Azores

Another "Throw Back" Post. I was looking for more Paris shots at Snapfish and found some of my pictures of Portugal. (All my photos are toast, I'll post about it one day when it doesn't make me so insane.)   :X

So anyway, a couple of years ago (wow time flies!) I took a cruise from Galveston, Texas to Barcelona, Spain. We made numerous stops along the way. We disembarked, stayed in Spain another week and then took a bus & then a train into France. And stayed well for the rest of the year, but that's another story. Anyway, back to this trip.  One of the stops was in the Azores.

---

Post Card from trip

Archipelago of the Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about 1,500 km west of Lisbon and about 1,900 km southeast of Newfoundland. See Wikipedia for more info.

Same thing as google map, wtf

Early morning view as we sailed in.

Our Ship Docked in the Harbor, nice, huh? We really had a great time on this cruise!

Really a pretty place!

Ponta Delgada - Old Town

On the origin of the place's name, the famous Portuguese chronicler, Father Gaspar Frutuoso, wrote:

“This city of Ponta Delgada is named for its situation located along volcanic lands, thin and not too considerable like on other islands, that lead to the sea, and where later, was constructed the chapel of Santa Clara (Saint Clare of Assisi), which was named the Santa Clara point...”

Around 1450, Pero de Teive, established a small fishing village that eventually grew until Santa Clara. -from Wikipedia 

---

Feels kind of like Spain- sort of...It's different though. I liked the area.

Still in older part of town

Bird of Paradise

After milling around the old city we went on a tour of the indoor pineapple plantations. I must say we were not excited about this. I like plants (a lot & I garden, too) but, it just didn't seem like it was going to be anything, BUT it was really a good tour! 


So do go see the pineapples, while you are there, k?

---

See, you can translate this by yourself!

:D

Greenhouses

Inside..

Too Cute! :D

The people there were SUPER nice!  We learned a lot and had fun too. There was a gift shop and fresh pineapple to sample. Taste NOTHING like the fresh fruit in the markets! Very, very good.

We were then going to take a tour of a volcanic crater lake. We boarded a bus, drove up, up and up higher and then there was a storm & fog! We couldn't see anything, at all. Not even the road! So we headed back down the Volcano & discussed the EU with the tour guides and the changes it had made on their lives and then went back to the ship. (BTW They refunded all our $$ for the tour!) So maybe next trip we will be able to see the  Lagoa do Fogo (Fire lake). Meaning: I will go back there again. :)

View from the ship - See the thick clouds?

Eating Kinder eggs as we sailed off to the next adventure!
Catch you later-