05.12.2019 update from the Azores, Portugal

On Friday morning we arrived at Ponta Delgada in the Azores right on time at 8am.  It was foggy and a bit rainy, but as Seattleites, we know how to deal with the rain.  We left the ship and walked around the town for a couple of hours before returning to the ship for lunch.  Then we went on our half day excursion.

Our tour bus took us to Terre Nostra Botanical Gardens and Furnas Hot Springs.  The gardens are really nice, with 250 classified varieties of camellias and 650 total varieties.  There have been three owners of the garden and each brought in large numbers of trees from all over the world, for a total of at least 6,500 trees.  The fern garden was exceptional; ferns were all through the gardens though.  There were examples of cork trees; Portugal grows most of the world’s cork.  The bark is stripped and used and then allowed to grow for nine years before being stripped again.  The shops had purses, wallets, bracelets and even shoes made of cork.  All are nice looking.

Sao Miguel’s geo thermal hot springs and mud pools are a result of an old volcano that last erupted in the 1600s.  They are bubbling pots that steam and emit a strong Sulphur smell.  The water is quite red from the iron content and doesn’t look appetizing but is said to be good to drink.  The high heat kills bacteria.

We also went to Pico de Ferro Belevedere; it was a very steep climb up to the summit.  There we saw beautiful panoramic views of the volcanic Furnes Valley.  By that time the fog had burned and it was a beautiful afternoon.

The ship’s entertainment crew are excellent, we enjoy them all.  The headliner entertainers have been very good.  We had a ventriloquist, Dan Horn, that we saw twice; each show was good.  The comedian, Tom Drake who advertises himself as ‘an attitude with a tie’, also was good.  We saw him three times and enjoyed all of his shows.  We had seen Dan Horn in the past.  Minor adjustments to his act are all that is needed to keep our attention.

Those acts left the ship in the Azores so we will have new acts for a bit.  We are booked through to Rome but the cruise is actually two cruises.  One ends in Barcelona and the other in Rome.  Some passengers will leave in Barcelona and others come aboard there.  We booked early and will be in the same cabin for the whole trip.  Others booked later and had to accept different staterooms for each leg of the trip, so will need to move when we are in Barcelona next Saturday.

Colleen & John