I must fess up I had never heard of this place,a part of Portugal, the Azores is a group of 7 islands, the sail in was sensational, Ponta Delgada is called the Green Island, and it certainly is named well!
The debarkation was so easy, and we walked straight over to our tour guide Nicholas, holding a sign for Mr Warren Currey, the 4+hour tour cost €35, and was certainly a fabulous investment. We had a car with just us, and no crowds... Perfect!
We saw the magnificent lakes, and country side, the population is 20 thousand, and there are 40 thousand cows, and the cows are really pretty! All the farms are surrounded by hedges, and the hedges are wild growing hydrangea ... Still about a month away from blooming, OK so we had better come back! There are azaleas everywhere... And agapanthus plants. We went high up to the top of the island, and did a bit of cross country climbing to the lookouts. The view was beyond spectacular!
We stopped for a lunch break at a little village called Sete Cidades Crater Lake. Lunch with a local beer and wine set us back €3.50 ... What a bargain!! There are many very beautiful churches, and the housing is really unique.
Luck and good Karma was on our side, the weather was perfect.... Sunny and warm all day long.
Nicholas spoke English very well, however, we had a bit of trouble keeping a straight face when he told us that sometimes it gets so "froggy" you can't see a foot in front of you!!
We stopped at one lookout, and blow me down... There on the side of the road was a motor home, just like yours Sandra, and it was converted into a tropical bar!! And a beer was only €1.....
Thank you Linda from Cruise Critics for posting about Magic Tours, we could not have been more delighted, both with quality and value of our tour! Oh and Nicholas was pretty spunky too!!
Our tour ended and we set off in foot to check out downtown Ponta Delgada. They are preparing for a very large catholic festival, the church and surrounding streets are being decked out in gazillions of lights, what a fabulous sight that would be at night! The church was incredibly ornate, and strangely when Warren walked in the roof remained intact!!
OK time to check out the local bars, and naturally to search high and low for a stubby cooler .. (Coozie to our Yankie mates).
Trying to make non English speaking people understand what the heck a stubby cooler is was a comedy act on its own. Needless to say no cooler was added to the collection, however, he did bring back an empty stubby. The beer was called E Special, judging by the look on Wazzas face, nothing too special about it!! The wine was OK, but the one that came out of the chateau cardboard was pretty ordinary.
The country produces milk and cheese of a high quality, so I asked one of the ladies at a bar we were at if they sold any cheese... Well, it seems if your mobile phone rings mid service, you answer it!! OK .. I'm good for cheese but thanks anyway!! Wifi was free at lots of places, so we did a bit of Facebooking, and Karen uploaded lots of photos.
All too soon it was time to head "home" to our ship, a great shuttle service got us back in no time, and we sat and watched sail away from our balcony.
The sail out was also very spectacular!
I feel the same problem might occur with this awesome trip as we had on our Canada/Alaska holiday, not enough adjectives to describe what we are seeing!
We ended up holding up the bar with the ships comedian, Bud after we saw the comedy juggling act(great show) .... almost got hosed out of there at half past! Good thing there is 3 days before we get to Dover!
The weather is now turning cold, still clear and blue skies, but a cold wind.
Every day we meet some more nice people.. Maz the Germans remember me, I am sure, 'cos they are super friendly to Krees!!!
The ship is just lovely and our cabin steward Bernard is spoiling us with a different towel animal every night, they are all on the couch now, all 7 of them!! Warren will have to sit on the floor soon!
Tomorrow we front UK immigration inspection, very civilised to have it on board ... And so close to the Champagne bar....
For those who are smokers, just an FYI, a pack of ciggies here is about €2.70, and a beer at a bar will set you back 50 cents.
Cheers to all, and thanks for joining us.
Till next time
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