DAY 8---PONTA DELGADO IN THE AZORES

       

                              Our position today at Ponta Delgado.  It is 73 degreees today.

AZORES 

        The Azores is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atlantic, about 870 miles west of Lisbon, Spain.  It is one of two autonomous regions of Portugal (Madeira is the other that we visited two days ago at Funchal).

        In order of importance, the main sectors of employment of the Azores are service, agriculture, fishery, industry, and tourism.  Total population of the islands is approximately 240,000.  U.S. Forces Azores Command is located at Lajes Field on the island of Terceira.  A small joint staff with 425 military and 10 DOD civilians are assigned here with a US population of 2170 including dependents live here.

PONTA DELGADA (AZORES)

         This is our first visit here.  Ponta Delgada is the largest city and executive capital of the Autonomous Region of the Azores islands.  It is located on the Azores island of San Miguel.  The population of the island is nearly 140,000 with half of them living in Ponta Delgada.  The island is about 40 miles long and 8 miles wide. 

        The Azores and Ponta Delgada were one of the poorest areas in Europe until they saw potential in the tourism industry.  Now flights have increased over 200% from North America with the Ponta Delgada airport being the main hub for the islands.  The island features stunning landscapes, thermal pools, natural steam vents, volcanic lakes, plantations and picturesque towns.

LAST EVENING

                                                     Joie, is "smoking" my Manhattan.

                Monique (on left) and Shane greeting us in Compass Rose every evening.

                                   I chose the "Line 39" merlot for my red wine again.

                          Chicken parmesan over spaghette was enjoyed by both of us.

This is delivers newspapers, mail, and etc to our suite doors during the day.  In evenings he vacuums.

        Tonight's show is "Crossroads".  First time we have seen this show and really did not care for it.  Did not care for song selections.  The cast was great however.

     The female bass guitar player is also the trombone player in the orchestra.  Very talented.

TODAY

Finally a view of the city from our balcony.  This taken at 8am as they were setting up the gangway.

        I got our Americano coffees as usual and grabbed a carrot cake muffin for my breakfast.  Rebecca's room service showed up right on time at 8am.  Said her omelet was best so far.

        I worked on adding the above for today's post before heading to the theater to meet for my 8:45 tour, "A Taste of the Azores". which is to be an 8 hour tour.

        My first clue that I should have turned around and stayed on the ship was light rain as I headed out to the tour bus.

                             The tour bus was very nice and I had the back row all to myself.

                                                  Their prison had a view of the ocean.

                                   United and Delta Airlines fly here from JFK and Boston.

        LOTS of corn fields.  Dairy is the main driver of their economy.  They are famous for their cheeses.  80% of the corn is for dairy cattle.  The cattle were out in pastures not in barns and the farmers took the milk machines out to pasture to milk the cows.  Seemed very weird to me.  I never saw a barn.  The old volcanic hills are lush and green due to rain up there so plenty of pastures for the dairy cows.

        This tour stopped at 4 view view points during the 3 hours.  Fog was so thick I never got off the bus because it was raining and you could not see anything.  The tour was a total waste of my time.

        I did get off for 1 minute to take this photo of a green lake.  There are many lakes on the island formed from volcanos millions of years ago.

                                               Flowers lined all the roads we traveled on.

              Hard to make out due to the weather but there are dairy cattle in the pasture.

Not sure but I think these are big bales of plastic wrapped silage (ground up corn stalks for feed).

                                                             Interesting tree in the yard.

                                                                        Old castle

        Almost back to the ship.  Last stop on the tour was at a hotel for wine and cheese tasting.  It was just before noon so I skipped this and walked back to the ship.  Short walk.  

        Debra, our guide for this tour, was very good and talked non-stop for 3 hours telling us about the Azores.  Very interesting.  Farmers live in small villages as never saw homes out in the country.

                      Jaymea, is the Prime 7 maitre d who seated us for lunch there.

        Not photographed but I started with a empanada and chicken quesadilla.  They were not very good so had this seafood platter.  Panko coated shrimp, calamari, and cod.

        After lunch I went out for a walk in town.  I wanted to see the city plus I had not got my walk in for today.  I was off the ship for 40 minutes and covered a lot of ground.  This is a marina just next to our ship.

                                                   Long promenade along the water.

                                                                      City Gates

                                                            Church of Saint Sebastian 

                   Front of Church of Saint Sebastian.  Constructed between 1531 & 1547.

                                                        Cafes on about every side street.

Splendor is spotless thanks to these deck hands doing touch up paint.  No signs of rust to be found.

        After almost completing today's blog post I decided to sit out on our balcony which I rarely do.  But it was so pleasant out there, I couldn't resist.

                                          Rebecca even came out to pose for a photo.

        They are suppose to show the Texas vs Ohio State college football game on the ship's sports channel at 4pm (satellite reception permitting).  Normally all that channel has is soccer.

        Tonight's Compass Rose menu.  We will be having the chicken & vegetable spring roll as an appetizer.  Rebecca is wanting the beef bourguignon.  I like it too but may have the crispy duck ala orange.  I have asked Kadek to decant a bottle the Flora Springs Trilogy red blend wine for me.  It is the wine Luca served us with our dinner with him.  Price is $115.

        Of course cocktail hour in Meridian Lounge first.  Really looking forward to the show tonight.  The headliner entertainer is Isabel Commandeur.  We have seen her shows before and she is a very talented singer.  Will try again for front row seats.

        We will be sailing again at 6pm for Horta on the small island of Faial.  Scheduled arrival is 7am.  More about that tomorrow.

I got to thinking if you have a Google account you may be able to view today's photos better on this link:   https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipNFYR86rJIYeNgaQBdlZia3B8fCEhIevBHzupUd

You will have to "copy & paste it to your browser to open it.  I could not get it to work with the ship's internet but maybe you can.