Up up and away....

We needed holiday. A holiday in the sun. A holiday which didn't involve thinking about what to have for supper, or food shopping, or making beds, or washing and ironing or anything to do with house finishing/maintaining 

We came to Tenerife and within moments I forgot everything to do with housekeeping

We sat on our balcony and waited for the sun to shine on us

sure enough at 5 in the  evening just before the sun was setting it shone in the bottom right hand corner of our balcony! 

we read our books and kindles

After two attempts I finally read Wolf Hall. I'm so glad I didn't give up. It's a brilliant brilliant book - well deserving of its prize

the view from my sun bed

We enjoyed the night life

We climbed a hill 

and found a chair at the top. Do please excuse the socks and the sandals!  I gave up trying to explain that they are not a good look - but apparently they are comfortable, and talking of comfort I'm going to have a word with the Scottish Tourist Board, they don't provide chairs at any of the tops of  the hills we've climbed back home - and I think the idea could catch on.

Not all of the days were sunny but all of the days were warm

A highlight of the holiday had to be a trip to Mount Teide and the National Park

I resorted to a bit of pushing and shoving to get a window place in the cable car. So resolute was I in keeping my tiny space by the window I clenched my ticket between my teeth - seen in the reflection of the cable car window.

 An extraordinarily beautiful desolate place

The inaccessible pinnacle! You need special  permission to climb the last 200 meters of Mount Teide. We phoned the 'authorities' the day before but missed the deadline by twenty minutes!

One of us was a bit miffed with that and spent  some considerable time muttering and saying 'rubbish' and other things that I couldn't repeat on my blog.

But even if we weren't at the very top it was still incredible, and high and stunning

We found a track going down

but quickly realised just how thin the air was. We were breathless and needed to rest every few yards. Mount Teide is 12,200 ft (3,718 metres) above sea level

We took the cable car back down and picked up the hire car

The landscape is lunar but the feeling of isolation and remoteness receded when we looked back

It was difficult to feel completely alone.

Nevertheless it was simply stunning. Para gliders can take off from here apparently and launch headlong into the sea of clouds

 It felt like we were on top of the world

I just couldn't stop taking pictures

The teide Observatory

From a distance it had a dream like quality.

back down to earth, down through the sea of clouds I loved every minute of Mount Teide and the National Park. It was majestic and bright and blue and beautiful.

We found the best ice cream in the whole wide world - not that our research extended very far, just minutes from the hotel, it was very very good and necessitated a daily trip to the ice cream parlour to check quality control

On the way to the ice cream parlour  we passed here...we never quite worked out what it meant!

the holiday had to end

we flew over a sea of ice cream

We loved our holiday.

When we got home, Jo our daughter had been house sitting. She arranged the towels - swans she said! I never meant to be away from my blog for so long. We have been  busy with visitors, which we love and don't want people to stop coming, but since we moved here five years ago and built the house, we haven't had a real break, a real holiday with nothing to do but read our books. It's good to be back.