Host: Murray Norton (MN)

Guests: Adrian Mourby (AM) Clemencia Wiese (CW)

MN: So, could you guess where that was? Maybe the Isle of Capri, maybe Seville, maybe even Sydney? If you thought any of those, then you'd be wrong. Welcome to the show, it's good to have your company. You'll find that that was Tenerife or, as they say in Spain, ‘Tenerife'. It's very nice to have your company, as I say, and we'll be taking your questions about this beautiful isle in the next half an hour so, the little box at the bottom there, all you've got to do is fill out your question and send it in straight away. You can send it in to us and I shall be asking our two experts, certainly people who know a lot more about Tenerife than I do, although I have been there. I'm delighted to say we've got travel journalist, Adrian Mourby with us, Adrian, good to have you with us, thanks for being here and I love the tie!

AM: It's a canary.

MN: Ah well, that's it, perfect! Absolutely perfect! We've also got, from the Tenerife Tourist Board, this is Clemencia Wiese, good to have you with us, thank you very much for being there.

CW: Lovely to be here

MN: And sorry it's not as warm as Tenerife.

CW: I know.

MN: But we can imagine and just watching that there, it actually brings all that sunshine to life. Lots of questions coming in. First of all, let me just talk about Tenerife, it's gone through a bit of a change I would guess because in Britain we have a different image of Tenerife than that we've just seen there.

CW: Well, I think the change has been in the growth, the growth of the accommodation on the island has been in the five star category in the last ten years or so and I think also the fact that people are venturing away from just the resorts themselves and going beyond the beach to discover everything the island has to offer and what we really want to talk about today is the north east of the island, the capital city and how this can be used for short breaks and how there is a cultural aspect of Tenerife which is very separate from the already known sun, sea and fun family or young people or older people type of holiday.

MN: I mean, Tenerife has a micro-climate and I guess it has a micro-climate of tourists as well considering there are so many different types of tourist that Tenerife can attract.

AM: Well certainly there's a ... I think there's a definite north/south divide and I have to declare that I've only been to the north so I can speak very positively of the north which I think is a great place to visit. Go south if you want the beach holiday but that's not my personal interest. Most of what I do is what you might call looking at the cultural tourism market. I write on that subject and I must say Tenerife fits in there perfectly. It's a place which, on its northern coast, has some great villages, some lovely cities, fantastic landscape, both natural and man-made and, in Auditorio, the building we saw in the opening sequence there, the thing that looks like Sydney Opera House, one of the best new buildings of the twenty-first century, in my opinion. Absolute blow-away, stunning building.

MN: Well, you'll be delighted to know you've answered Jasmine's question already. Jasmine, thank you very much. She wanted to know the big difference between the north and south of the island. Obviously, the style and the way of life and the leisure activities available are different. Is the weather different between north and south?

CW: There is a bit of difference. I mean that's obvious in the fact that the north is very green, so green usually means there's more rain.

MN: Is this the other side of Mount Teide?

CW: Yes, yes, but a lot of it isn't really rain. What happens is the winds come from the north and Mount Teide, which is the highest mountain in Spain, and it's nearly four thousand metres high, which is really very high, that's twelve thousand metres...

MN: Twelve thousand feet

CW: Yeah. The clouds are stopped by the Mount and they remain there and a lot of it isn't actually precipitation but it's just the wetness that comes into ... in fact that's how Tenerife gets its water, of which it has plenty, there's fresh water, is from the clouds going into the mountains and coming out through underground rivers. So it's a phenomenal place, it's such a small island with so many different micro-climates, micro-systems. So even though we can talk about the north and the south divide even within the south and even within the north, there's many different micro-climates and micro-systems which create different vegetation, different activities and I think one of the greatest things Tenerife has is the people. The people authentically welcome the visitors and you feel that, you don't feel like, ‘Oh, I'm here and they're just going to rip me off' and so I know it's a safe place. They are concerned about you're enjoying the holiday, you're going away thinking really positively about their island, you know the people are very proud. I think you probably experienced that and ...

AM: Yes, certainly. I visited Auditorio and I was shown around it, quite rightly by somebody who felt this was a national treasure and I think a country does need a statement building. We've recently seen the opening of the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff.

MN: Sure.

AM: And we know that say, the Sydney Opera House made such a difference to people's perception of Australia and I think that Auditorio, and the pride that people have in that place, says something about where Tenerife sees itself heading as a cultural centre as well as a tourist centre.

MN: You mentioned it's a small place, geographically what size is Tenerife? Just so I can get it in my mind?

CW: It's about a hundred and thirty kilometres by ninety kilometres, so ...

MN: It's a fair trip though, if you were taking a road trip from north to south or east to west

CW: Yeah, well there is a very, very good freeway that goes almost all the way around the island. The reason it doesn't continue is because there's this mountain so the roads going up the mountain, there are two or three different roads and they're excellent roads but they're not freeways, and I actually think if you like driving and you like curvy roads, I mean, you can't find a better paradise.

(Laughter)

MN: I think you've had a higher experience.

AM: Yes, rather unexpected, it wasn't my intention but we were staying in the north and wanted to go down to the airport in the south and there was this freeway, as Clemenzia said, which goes all the way around the island, I thought that was a bit long and there was this nice road over the middle so, "We'll take that" and we just climbed and climbed and kept going higher and higher and eventually got to the top of what is a volcanic crater. You tip over into that and it was really ... it was like going through the landscape of Mars. On each side there were these great red rocks and pinnacles towering up and you just think, "My goodness, where have I come to?" because I thought this was, you know, this was a holiday island and here I am on the red planet. Now that's quite something and unexpected. It shouldn't be unexpected because when you fly into Tenerife you see this big mountain.

MN: You see the whole thing.

AM: But you don't think when you go across that you're going to be out in something like prehistoric landscape.

CW: Yeah.

AM: You expect dinosaurs to be lumbering around. So, if we're talking about unexpected Tenerife, that was certainly unexpected.

MN: I've got questions coming in fast and furious and we'll try and get through as many as we possibly can now and those that we don't we will indeed pass on and see if we can get some replies back for you. Charlotte wants to know, "I've been to Tenerife several times and honestly didn't realise there was more to the island than the beaches, the hotel complexes and the amazing? scenery. What should I be looking for next time as I love the people and I love the weather?" We're talking about this north east corner, aren't we really?

CW: Yes, it really should be the north east corner. I don't know if Charlotte's been to Santa Cruz but as a small city it's a fabulous place.

MN: Is that the old city, the ancient city? Santa Cruz, is that the original ... ?

CW: No.

AM: It's the new old city.

MN: It's the new old city?

CW: It's the new capital but it's been there since a long time. The reality is that Tenerife was a very important port and a very important stopping place for all of their ships going to America because they came down and then came across, okay, and they restocked and got fresh water and all those good things.

MN: Sure.

CW: And it's quite interesting because as the port of Santa Cruz grew, then the Spaniards moved the capital city and the church headquarters to La Laguna, which is a little higher and that became sort of the colonial capital and then, later on, it moved back down to the port city, which has always been like the trading, the business centre. It also has some magnificent churches but La Laguna is the one that is the world heritage site, the UNESCO world heritage ...

MN: Right, yes.

CW: ... and it's beautiful. It's very colonial, it's got four or five streets that are totally preserved, with these big houses, you know, the big houses that merchants lived in and government people. Some of them are still private, some of them have been turned into hotels. There's about four or five convents which you can visit, beautiful places, and where there is a music festival that uses all these venues to play baroque music and it's very beautiful. It's cold though. If you go to La Laguna you have to take a jacket. I mean, not cold-cold like here ...

MN: Sure.

CW: ... but it's cool. You need a bit of a wrap.

MN: Oh right.

CW: So it's very interesting.

MN: Top tip for that one, for those going.

CW: Yeah, yeah.

MN: We've got a question ... I was just going to say, you must love your job. One, because you're talking about somewhere you clearly have a great passion for ...

CW: Yeah.

MN: ... but also, the fact that there's a massive surprise on people's face when ... I mean, when I looked at that footage that we just saw and some more that we're going to see in a moment, I couldn't believe that was Tenerife because my image of Tenerife was so terribly different and it must be great to see the joy on people's face when they realise that there's somewhere quite close to where we are, that they can get to quite easily, with reasonable flights.

CW: I think you're absolutely right, I'm a very privileged person to have this job and to work for Tenerife and it is, it is a surprising place. The people again make a difference, but going back to Charlotte, she might go to the mountains behind Santa Cruz. I mean Santa Cruz has walking streets, lots of shopping to do, lots of little Tascas? with excellent food, and it's where locals are and if Charlotte's young and she wants to do the evening thing, try the nightlife in Tenerife, that's where the local kids go and it's just full of good nightlife but different from the south, you know, so I think it's a wonderful place and the mountains behind are magnificent.

MN: Okay, plenty of questions coming in, as I mentioned. Bella has a question, "My partner and I are older and we're looking for a more cultural experience from our summer holiday. Is Tenerife a good location for this?"

CW: Yes, I think so. First of all, let's talk about summer because a lot of people have the perception that in Tenerife, in the summer, it would be boiling hot but it's not. There's always a breeze and actually, in the north, the perfect time to go is our summer or our spring and summer and fall.

MN: Sure.

CW: Absolutely, if they go to the north and they stay on one of the beach communities, if they want to do that there's all sorts of little towns with coves and little centres that are actual villages or they can choose to go up to the mountains or they can stay in Santa Cruz itself and have more of a town experience and from there take a car and go different places.

MN: I'm assuming there are hotels and there are also houses to rent, villas to rent, that sort of thing?

AM: Yes, I would say I'd recommend the boutique? hotels, of which there are an increasing number, there's some of these old colonial houses which have been turned into hotels with a dozen rooms and you get a very nice flavour of the island and some of them bear comparison with some of the best boutique? hotels I've stayed in elsewhere in Europe. The other thing, talking of the sort of more cultural experience, is the programming at Auditorio, which is very good and they've had the London Symphony Orchestra there. They've had several of the Swiss orchestras, they have their own orchestras so, ...

CW: That's right.

AM: ... in terms of looking for concerts, then it's a good place and the acoustics are extraordinary, very good indeed! And it's also a place where the performance is enhanced by the design of the building. You know sometimes you're sitting in the concert hall and your mind wanders because there's nothing for you to look at apart from a lot of bows going up and down. With this, there's this great soaring space above you with light coming down, almost like light coming down from heaven onto the orchestra, it's beautiful.

MN: Ah.

AM: Well, you see the man who made it is a sculptor and he not only made a building that worked but also a building that is like being inside a work of art when you're there.

MN: I'll tell you what, you both describe it so very, very well I almost feel apologetic to be saying to you ‘let's have a closer look' because we've got some footage of where you're talking about, so let's have a look at Tenerife.

(Sounds of waves/water/birds/whistling/music/laughter/wind/church bells/footsteps).

MN: Well, we've just been watching all of that and it absolutely looks fantastic, it really does. We've got a question in from George and George wants to know, "I love old architecture", says George, so this must be the right place for him ...

CW: Oh, fabulous.

MN: ... "I've been to Malaga old town and some of the most beautiful Greek ports. Does Tenerife have similar?"

CW: Absolutely, there is the combination of the old and the new. I would say that Santa Cruz has some old architecture but it has more contemporary architecture or ‘old' meaning maybe a century or a century and a half old. But if you go to La Laguna then you have really old colonial architecture which is magnificent. The difference with most Spanish old towns is that Spanish old parts of the city usually are white-washed and pristinely white and not La Laguna. La Laguna is all bright reds and oranges. You somehow feel almost like you're in a Mexican colonial city or something but of course you're not and it's really very special so if you like architecture, absolutely, the north east is the place to go.

MN: There you go, George. That's your question. I'm sorry, you were going to say something.

AM: No, I was going to say I'd also add in a place that (inaudible) as soon as I fall in love with, called Garachico which is a bit further along the north coast and this is a wonderful village. It was a port, a Portuguese port, not a Spanish port and three hundred years ago this year, there was a volcanic eruption. Didn't kill many people but it filled the harbour in so they couldn't use it any more so the place stopped functioning as a port and when it sort of re-opened and was re-used again, they didn't bother to build anything new. So you have this little sea-side town which is exactly the same as it was three hundred years ago. It's called Garachico and that would be my top tip.

MN: That would be the place you would seek out most?

AM: Definitely, yes.

CW: Yeah.

AM: It's the perfect place for a weekend break. It takes you completely away from everything you're used to. It's warm, you've got the sea and you've got architecture which has not changed in three hundred years.

MN: Great, well there's another place to go. We've only got ten minutes left. Thank you very much indeed for all the questions. We're doing our best to get through as many as we possibly can. Jean wants to know, "What are the top three cultural landmarks in Tenerife that I can fit in in a weekend?" We've mentioned one.

AM: We've mentioned Auditorio.

CW: Auditorio.

AM: That's a must.

CW: I think La Laguna as a world heritage site. Another very exciting and a very human part of La Laguna is on the main square. There's a magnificent market, it's a farmer's market basically.

MN: Sure.

CW: They bring in things and most of it is grown organically or the cheeses are made at home so it's not imported things and, as you enter, there's just all this colour with bright flowers and very, very beautiful. So definitely La Laguna would be ... it's a rather large landmark, but that would be the other one.

MN: Well, it's a world heritage site so we use it as a site, can we?

CW: Yes

MN: Yes.

CW: And I would think on top of Garachico, would be Orotava, which is on the north and it's again an old town and it's totally preserved and beautifully kept with a lot of these old houses with the wooden balconies, the typical wooden balconies and they're very, very special.

MN: Ah, fantastic.

CW: Did you stop in La Orotava?

AM: Right, yeah, I drove up to it, it was actually on my way past that big volcano so I do know it has very steep streets because the car started going up and I thought, "Any moment now we're going to start going backwards."

(Laughter).

MN: That is steep. We've a quick question from Bernadette, who's just joined us. Hello, Bernadette, thank you for joining us. "Is Tenerife predominantly a Catholic island? I'm interested in Roman Catholic churches so would it be a good place to visit?"

CW: Yes, absolutely. It is a Roman Catholic, it's Spanish.

MN: You'd expect it to be.

CW: You'd expect it to be and a city, again like La Laguna, has some of the most beautiful churches and convents, because of course, in the old days, you know, a lot of the girls had to go into the convents, they had no choice. So these convents ... I think in one there's still some nuns, but they're absolutely magnificent to visit and the churches are gorgeous and they have these early music festivals and they also have a church music festival. So if she's interested in church music, if she looks at the website she can get the dates for that and the programmes, which is really lovely.

MN: Yeah, excellent, plenty there for her as well.

CW: Yeah.

MN: Sheena has just joined us as well, hello Sheena. "Can you tell me one of the differences with the food that you might get in Tenerife?" Because one expects to go somewhere and eat and experiment so what should we look out for? You've got to mention potatoes, haven't you.

CW: I know, I know. We've just had an argument about potatoes. The best potatoes in the world, without any doubt and the way they cook them, is they're old potatoes, they're not new potatoes but they're grown slow and they cook them in salt and then let the salt dry and then keep them in the pan until they get wrinkly and they're called ‘wrinkled potatoes' or ‘papas arrugadas' and once you've had ‘papas arrugadas' you don't want any other potatoes in the world.

MN: Cold, wrinkled potatoes. You're making them sound so nice!

CW: They're really delicious.

(Laughter).

CW: And there's special sauces to go with them.

AM: Yes, I'd recommend the wine to go with them

CW: Ah, yes, absolutely.

AM: I feel the Malvisa wine has got some very good stuff, particularly the Rosé and it's not expensive, in fact, it's rather embarrassingly cheap so you have to be careful how much you buy because there's a real danger, in that climate, you get through it. But it's very good wine, evidently used to get exported to Britain, these days it's consumed entirely on the island. But it's worth going over for some of that, very good, Malvisa Rosé.

MN: Are there any Michelin star restaurants or ... of that ilk on the island?

CW: Yes, in the north there's a couple of Michelin style restaurants but you don't have to go to the Michelin style because there is such fantastic food in a lot of the Tascas, local food and people tend to order by portions, in other words, the people in Tenerife, they'll just order a portion of fish and this and that and everybody sort of works their way through the food rather than starter and a main course but of course, you could go to a restaurant and order starter and a main course.

MN: Sure.

CW: Yeah, but going back to the wine, wine in Tenerife was started, oh, probably about the 1700s, late 1700s, and if you look at Shakespeare, Shakespeare actually talks about the wine from Tenerife, this Malvisa wine in his works because it was very, very popular then here. Of course, it wasn't grown and the whole New World wines weren't imported which have made it not commercially feasible for Tenerife ...

MN: So drink the wine of Shakespeare!

CW: Yes, absolutely, it's great.

MN: Okay, so the wine and the food, you can't fault either of them. Music as well. There is a music festival that happens there, Jenny has sent us a question in, she said, "The Canary Islands music festival sounds like great fun, when is it, can you tell me any more about it?"

CW: Yes, Canary Islands music festival is January, February and March and it's main building is the Auditorio Tenerife. Some of the best orchestras and opera companies and ensembles go and play there. Some of the best conductors have conducted there and it's absolutely worth going for.

AM: There is a website so you can see what's coming up and they are starting to do opera there. It will be a great venue for opera because it is such an operatic setting.

MN: Yes.

AM: So you feel like you're entering into the experience even before you go into the doors. But the website keeps you abreast of what's happening there.

CW: You can actually purchase tickets through the website in the ‘Auditorio de Tenerife.com', okay, but you can get information also from the web ‘Tenerife.com'.

MN: Alright, so from ‘Tenerife.com' and you'll can find the link at the bottom of this page which will lead you directly to it, how convenient is that! Megan wants to know "We're going to Playa de Las Americas...", you know where I mean, ".. this summer and would love to see some culture. Do the hotels or tour operators run trips to the places that you've been talking about or do you have to find your own way there?"

CW: Well, there are definitely day trips to Puerto de la Cruz, most people offer them, I'm not really aware. But if you wanted to go on your own to Puerto de la Cruz and even stay there and go to a performance, there is excellent bus service from Playa de Las Americas up to Puerto de la Cruz. The bus station is right next to the Auditorio, you can walk from there to the Auditorio and you can walk downtown if you want to or take a taxi which is very convenient. Taxis all the way up are a bit costly but there is plenty of rent-a-car and the driving is very easy because this is all the freeway. So there's lots of options and I'm sure your tour operator could also help you.

AM: I would say go for the hire car, myself.

MN: Right.

AM: That's what I did, it was easy. There's this one big auto-pista around most of the island so you can get to places very easily. I arrived without a map, just got in the hire car and headed to signs for ‘Santa Cruz' and no difficulty. So it's not like trying to drive around Naples or something like that. It's an easy island to get round.

MN: Yes, gentle drive.

CW: Yes, gentle drive.

MN: Excellent. Davina wants to know, "How does the culture of Tenerife compare with the other Canary Islands?" That's a good question.

CW: That's a good question. Well I would imagine that it's somewhat similar because the Canary Islands have something in common.

MN: Sure.

CW: You know, so I think though, that when you're talking about Santa Cruz, as a city it's had very forward-looking people leading the city so you have things like this Auditorio which is a landmark. Next to or near the Auditorio there is another Calatrava -designed building which is an exhibition centre, a small exhibition centre, which again, is beautiful. And now they've hired the same man that designed the museum here, the Tate, the Modern Tate. The same firm has two projects going on in Tenerife and one is the Museum of Modern Art, which will be finished by the end of next year and then they've also taken the main square which looks to the sea, which is La Plaza España, and they are sinking all the traffic and it will be traffic-free going into a Marina and into the ocean and that's very forward-looking and ...

MN: Very spectacular too.

CW: ... yeah, very spectacular and the best architects in the world so that's unique to Tenerife but that doesn't make it culturally that different from the other islands.

MN: Okay, plenty that we've had questions on as well. Brian, finally. He's going to Tenerife for the summer, have a great time. He said, "If there's one thing I shouldn't miss in Tenerife, what would it be?"

CW: The Teide, Teide National Park.

AM: And then we have to put in a final plug for Auditorio.

CW: Auditorio, yes.

MN: Alright, there's two things!

CW: Two things, yes.

AM: One each.

(Laughter).

MN: Apart from ... so one each ... that's fair.

CW: Yeah, you have to do two things.

MN: Auditorio, Mount Teide, those are the two things there. Listen, thank you both very much indeed for painting such a colourful and warm and friendly picture of Tenerife and you can click on that link at the bottom of your page there, for more information. Please do so and if you've got any comments about the show today then you can always send us some feedback as well. We always like to receive that as well. Thank you, Adrian, thank you very much indeed.

AM: My pleasure.

MN: Clemenzia, thank you very much indeed for coming in as well ...

CW: Thank you.

MN: ... and let's all remind ourselves of some of the beautiful scenery that you can see in Tenerife. We'll see you next time on webchats.

CW: Thank you.