Halloween (All Hallows Day) is a national holiday and everyone was out in force.  The pedestrian street in front of our hotel was packed and the line to get into the palace was horrendously long.

The street performers were out in force.  There was a gentleman playing wonderful music on various size glasses with varying amounts of water.  The music was ethereal.

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Watch video of gentleman playing.
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There were a number of people out as “statues” and several in gravity defying poses.  This skate boarder was out when Mary went out at 11:00 to get fruit and was still there at 6:30 when we came back to the hotel.

One could get a photo of themselves in traditional costume.

This statue and fountain was in the plaza in front of the palace.

No idea what this building is but it had a beautiful dome.

We walked on down to the palace.  Since the day is sunny we thought me might get better photos today.

We then walked over to the Catedral de la Amundena. We had passed it during our tour but didn't get to go in.  So today we went in for a visit. 

There were dozens of churroterias all over town so we decided to have another cup of hot chocolate (the spoonable kind) and churros for dinner…not very healthy but very tasty.  The churros have an interesting shape, not like the straight ones in the US.  They are shaped sort of oval, like a pretzel that didn’t get twisted. 

They also had huge stacks of some sort of donutish type of pastry.  Some plain and some with chocolate.  No idea what they were.

They were making the churros and as well as porras (gigantic churros) in a window in the entrance of the eatery.  It was quite an operation…automatic dispensers, very long utensils and a giant vat of hot oil.  And both the churros and porras’ were heading out to the tables as fast as they could make them.   

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Watch video of churro making.
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Watch another video of churro making.
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More photos of Madrid 
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We leave tomorrow morning for the Canary Islands so we didn’t stay out late…back to the hotel to pack.

November 2 - Flight to South Tenerife, Canary Islands

We were on our way to the airport mid-morning with a crowded but relatively uneventful check in and trip through security.  When we arrived in Tenerife the weather was in the low 70’s, a good 15 to 20°F warmer than Madrid.  The warmer weather is very welcome after a month in Canada and Madrid where it was colder.

The drive to the hotel wasn’t too long and we very pleased upon arrival.  The hotel is across the street from the harbor and the waterfront walk and has a large pool.  Unfortunately, early research indicated it would be rather cool in the Canaries so we didn’t bring out swim suits.  Too bad.

We ate lunch and dinner at the hotel restaurant.  The food was surprisingly reasonable.  We expected it to be rather expensive here as much of the food we assume needs to be shipped in.

We had a lovely sunset.  And a balcony upon which to enjoy it.

November 3 – Costa Adeje, South Tenerife, Canary Islands

Today is a day of leisure (i.e, no tours planned).  We spent much of the day going over our tremendous backlog of work on the photos and blogs and such.  We finished the entire list of behind the scenes tasks on one of our earlier trips and plowed through a number of tasks on a couple of others.  We are making headway.  It will be wonderful when (and more likely if) we catch up on all of this.  It is a hobby so I suppose we don’t have to do all of this but we are not likely to quite any time soon.

Mid-afternoon we took an hour so off and took a walk along the beach 

and harbor

and then up through town.  We walked by the Harley Restaurant where there were a number of old Cadillacs (and portions of Cadillacs) that were set up as outdoor dining "booths".

We stopped at a bar for a cold soda and to enjoy the light breeze.  We very much like it here.  It is a great place to have some leisurely down time.

We had dinner again at the hotel restaurant and finished the evening with more work.

November 4– Sunset and Star Gazing

Our first excursion today is not until late afternoon so we spent most of the day in the hotel room working on photos and future vacation planning.  We did take a walk into town to find a place for lunch.  The place we picked ended up having some signs on the ceiling.  Mary liked this one (plus it was right above her so she didn’t have to get up to take a picture).

We were picked up about 4:30 for our Star Gazing tour.  The van drove up into the Teide National Park where we stopped for views of Mt Teide, an active volcano and the tallest mountain in Spain.  

We were there for the sunset.  So were four tour buses and the three other vans in our group.  There was quite a group of people. 

We were above the clouds so the sunset colors were not streaked through the sky but it was still a pretty awesome experience.

They set up special telescopes so that we could look directly at the sun.  We were actually able to see some of the sun flares along the perimeter of the sun...they are very tiny compared to the size of the sun.

It was a challenge to photograph the sunset.

After sunset we went down the hill a ways to a picnic area.  By then it was getting dark and the guides led us to the bathrooms and then the picnic area via lamplight.  Dinner was ok, a pasta dish and a chocolate croissant type dessert.

Then it was back up the mountain for star gazing.  The tour guides had three telescopes and our first observation was of Saturn with its rings.  That was really awesome.  The Saturn photo was taken by the tour group...not us.

Then they pointed the scopes to various objects in the sky including nebula, twin clusters, and the Milky Way.  It was rather cold out but we had brought all of our Canada cold weather gear so we weren’t too cold.  The viewing was breathtaking with a totally cloudless sky overhead.  So many stars.