Mount Teide and The Setting Sun

Another excursion today, after a late-morning visit to the pool. This was Teide By Night.

We got picked up midafternoon and headed up the mountain on the coach, making a few stops on the way, at a café, an interestingly shaped rock known as The Queen's Slipper, and a hotel, for food/drinks/toilet visits, and a restaurant where a three course meal was provided as part of the excursion. 

As we went, our tour guide, Nico, told us about the Canary Islands, Tenerife, and Teide, as well as making some funny jokes. We went through a forest, into Teide National Park, and through a large crater that once was a volcana itself. 

We reached a viewpoint at about 2.5km above sea level ready to watch the sunset, whoch is what is pictured here, and the volcano of Mount Teide itself to the side. 

Afterwards, we started back down the mountain slightly to stargaze (unfortunately, due to my phone camera not being great and the moon being bright, I couldn't get a picture of the stars - I will post Sophia's at some point). 
We looked through a telescope at some stars, and we got to look incredibly closely at the moon! Our guide then showed us the constellations (as best he could with the brightness of the moon and some Saharan dust in the sky) with a laser pointer. We then set off on an hour long journey back to the hotels at nearly midnight, which we are coming to the end of as I write.

There is a Flickr album here for photos taken today. A few were from the coach so not perfect, including one of a car that pulled over after scraping the side of the bus as we were heading up the mountain. The driver was mad, but I'm not sure what he expected trying to squeeze past a coach on a narrow mountain road.
Pictures from higher up at sunset also contain what looks like the sea, but is actually the tops of the clouds!

It was an incredible excursion which we all thoroughly enjoyed!