Blogs from Azores, Portugal, Europe

My apologies as it has taken me 7 month to finally post our blog for our Azores Trip. We began our Portuguese Azores Islands adventure with an early morning start in Vancouver to catch a plane to New York then transfer on to Ponta Delgada on Sao Miguel island. We had chosen to visit in August as this is when they typically receive their best weather and we had sunny days almost every day of our trip. We caught a taxi downtown from the airport and spent our first day lounging by the pool right next to the Atlantic Ocean waiting for our lodgings to open - Em Santa de Santa Clara – a quaint townhouse only 15 mins walk from town. I tried one of the local deluxe hot dogs with all sorts of toppings, ... read more

It was a bit overcast to say the least when we arrived in Funchal. Norwegian Epic is one of three ships in port today. There is the Mein Schiff and the Fred Olsen Balmoral. It could be a bit busy. At breakfast, George met up with a couple of people he had met at the previous days friends of Bill meeting. One of those lived in the same area that Theresa had grown up. It is a small world really. Prior to the trip, we had looked at the Yellow Bus for whilst we were in Funchal, but had been unable to get confirmation that it was running whilst we are there so we had not booked anything. Whilst on the ship, we had looked at the ship tours for Funchal, and they had a Yellow ... read more

Portugal first got on my radar when I had some clients of mine talk about recent trips they had there. They talked about the culture, the food, the relative safeness and how reasonable the cost was. Then I had some co workers take a trip there and thier pictures were inspiring. Needless to say I did a little digging on my own and put it on my travel list. The main areas that get traveled in Portugal are the north, Porto and the Douro Valley, the Algarve down in the south, known for their cliffs and green sea, and of course Lisbon. My first stop was Porto. Porto is part of the Douro valley. Wine country. This is the birth place of port wine and also the main reason that Portugal got it’s name. I had ... read more

Je termine mon séjour sur l’île de São Miguel par une escapade du côté est de l’île. Cette île est surprenante d’un côté pour ses superbes paysages à couper le souffle et de l’autre pour ses beautés naturelles insoupçonnées. Que diriez-vous d’aller marcher sur la caldeira d’un volcan et d’y faire une expérience unique? Notre escapade d’aujourd’hui nous mènera vers des lieux exceptionnels. Après avoir roulé vers l’est pendant une quarantaine de kilomètres, nous arrivons à la petite ville de Furnas dont la particularité est d’abriter vingt-deux sources naturellement chaudes, sulfurées et ferrugineuses. Au bord du lac Furnas, qui se trouve au creux du volcan, ces sources jaillissent dans un bruyant bouillonnement en laissant s’échapper d’épaisses fumées à forte odeur de soufre. Un peu plus haut, de grandes piscines d’eau naturellement très chaude et de couleur ... read more

Ponta Delgada est une ville à taille humaine, qui se parcourt à pied d’est en ouest. La particularité vite remarquée dans cette charmante petite ville insulaire tout en noir et blanc, est que la pierre volcanique est utilisée partout, de la rue aux toitures des bâtiments. Ici la pierre noire fait contraste avec les azulejos colorés des maisons du continent. Les trottoirs de mosaïque donnent à l’ensemble une unité fort agréable et chaque maison comporte aussi son lot de briques de lave s’harmonisant au reste du décor. Les seuls artifices demeurent les magnifiques rambardes de dentelle de fer forgé ornant fenêtres et balcons. La ville s’étend en plusieurs artères parallèles recoupées par une multitude de petites rues étroites qui donnent sur la mer. En point central, une grande place surplombée de la superbe église gothique São ... read more