Azores

Yesterday was a day at sea and a day to relax.  Last night when we got to the room we had an elephant on our bed.

Today, September 27th we arrived in Ponta Delgada on the island of Sao Miguel which is the largest island of the Azores.

We had scheduled a tour so we met in the theater to wait for our tour.

Here is our ship from our tour bus.

The wall is part of the protective embankment around the island.

This fountain represents all of the islands in the Azores.

This is an old windmill that was still standing on a high hill.

San Miguel is also known as the green island and these pink flowers are known as “girls going to school”

They are a lily type flower.

Our tour is taking us to Sete Cidades which is an extinct volcano crater.  The views are beautiful.

This is a little resort town.

We had to wait for these cows to move from one pasture to another.

One of the main trees on the island is the Norfolk Island Pine which we used to have in our front yard when we lived on North Padre Island.

The fields are divided by bushes like this. 

   

There were still blue flowers left on some of the bushes.

 

We finally arrived at the village of Sete Cidades.  This is the church there.

This is the bandstand like all of the villages have.

This is the city’s crest.

After a short visit to the village we traveled across the bridge where the water is deep blue, reflecting the sky, on one side and bright green, reflecting the lush crater walls.  We couldn’t see much difference in the colors but the lakes were beautiful.

 

On the drive back we went to the tope of the crater and we could see the village and both lakes from this viewpoint.

   

We also caught a glimpse of another crater lake.

This is what was left of an old aqueduct from the 15th century.

From this viewpoint we were able to see both sides of the island which is only 373 square miles.

 

When we arrived back in town we went to the Hotel Azores Atlántico across from the cruise ship for a wine and cheese tasting.  We were able to taste lots of red and wines and a large variety of cheeses.

We chose to walk back to the ship.  This is a view of the port from the walkway with the lighthouse on the jetty.  

When we got back to the port we found America.  They had a Burger King!!  This may be a concession to the USAF base located on this island.

What a nice day ashore.

La Coruna

We were supposed to be in Lisbon, Portugal today.  Unfortunately the ship pilots and dock workers in Portugal are on strike.  Hopefully they will be off strike when we reach the Azores.

We didn’t get off the ship today.  By the time we woke up and had breakfast it was almost time for the shops to close for siesta.  They would not reopen until after we have to be back on the ship.  We did go up on the top deck and took pictures.

This port also has lots of pleasure boats.

Here’s a closer picture of town.

And here is a close up of the three towers that you could see over the buildings.

 

Here a a few more shots of town.

 

Here are close-ups of some of the more interesting buildings.

       

Were are not sure, but this could be the Torre de Hercules Lighthouse that was built in the 18th century.  There are 242 steps to reach the top.

While we were topside I took a picture of the man pool.

We went up to the Windjammer Cafe for a light lunch.  This model ship sits outside the entrance to the cafe.

 

I didn’t take any more pictures this day.

Panoramic Galicia

Last night the seas were very rough.  Several times I felt as if I was rising off the bed and coming down later.  Sleeping was tough.

Today we landed in Vigo, Spain and boarded a tour bus for a panoramic tour of Galicia which is this region of Spain.  As we were leaving the cruise ship we saw this interesting monument.

The rafts seen here on the Ria de Vigo are used for growing oysters, scallops and mussels.  We saw them almost everywhere there was water.

At first glance many of us thought these were burial houses because there is a cross on top.  However, they are small houses where they store grain after the harvest.  There are many of them scattered along the way.

Whereas we did not see many single family residences in England, there are many in Spain an some are very nice.

Many of the lots are planted in a variety of fruit and vegetables.

 

Lots of fishing boats.

There were also lots of vineyards along the way.

This grain storage houses matched the house.

We drove to where we were now seeing the Atlantic Ocean.

That is a little church out on that peninsula.  If you swim to it, it is thought to help infertile women get pregnant.

We drove across a bridge to the Island of La Toja. It is one of the well known thermal resorts of Spain.

This church was very interesting.

 

As we got closer we saw that the outside of the church is covered in scallop shells.

 

Unfortunately as you got closer you could see that tourists had left their mark on all of the shells they could reach.

The inside of the church also had a scallop shell as the focal point

We met back at the Talaso Hotel Louxo La Toja for lunch.  The room looked out over the water.

We had a table by one of the windows.

 

Lunch consisted of tapas and wine.  There was a large variety of tapas to choose from and desserts as well.

Here are some of the people from our tour group.

This is one of the sugar packages that I took a picture of so that I could remember the name of the hotel.

Here I am enjoying a glass of wine.

We took a different road back to the ship.  We travel some more along the coast.

 

And we saw a lot of farm land.

 

There were also more vineyards.

  

As we neared town we could see more rafts in the water.

   

Entering town, this was one of the older buildings that our tour guide pointed out.

Most of the round-a-bouts have something interesting in the center.  This one had a nice fountain.

 

Here are a couple more old buildings.

 

There is a mix of old buildings and very modern buildings here.

      We went back to the ship and rested before dinner.

After dinner we went to see Jacob Konvisor who is a violin virtuoso.  His show reminded us a lot of Shoji Tabuchi’s show in Branson, MO.

After the show we played some blackjack and I used my free slot pull and won this T-shirt.

Back at the room we found a rabbit on the bed.

 

Off to bed now.