Travelog for: Jasper

Hi Mum,
in two days we will go on a holiday trip! We will go to Tenerife.



Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands. We will stay in Puerto de la Cruz, a city and municipality in the northern part of the island.

Bye
Jasper

Hi Mum,
we travelled to Tenerife yesterday. Tenerife is one of the Canary Islands, the largest one of seven islands. Tenerife is a rugged and volcanic island sculpted by successive eruptions throughout its history. The island is about 300 km from the African coast, and approximately 1,000 km  from the Spanish mainland.

We stayed in Puerto de la Cruz, a vivid city in the North-West of Tenerife. You can find lots of large hotel complexes here, but also a lovely old town with typical narrow streets and plazas.

Our hotel is situated at Playa de Martiánez, with a fantastic view across the beach and towards Orotava valley. Can you see the yellow spot? It is marking our balcony. Today we started a long walking trip in the Orotava valley.



First we had to walk uphill to leave the city area. The coasts of Tenerife are typically rugged and steep here in the North of the island, so you cannot just walk along the beaches.





Agriculture is centred on the northern slopes, tomatoes and bananas are cultivated, usually in plastic enclosures. In Orotava valley you can walk though banana plantations for hours.



There are overlook points everywhere, official ones are called "Mirador". The view across the coastline is always a spectecular one.



The North and South of Tenerife similarly have different climatic characteristics. While the South is mostly sunny, you have more rain in the North, due to the topography of the island. Today the weather was changing constantly, sunny on the last picture and a bit later the sky was full of clouds.







Our walking route took us high above the valley.



Later in the evening we took a walk in the city of Puerto de la Cruz.









Some houses are painted in vivid colors.





Katja enjoyed barbequed mussels.





In the evening we walked back to the Hotel, along the promenade with lots of historical buildings.









Bye for today
Jasper

Hi Mum,

today we visited the Botanical Garden in Puerto de la Cruz.



We saw the most insteresting plants here, like this fig tree for example. The figs are growing directly from the trunk.



This beautiful flower is called Bird of Paradise.



These trees are like a forest full of airial roots.





Tenerife is well known for its dragon trees. This is one of them. They can become hundreds of years old.



These are banana plants.









This tree is covered by lichen-



Later we walked to another park in the city.





Again we had to walk steep uphill to get there.









Our next destination was Playa Jardin, one of the few sandy beaches.



All the sand is black due to its volcanic origin. It is looking fantastic!





Around Playa Jardin a park with palm trees and cactus is created.





Tomorrow a hiking tour in the mountains is planned.

Bye
Jasper

Hi Mum,

today's trip started in Aguamansa, in the mountains above Orotava Valley.



We walked through lovely pine forests.









Here we also found trees which were covered by lichen.







This seems to be a kind of elderberry. Can you see that there are fruits and blooms at the same time?



And here ....

a wonderful look at Pico del Teide, covered with snow.





The higher we climbed, the more fantastic the landscape became. Look at these lava formation.







We were at a level of about 1.500 m than, the vegetation changing.



Eukalyptus trees were growing there.



I almost felt like home in the Swiss mountains  , even snow wasn't missing.



Above the clouds the weather was much better, of course.



AFter returning home to Puerto de la Cruz we were really tired.

Bye
Jasper

Hi Mum,

today we made a hiking tour along the coastline, towards the Western parts of Puerto de la Cruz, about 8 km towards Los Realejos and back.

Once more we walked through the lovely old town.







Close to the coast we found this lovely outlook pavilion.





We walked along the shore, with this fantastic view towards Playa Jardin and Punta Brava, another historical district of Puerto de la Cruz.



Over the years a large field with cairns (human-made piles of stones) was created by people.



These cairns are mostly used as trail markers.



Later ...



In the meantime we left Puerto de la Cruz behind, following the trail.









The coastline became more and more cliffy.





The decayed house was a water pumping station once, built in early 20th century.



Duck your head 







From here we walked back.

This time we made a side trip to the narrow lanes of Punta Brava.



The breakers are nearly crashing into the houses.



Bye for today
Jasper

Hi Mum,

today we went to Garachico, also located at the North-Western coast of Tenerife. Garachico is an old town which was almost completely destroyed by an eruption in May 1706. Most of the town and the whole harbor were destroyed. There is no beach but natural rock bassins, remnants of the lava which came down the valley in 1706.













These are the rock bassins.





Tomorrow we will have to return home 

Bye
Jasper

Good-bye Tenerife!

Hi Mum,

today we met Strunki and went to Cologne to meet another TV-host from Germany, fam-united.

We had planned to visit the Botanical Garden ("Flora") here. It was created in late 19th century.

Incredible! Real palm trees in winter in a German city!





These are monkey puzzles from South America, i.e. Chile.



This looks like spring is on its way to Germany 



They are having a special camelia exhibition here in a greenhouse, camelia are blooming in winter.



Camelia in all colors and variations.



















This is the beautiful glass palace.




The weather became more and more ugly, so we decided to "escape" to Düsseldorf, hopefully the weather would be better there!

It was a 30 km trip by car to get to Duesseldorf. The car was parked in the old town.

Duesseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The city is situated on the River Rhine, and is renowned for its many events and also for its fashion and trade fairs. We decided to visit the old townd and of course to have a look at river Rhine.



This is Burgplatz, a central place in the old town, opening towards the river.







In the background you can see Rhine Tower, a telecommunication tower, an Media Harbour.



From here we wallked to the old town, we found this old inner harbour.



Duesseldorf's old town is called "The world's longest bar" because of its hundreds of bars, pubs and restaurants. Here you can see the bar of one of the most famous breweries of the city - Uerige.



In Duesseldorf a special beer is brewed - Altbier, a delicious darker beer.

The interior of the bar is really rustic.



Greetings from all the ToyVoyagers who visited Duesseldorf today 



In the centre of the old town the historic city hall is located.





Good-bye from the world's longest bar!

Jasper