Just getting to drawing a texture is surprisingly long winded

I'd copy the glSurfaceview and glRenderer from one of the Google apps:
http://code.google.com/p/apps-for-android/Take a small existing app and strip down is the easiest way. Fortunately once you've got all the lengthy bit out the way the code is much more direct, OpenGL has a lot of setting things up and telling it how you want it to work, which is unavoidable.
Edit: Oh and Google the "Nehe opengl" guides too, they're a good introduction. Don't be put off by the lengthy initial bit though, it gets much easier and you're not expected to ever remember everything first go, you normally end up adapting slightly every project, then copy+pasting to the next.