Today we have a full day planned of exploring San Cristobal de la Laguna an Unesco World Heritage site due to its well preserved medieval downtown area. But first we have to get there and as a change from previous day we don’t use a car, we actually use a tram to go from Santa Cruz de Tenerife to San Cristobal. It is about one hour but at least we don’t have to look for parking after we arrive. First we walk to the Casa de los Capitanes Generales right next to Casa De La Alhóndiga, two of the most famous mansions here but the Captain mansion houses the tourist information center which is what we are looking for actually.
Inside it is nicely renovated and after avoiding a few tour groups we make it to the info center to get a few maps of the downtown area and on we go exploring.
In fact there are multiple named mansions in a row on this street and they are quite impressive, you can see that the people who lived here were quite rich and flamboyant.
The next building on our newly acquired map, Palacio de Nava, is a very impressive and seemingly official castle like building with a narrow alley right next to it that we decide to explore.
Next we continue exploring the many pedestrian side streets, we really enjoy the well maintained and preserved buildings. They are however pedestrian more in name as there are cars passing by from time to time with no rhyme or reason so we have to keep an eye open, just in case.
There is an interesting mixture of windows on the mansions we like the small differences, round, rectangular, large, small, quite interesting.
We continue on towards the farthest attraction we have planned to visit here, the Real Santuario del Cristo de La Laguna. It is quite at the edge of the tourist area but it is a major attraction famous for housing the image of the Cristo de La Laguna, a devotional image of the Canary Islands. Of course with our luck there is mass inside so we debate if we should even enter it.
Luckily there is a small area from which we can observe without intruding and we see the famous image before retreating.
Nearby is the Municipal Market which includes the Flower market, a small but beautiful section.
We also enter the market which besides some small sundry stores also sells vegetables and meat and we just want to see what is common for sale here.
Of course there are fish for sale but not as many as we expected and the famous Canarian Wrinked Potatoes that are used in at least one recipe at virtually all serious Canarian restaurants.
From here we return towards the medieval downtown area walking through the now deserted streets. It seems that most tourists have already left for the day, at least this area of the city.
On the way we stop at a gallery which is free to visit which has some interesting exhibits of famous Canary Islands artists. First is Cristino de Vera which has quite an interesting portfolio of artwork. We actually like her art and then we move on to the temporary exhibit.
The temporary exhibit is of Concha Ibanez another Spanish artist with a different artstyle but still quite interesting. There isn’t that much artwork but we still enjoy the respite from the heat before moving on.
Along the way we visit multiple museums and art galleries which is quite tiring but gives us an idea about the history and culture of the islands. The largest of the museums is housed in quite an impressive building but next to it is an even more impressive mansion, Palacio Salazar, constructed in the 17th century which really looks like a castle.
We continue on this central throughfare, Calle San Agustin, and reach the next major attraction the Church and Ex-Convent of San Agustin which gave the name to the street. It also has a few museums but they just closed when we reached them so we walk the courtyard interior and then move on.
By this time we are famished and with some difficulty we find a good open restaurant that even has some tables available. The food is especially good, it is probably one of the best we tasted till now.
That is true for both appetizers and main courses and for all of us so we are quite satisfied when we leave the restaurant and move on.
As we follow our way west and southward from the restaurant we find quite an interesting building. It is the Mexican Consulate, a honorific one but still a surprise. It should not be though as many if not most of ships headed to America started from the Canary Islands, including Columbus.
We then move towards Iglesia de la Concepción but when we try to enter we find out it has an entrance ticket. So we decide to send our relative to visit it as she likes churches a lot more. However as she enters she finds out that she first has to climb the tower, not something that she planned but at least there is a good view.
Inside it is interesting but probably not interesting enough to pay extra money to visit it when there are so many beautiful free churches.
While our relative is visiting the tower and the church we enter the house right across the church, it is a museum but you can visit the courtyard for free to see how the old mansions looked like.
Now it is time to slowly wind our way back towards the tram station on a different main street. We pass another important building the Teatro Leal which looks quite nice and we would have liked to see a show inside so we can see the interior.
The last attraction for today is the Catedral de la Laguna. It looks impressive from outside however it is expensive to enter so we let our relative to take the lead again and take photos of the interior.
It really is not looking that special in our opinion or at least not about ten euros special to make it worth the visit. It is quite annoying in fact how churches have started to charge for entrance but not a lot you can do about it.
And then there are only a few more minutes and we arrive at the tram station from where in another hour we are back in the capital. Returning to the AirBnB we buy some ice cream on the way to cool down after a day of walking in the hot sun and then we crash into the beds tired after a full day of walking.
