Birthday shopping & more

The next day it was the birthday of the other woman that was there with my parents. And as I am a quite nice person (haha) I let her decide what she would like to do that day. She wanted to have a more relaxing day but she didn't know what one could do for that exactly so I suggested to go to Santa Cruz, do some shopping and see the capital a bit. Everyone agreed and so we started after the breakfast which took quite a long time as the days before already. 

We arrived at about 11am and let the car in the garage of a shopping centre which was not too far away from the city centre. At first, I showed them the Auditorio, we took some pictures next to the sea and walked the 15 minutes until the downtown of Santa Cruz where all the shops and cafés are situated. As it should become a relaxing day we had a coffee and a small snack first. Even for me it was nice to have a day without so much action because the weeks before had been filled with activities. Furthermore, I enjoyed the time with my Dad and would have done everything just to pass time with him and see him happy. 

So after the coffee we started to explore the shops. It was something quite exhausting with 4 other people but I liked shopping with my Dad's girlfriend, so it was fun. I didn't find so much, but I wasn't looking for something special so it was okay. Finally, I had spent more money than I wanted to before - normal shopping problem! 

After shopping we decided to take a bus tour through the city because we didn't want to walk any longer. We went to the Hop-on-Hop-Off bus station and took the next bus which was driving us around whole Santa Cruz with audio comments and stops where we could have got off the bus and take another some time later. But we just stayed in the bus until he arrived at the place where we got in again. Usually, I prefer exploring a city by foot because in that bus you don't see everything and it's all a bit limited. Furthermore, the pictures are ugly because you take them while the bus is driving. But the city is too big to see it in one day and due to the shopping we were already too tired, so it was a nice alternative. 

We had a small snack in a Tapas restaurant in the city centre and decided to get back to the car then, because I had reserved a table in a fish restaurant for the evening. After a short stay in the shopping centre we went back to Puerto de la Cruz. There was still time left to go into the pool shortly and then get ready for dinner. We went there by taxi because it was just at the other side of Puerto and it would have taken 40 minutes to walk (I tried with my Mum). The car was not an option because parking lots are something not existing at Tenerife. 

We arrived at time, went to our table at the terrace and they were all impressed by how near it really was to the sea. It's really only about 2 metres away and you can smell it. That makes the atmosphere quite unique, especially for eating fish. The big discussion about what to eat started - finally we took the grilled fish plate for 5 persons. It took some time until it was finished but when it arrived it looked impressive. A large variety of different kinds of fish and seafood, nice arranged at one big plate. After the obligatory pictures we started eating. It tasted as good as it looked like, so after 20 minutes there was nothing left anymore. I was happy that my restaurant choice was "approved" by the four others because they were a bit difficult in regard to food. 

After some more wine, a small dessert and a coffee we finally paid and took a taxi back to the hotel. There, we sat together in the hotel bar, had some cocktails and talked about plans for the next day. I wanted to go to the rural forest park "Anaga" but the others seemed to have enough from excursions. So my Dad and I decided to go there alone while the others would test the Spa area of the hotel. I knew that the next day would be the best from all the excursions because things I did alone with my Dad were always fun. So I went to bed, looking forward to the trip the next day, even if I started to get a cold. 

Photo gallery