The Canary Island Dragon Trees, Dracaena draco, are native to the islands as well parts of Africa and the Azores. They are strange and beautiful things. The biggest and oldest living “drago” as the locals call them, is about 300 years old and can be found in northwest Tenerife. SEE The dragon trees grow slowly and often stand […]
Travel
Santa Cruz, La Palma
Spanish speaking places can be confusing geographically in that there are many different places with the same names. There’s Las Palmas, and then there’s La Palma. There’s Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and then there’s Santa Cruz de la Palma. Just to be clear, the latter is the capital city of the island of […]
Fuencaliente, la Palma
If your Spanish is just about ok, you might guess that caliente the name Fuencaliente alludes to some sort of heat, and you’d be right! There used to be hot springs in this area, along the southern tip of La Palma, the most western of Canary Islands. The springs were destroyed by lava in the 18th […]
Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma
While the highest point of Spain is Mount Teide, the highest point of the island of La Palma is this strange rock formation that looks like three dudes, called Roque de los Muchachos. There’s a parking area there and a few short, beautiful walks to look out points. It’s also part of many a hiking route. […]
Charco Azul, La Palma
On the north- eastern side of the island of La Palma (one of the Canary Islands), there’s an area called Charco Azul in San Andres y Sauces. People love this place on TripAdvisor, and I agree that it’s a fantastic place to chill out – although it feels rather touristy. I imagine it gets a whole […]
Playa Nogales, La Palma
Last month we headed out to the Canary Islands for a sunshine adventure. We landed in Tenerife and stayed over there for a night and then ventured on to La Palma by plane. One of the first places we visited on La Palma was this secluded black volcanic sand beach set against a tall cliff faces on […]
El Teide National Park, Tenerife
What’s the highest point in Spain? It’s Mount Teide, the volcanic mountain towering Tenerife. It is visible from most of the other Canary Islands as well with a summit of 3,718 metres. The mountain is an active volcano that last erupted in 1909. The surrounding planes, desolate rock landscape and weird formations make up the Teide […]
Las Galletas, Tenerife
Imagine a row of volcanic islands that offer a dry desert-like landscape as well as forests, beautiful beaches and mountains with loads of caves, great surfing conditions, tropical fruit and really comfortable weather. You might have heard of Tenerife, and if not, you’ve probably heard of the Canary Islands and have a general idea ofwhere […]
Winter in Amsterdam
During our stay in Amsterdam, we walked around the city as much as we could. Here are a few pictures from those walks. We saw the Stedelijk Museum, Het Rembrandt Museum, Royal Palace of Amsterdam, Nieuwendijk, took a walk to the Amstel, through the Vondelpark and then saw Zevenlandenhuizen (Houses of Seven Countries) and returned to Centraal Station to catch the tram back […]
Staying in Amsterdam East
Well, here’s some exciting news: We’re on our way to Ireland to live there for a bit! My husband, will be starting a new job there. En route we decided to stop at a Schengen country because our visas for that area are still valid. It was either Paris or Amsterdam (it felt like we didn’t have […]