We got up at 7:30am and got ready for the “Jeep Safari Tour”
of the San Miguel island. We ordered
room service to provide breakfast at between 8:15 and 8:30. They arrived at 8:20. The attendant set our little table (including
table cloth) and set up the food just like we were in the dining room. It was so cool. Julie ended up with a mushroom and cheese
omelet plus a couple of link sausages and Bob had buckwheat pancakes with
blueberries and walnuts, plus a couple of sausages, and a dab of hash
browns. We also had fruit. Julie felt that her omelet was good, but its
temperature was only warm instead of hot.
One of the causalities of doing in-room dining.
We made it down to the Stardust where we were supposed to
assemble to be led to the waiting vehicles.
At 9:15 we were led down to deck 4, midships, and disembarked on dry
land for the first time since May 7. Our
vehicles awaited us and they each held 5 people plus the guide/driver. Ours was a land rover and we joined a group
of three people from Mexico. Our guide,
Antonio, normally was a captain on a whaling observation boat. He described the Azores (A is pronounced as a
short a, accent on the second syllable) as an archipelago of nine islands, the
one we were on (San Miguel) was the largest at about 400 square miles and had
about 155K inhabitants. All in all, the
Azores have around 250K people. The
Azores are part of Portugal, which is about 900 nautical miles to the
east. They are volcanic with black sand
beaches (except one island has white sand) and an excellent climate for growing
plants. The jewels of this island are
the crater lakes of Sete Cidades.
We headed out of Ponta Delgarda and went west toward the
crater lakes. We got to a large hill
overlooking the two large lakes (they are really one lake separated by a bridge
with holes in it). On a clear day (which
we didn’t have) one of the lakes appears green, while the other appears
blue. This is an optical illusion based
on the depth of the lake and the surroundings (the green one is very deep and
is smaller reflecting the green of the hills of the crater, while the blue one
is larger, is more wide open, and mostly reflects the sky). We couldn’t really see the color of the blue lake, but
green one was clear. Note - in the first picture, the green is the close one and the blue is the far one.
We then headed down a mountain ridge on a dirt road toward the town of Sete Cidades. The ridge was very narrow, with steep cliffs on each side. It was a little scary and the lady in the front had to keep telling the driver to keep his eyes on the road. As we were going down, the fog cleared somewhat and we got some great views.
A crater.
A cemetery:
Lots of cows!!! They have to be milked twice a day and producer upwards of 15 liters of milk each time!!
Before we got to the town, we stopped and took some pictures
of the ocean.
Once we reached the town, we stopped in the middle near a
small café and the church. We had time
to wander around and look at the architecture.
Orange trees used to be more prevalent. We did find one:
After that, we drove along the blue lake, then backtracked
to the bridge between the lakes and then drove around the other side of the
blue lake. We then started the climb up
the hill again, stopping by another lake, and more views of the green/blue
lakes.
The bridge separating the green and blue lakes.
We were done a bit early because another stop was fogged
out, so we drove through town and he gave us a bit of a city tour (including
showing us the street he grew up on, his school, etc.). It is a very nice city. It has very narrow streets, beautiful
decorations on the sidewalks, and a lot of cars. Eventually we made it back to the ship.
Before re-boarding the ship, we decided to wander around the
city and take it in.
We stopped at an
ATM to get some Euros (the Euro to dollar ratio is so low right now, we decided
to stock up). We also found a free wi-fi zone.
We got back on the ship at around 3pm. It was scheduled to depart for Lisbon at 5pm,
with all aboard of 4:30pm. Having
skipped lunch, we stopped for a quick snack and then went to our room to get
ready for dinner and sail away (we only have three on this trip and we missed
the first two). The “What A Wonderful
World” song was played as usual as we left.
We then went for a few minutes to the Cove and then went at 5:20pm for
the 5:30 Magic Castle show. The magician
was quite amazing at the slight of hand stuff, but some of the other tricks
weren’t great.
After that, we went to dinner in the dining room and sat at
Ana’s table again. Tonight she
recommended the French Onion Soup with cheese croutons (we both had it).
Second course, Julie had an appetizer portion of the pasta
specialty – Zita Pasta “Puttanesca” with anchovies, capers, tomatoes, black
olives, chili flakes, and Italian parsley.
She loved it and its spiciness.
Bob had the Greek Farmer’s Vegetable Salad with tomatoes,
cucumbers, bell peppers, red onions, olives, and feta cheese toss in herb
vinaigrette. He thought that it was
excellent.
For the entrée, we both had the Roasted Prime Rib of Black
Angus Beef with natural gravy, creamed horseradish, corn on the cob and baked
potato. The prime rib was excellent and
very tender.
For dessert, Julie had the Flourless Chocolate Dove Cake a
la Mode, while Bob had the Apple Cinnamon Tart with vanilla ice cream. We both thought that these were good, but not
excellent.
We went to the Cove to hang out before the 8:45pm show and
then decided to go and check out our pictures.
None of them were wonderful, so we decided to pass on them. The show was Jon Courtenay who plays the
piano and does comedy. It was
terrific. He told so many jokes that
were so well done that we were pretty well in stitches throughout. We definitely see why he was named Crystal
Entertainer of the Year for several years.
He was terrific.
After that, we went to bed so we could lose ANOTHER
HOUR (as one entertainer said - learning to live on 23 hour days). Fortunately this was the last lost
hour of the trip. For the day we did 14K
steps and 6.5 miles.
No comments:
Post a Comment