The other day I posted about taking a tram ride to La Laguna in Tenerife, Spain. La Laguna's proper name is San Cristobla de La Laguna, bit of a mouthful I know. The town dates back to the 15th century, has a rich history, so much that it is a UNESCO world heritage site. I love an open air museum walk around.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
To be honest, when I arrived at La Laguna I wasn't really in the mood to walk around. Tenerife was the first port of call on my cruise holiday. I had been on the ship for three whole days and was just pleased to get on land. Plus it was starting to drizzle with rain and that is never nice when you're on holiday. The most important thing was that three days at sea means three days off grid with no internet access. I was eager to sit down somewhere and get on line. Sad I know 🙃
OPEN AIR MUSEUM
The sky cleared up after lunch just in time after I had finished using the free wifi in the cafe, and I was in a better mood to explore this beautiful historical town. I'm sorry La Laguna for not appreciating you before lunch.
As usual, I had no plan on what to do here. It was another one of those stroll aimlessly around town to see what it has to offer day. The old town was perfect to wander around. Although it isn't a car free zone, there wasn't much traffic around. In fact there wasn't many people around. Brilliant, I love it when I have the whole place to myself.
Ok, this isn't a leaning tower. It's just the angle of the photo, not that I had planned it. This is the Church of the Immaculate Conception and was founded in 1511. Apparently, the largest bell in the Canary Island is located at the top of the tower. Visitors can pay Euro 3 (I think) to climb to the top to see it, and you also get a magnificent view of the area. I didn't fancy too much exercise so didn't do that.
The Plaza del Adelantado is the main square in La Laguna and is named after the Island's conqueror, Adelantado Alonso Fernández de Lugo. It's not a very big square, but then La Laguna isn't that big either. I loved how they trimmed the tree top into a square, very creative.
I notice Spain has a lot of plants and floras that we don't normally see in UK. We lack the sunshine, so although I'm not a big nature person, I was still very happy to see the wide range of plants, flourish all over the place. They complement the beautiful buildings so well.
The problem with wandering around aimlessly is that you come across some really interesting places but forget to note down where you went. For example, this is the entrance to a museum. The side of the walls have beautiful yellow and blue tiles, that's what caught my eye when I walked past, dragging me inside. At the time, I'd never think these would be two colours the world would be seeing so much of today. The corridor leads into a courtyard and I think the museum is located in these buildings. The rest of my party weren't too keen with museums so I quickly took a few photos as they had wandered away already.
One place that I did manage to note is Instituto de Canarias. The building dates back to 1846 and was the first university in the Canary Island. Today it is a secondary school. There were a few other visitors here and they were were peeping through a wall on the right of this from entrance.
This is what they were looking at. Impressive, right?!! A guy, I think he might be a local, was making a video of the place. I overhead him telling the other visitors about this part of the building used to be the monastery but was burnt down in the 60s. Everyone was peeping through this arch window to get a glimpse of what remains of the spectacular building. The fact the arches still stands after so many centuries, and survived a fire that burnt down the entire monastery is just unbelievable.
Based on my brief visit to La Laguna, it proved to be an excellent open air museum, one where you can feel like you're walking back in time. It's just a pity I couldn't get to know it better.