We are in the midst of a short one-week vacation in Tenerife, Carnary Island, an island chain off the coast of North Africa that belongs to Spain. While Spanish is the primary language, English is very prevalent with most signs also being in Englisg due to the plethora of Brits who vacation here. We have been told by a few people that very few Americans make it here as the islands are similar to the weather in Florida, the Caribbean or Hawaii so people don't make the journey here. For us, we flew from Frankfurt to Madrid (2.5 hours) and then Madrid to Tenerife (about 2 3/4 hours). An hour drive took us to this beautiful mansion we rented with plenty of room for another family and a pool that has been used non-stop.
We have spent a few days lounging by the pool and swimming all day. This morning we went to a local beach (some of which are black sand) and enjoyed the waves and salt water. Both girls were fantastic and Kate was in the water in 30 seconds, paddling out on a wake board, as well as "snorkeling" with me a ways out in the water. Beach pics below are from this morning.
There are also some wonderful amusement parks on the island and we chose two to go to - one of the largest water parks in the world (Siam Park) and a wonderful animal park with dolphin and orca shows (Lora Parque) that rivaled Sea World. Both wonderful parks and the girls loved them. One had a roller coaster and Lauren loved it - screamed the whole time with her arms up!
Kids have been tough to get to bed at night despite being exhausted...perhaps the hour time change from Frankfurt, perhaps the new environment or perhaps just missing their window and being over tired. But Rebecca has been asleep by 8 every night except the first one. The first one we arrived about 10 after an hour drive from the airport and then saw a huge fireworks show over the water that was Kate's first real fireworks show. She loved it!
We fly home in 2 days, back to wintry, grey Frankfurt. Though happy Grandpa David will be joining us for some time next week and looking forward to Kate's birthday in a few weeks.
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