Teide

So the next day we received our car (after having breakfast too late another time and arriving too late at the agency, but okay) and I wanted to start our tour. The other couple was not ready yet, so we still had to wait, as always. It was cloudy and I asked the person at the reception of the hotel how possible it was that the cablecar to Teide was opened. She wasn't very optimistic but told me that we should try anyway because the weather would become worse the other days. 

The other two arrived and wanted to go somewhere else because of the clouds, but actually I really wanted to see Teide. If the weather wasn't good enough we could go somewhere else afterwards. Fortunately my Dad helped me and shared my opinion (well, I'am Daddy's girl, what can I say), so we finally started our way to the National Park. It was only about 60 kilometres but there was no highway, so we had to go through villages and curvy streets which took some time. At the side of the road one could see signs telling the height and we could see how we were getting up the mountains. Slowly, but anyway. During the drive it rained several times (followed by "I told you" - comments from the others) but we decided to continue anyway because we had already driven half of the way.

Finally, we arrived at the Teide National Park. And it was sunny! There was no single cloud in the sky, they were all below us. The Park starts at a height of 2200 metres and we had still 15 minutes to drive until we arrived at the ground station of the cable car. It was a totally different nature up there - many colours, almost no plants, no trees at all and it looked a bit like being at the moon (or as I imagine how it might look like at the moon). I couldn't stop looking out of the window, I was so fascinated. Suddenly, the others were silent, too, and stopped complaining. So we arrived at the cablecar, found a parking lot and went to buy tickets. I knew that it was possible that you have to wait 1 or 2 hours to get up because there are so many people that want to get up to Teide, but after only 30 minutes it was our turn already. We were only 8 minutes in the cable car, but the view from there was amazing, too. 

When we arrived and got out of  the upper station it was a bit weird. It was cold (about 8 degrees) and you could feel that the air at 3500 metres was different than the air down next to the sea. It was thin, it was very exhausting to move. But there was almost no wind and it was so sunny! With all the clouds below us it was a fascinating view, but unfortunately they were also limiting the view a bit. Because usually you can see the other Canary Islands from up there and see some villages, but due to the clouds it wasn't possible. I took many pictures, went around a bit, but I got tired quickly and felt bit dizzy. So after 30 minutes we decided to get back down to the ground station and discover the national park a bit. 

We took another street to get back to see some other places of the National Park. I was still fascinated when we arrived at a panoramic point where one could see the Teide from some distance, inbetween the clouds. We drove down, through foggy forests, until we arrived at La Laguna, a UNESCO world heritage city next to the capital Santa Cruz. We wanted to have a coffee but everything seemed closed and  there were almost no people, so we decided to get back to Puerto de la Cruz and have a coffee there. The trip was quite exhausting so we wanted to relax a bit. In the evening we only went to the hotel restaurant and had some cocktails at the hotel bar. The next day we would have a large program, too, because it was the birthday of the other woman that was with my parents and we wanted to go to Santa Cruz to do some shopping and have dinner at a fish restaurant where I had already reserved a table. 

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