2004 Europe

Sete Cidades on Sao Miguel, Azores


April 24 - Wow, two ports in two days! Today we're in Punta Delgada on the island of Sao Miguel in the Azores. This island is much larger than Faial. It has high-rise buildings, maybe 8 stories, and much more traffic. Still by SoCal standards it's a pretty laid back place.

In the AM we went on a tour to Sete Cidades (Portuguese for Seven cities). It's actually two lakes, one bluish and the other greenish, in the crater of an old volcano. It was pretty cloudy so both lakes looked green. I've attached a pic of the lakes. We also visited a pineapple plantation and the Punta Delgado botanical gardens. The pineapples they grow are smaller and rounder with a smaller crown. They are very sweet. The gardens are on the site of a 16th century monastery and some of the walls of the old buildings can still be seen.

When the tour ended, about noon, we had the bus drop us off downtown. Diana did some shopping and I had a slice of Azorean pizza. It was great!! It was topped with some sort of Portuguese sausage, green olives with pimentos, delicious cheese (a local specialty), some sort of shredded veggie, and a somewhat spicy sauce. The crust holding all this together was absolutely perfect! Not at all sweet like most American pizza and also not thin and cracker-like. It was about 1 centimeter thick and had a wonderful taste and texture. The cheese and other toppings added about another 1 centimeter so the pizza was almost an inch thick in total and just perfect. Not too much or too little of anything. The pizza and a large diet coke were 2.5 euros, about $2.95 at the current exchange rate.

After lunch we walked around town. There are a lot of structures from the Portuguese Colonial period. The Azores were the first discovery Prince Henry the Navigator’s sailors made in 1427 after 11 years of unsuccessful exploration. There are many buildings from the 15th and 16th centuries. Most older buildings are of block and stone. Most of the stone is plastered over and whitewashed but the borders and accent stones are of the island's own black basalt stone. They are left unpainted and provide the black accents and borders you see in the picture of the Chruch of Sao Jose at the bottom of this page. A picture of Punta Delgada's main plaza is next. As you can see it is paved with black and white cobblestones set in patterns. The entire city's sidewalks are made the same way. Each street has its own unique pattern in the stones.

While touring the streets we encountered groups of school children walking along the streets with their teachers, apparently headed to a museum or local site. All it took was one “Ola” (unlike Spanish, accented on the la’), and the kids would break out in a spontaneous celebration. They called back, danced, waved, laughed, smiled and jumped around, undoubtedly spurred on by the sight of my video camera. Even the teachers laughed and smiled and called back, “Ola”. People here seem very warm and happy. They especially like it when you speak Portuguese rather than Spanish even though they understand both. Learning just a few words of greeting in the language classes aboard the Noordam has really paid off. So far we’ve gotten some Portuguese, Italian and Dutch (most of the deck officers are from Holland).

Tonight is another formal evening and show by the repertory cast. I'm looking forward to it, as they have been very good. The show just ended and it was great! Casey Cook came into the audience and took me out to dance with her. She was already my favorite singer, now she’s just my favorite period. After the show they had the Desert Extravaganza in the Lido. There were all sorts of sweets done up in very intricate and fancy styles but my favorite was a cake in the shape of a wheel of cheese with marzipan mice crawling around on it. I didn’t take my camera so there are no pictures. Neither Diana nor I had a bite to eat; we were still full from dinner. They had my favorite HAL desert for dinner today, flourless chocolate cake. Yikes!! Think a little heavier than a chocolate soufflé and you’ve got it. Dark, rich, creamy chocolate cake that’s a little soft and warm in the center! Yum.

Must be time for a rest as we have another day at sea tomorrow.

April 25 – We are now on GMT and will be on it until we head into the Mediterranean Sea towards Rome. It will be nice to go several days without losing an hour of sleep. This morning we had a port talk by Obelio, the onboard port lecturer. He will make a presentation on each port we visit, giving us a feel for the logistics and local color. He will also discuss sights you should try to see and the local crafts to look for. He usually introduces some of the social customs that may be different from ours so we don’t inadvertently offend a native. The entertainment this evening was a variety show featuring three of the performers we’ve seen on the trip across the Atlantic, Woody Pittman, the magician/comic, Carme Pitrello, the Las Vegas lounge style singer/comedian, and Justin Miller, the Big Band expert and guitarist. All three are very entertaining performers, but Justin Miller is by far the best.
(c) 2004 Rod Longenberger