Santa Cruz

A visit to the capital of Tenerife, Santa Cruz, is always a delight, these days the journey there, less so.  The road systems here are simply totally inadequate to cope with the ever-increasing amount of traffic.  If memory serves, the Canary Islands are the only provinces (They comprise two provinces, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) of Spain which have increased rather then decreased pollution levels in recent years, and it is almost all down to the motor car.  I will check out those facts.

I went up to the capital last night, and the journey, from Las Galletas in the South, which should have taken around 45 minutes took almost two hours.  The first hold up was in Gauza, as we joined the autopista and the second was the gigantic traffic snarl up which has been a feature of this trip for years now, when one approaches Candelaria.  No doubt at some point in the future it is for the benefit of motorists, as they plod on with alterations to the infrastructure, but right now it is hard to appreciate that!  As we approached the connecting road for the autopista del Norte there was the usual, huge tailback along the hardshoulder, as people waited to exit.  Terrifying!   For a brief two minutes we were free of the holdup, then we left the autopista to join what must be the nightly gridlock as people return and leave the city center.

A "real" city now

When you think about the size of the place it seems ludicrous to use the word "city", and yet it has every feature you associate with the word.  Gridlock, pavement cafes, horns honking, people scurrying, men in suits and brightly lit shops displaying gorgeous goods to part you from your hard-earned pittance.

This wasn't a shopping trip, I was going to a presentation in a hotel, so mostly I drank in the sights as we strode from the car park to our destination.However brief the visit and however petite the metropolis it was sufficient for that feeling of being in a different world.  Life in the South is so casual, and tourist-orientated we often forget that there are elegant cafes where the chairs are not plastic; designer shops equal to the wider world; a stunning auditorium, designed by Salvador Calatrava; the goreous Él Córte Inglés department store, and a general feeling of it being "the place to be".  Easy, in fact, to see why Northerners look down on Southerners on this island.

The Christmas lights are not gaudy they are elegant blues and whites.  Very stylish.  But, at the end of the day, who wants a stylish Christmas?