Well I'm back - yesterday at this time I was sipping sangria in the sun, now I'm dealing with hundreds of emails, trying to prepare for meetings and generally catching up on what I've missed. During the last week I've seen dolphins swimming by the side of the boat, read loads of books, walked on a mountain in snow in shorts, bare feet and sandals (due to a sli
ght miscalculation of how high the mountain was and how cold it might be at the top..), and watched a comedy Elvis show! All good stuff. Normal blogging will return as soon as I get my head around it - probably tonight or tomorrow. Till then, some holiday pics - the dolphins - you've no idea how many pictures I've got of just sea to get that one - the view from our apartment balcony, and El Teide, the highest mountain Spain. Complete with snow - I just didn't notice it!
Incidentally, if Tenerife is part of Spain (which it is), and they use the Euro (which they do), why does it count as outside the EU for buying duty free goods?
Well I'm back - yesterday at this time I was sipping sangria in the sun, now I'm dealing with hundreds of emails, trying to prepare for meetings and generally catching up on what I've missed. During the last week I've seen dolphins swimming by the side of the boat, read loads of books, walked on a mountain in snow in shorts, bare feet and sandals (due to a sli
ght miscalculation of how high the mountain was and how cold it might be at the top..), and watched a comedy Elvis show! All good stuff. Normal blogging will return as soon as I get my head around it - probably tonight or tomorrow. Till then, some holiday pics - the dolphins - you've no idea how many pictures I've got of just sea to get that one - the view from our apartment balcony, and El Teide, the highest mountain Spain. Complete with snow - I just didn't notice it!
Incidentally, if Tenerife is part of Spain (which it is), and they use the Euro (which they do), why does it count as outside the EU for buying duty free goods?
4 comments:
This is a point of much consternation to mountain-watchers, The Canaries being part of Spain yet attached to the African continent. The highest mountain in (European) Spain is Mulhacen, the tallest peak in the Sierra Nevada range which weighs in at a meaty 3,482m (but I prefer thinking of it as 3.48Km).
No, I'm not sad. I own a house in The Sierras.
:-)
Glad you enjoyed yourself. The reason why the Canary Islands are not classed as part of the EU for Duty Free allowances are because they are a special tax zone; duty free already, partly because of their distance from the Spanish mainland. Lower taxes on the islands to counteract the higher transport costs of goods.
Thanks for the explanation Pamela - and through your comment I've discovered your blog with the wonderful video of the drums and fireworks. Unfortunately we arrived too late for the carnival - I will try and time it better next year. And Brennig - thanks for the info about the mountains. It was certainly cold at the top of Teide.
You may be interested to learn that Tenerife was called 'l'isle surrealiste' by Andre Breton, the leading light of the French surrealist movement. He was evidently impressed by the black volcanic ash which covers much of the island.
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