Sunday ; Mostly cloudy, mild, windy.
The weather in Portugal this winter has not been as nice as we had expected, and has made us second guess our initial plans to visit Malta and Crete next winter. Southern Europe just is not warm enough in the winter to satisfy us.
Accordingly, once again we spent much of today rethinking next winter’s travel plans. Southern Mexico seems to be at the top of our list. But not “regular tourist” Mexico. As can be seen, we prefer somewhat “off the beaten path” travel adventures
Tonight we had take-out pizza from a nearby local small business. Every day we have been walking by this pizzeria’s open door and catching a whiff of the wonderful smells coming out. But … we were disappointed tonight. The pizza was … okay … but did not meet our high expectations. Which actually can be said for most of our Portuguese culinary experiences. Alcatra on Terceira Island, cataplana in the Algarve, and baking everywhere have been the exceptions.
Monday ; Chilly, windy, raining.
<sigh> We’re experiencing travel fatigue. And/or poor weather fatigue. Our early walk was very short. Our late walk was … non-existent ! I spent part of the day on teeth-gnashing phone calls with unsatisfactory businesses back in Canada. Joanne once again worked on re-inventing next winter’s travel plans. With little success. <sigh>
On the other hand … the day did have its high points. Stay tuned.
Tuesday ; Cloudy, cold, raining, becoming ice pellets around 6 PM. SHEESH !
Today was our final day in Horta. We had two walks, albeit short both times. Working together today on travel plans for next winter, we successfully reinvented the wheel, so to speak. It was as if we couldn’t see the forest for the trees yesterday.
We packed and prepared for departure tomorrow. Joanne did most of the work.
Wednesday ; Horta, Faial Island to Ponta Delgada, São Miguel Island
WHEW … tough day ! Bad weather ! Lengthy flight delays !
This morning we were ready at 11 AM to leave. We walked a half block to our local bakery and bought some items for lunch on the plane. Joanne returned to our suite and I went for a morning walk. I arrived back at our suite just as our pre-arranged taxi arrived fifteen minutes early at 11:30 AM. We were at Horta airport at 11:45 AM to check in for our 1 PM flight. As we drove in the taxi the weather turn a drastic turn for the worse, with heavy rain and lightning. YIPPEE ! <sarcasm>
We checked in for the flight, wallowed through the long security backlog, then settled in to wait in the boarding lounge. And waited. And waited. And waited ! Without explanation for the delay. The weather slowly improved. Very slightly ! Finally, we boarded the aircraft. With apologies for the lengthy delays … caused by bad weather throughout the Azores. And then we sat on the tarmac for more delays. Because the delays had been so lengthy that the airline decided to merge our 1 PM and a later flight. <sigh>
Finally … at 3 PM when there were no empty seats left on the aircraft we departed. We landed half an hour later on Terceira Island, our first Portugal destination last November. Seems so long ago ! Passengers got off … passengers got on. We departed again at 4 PM. We landed on São Miguel Island half an hour later at 4:30. Weather was bad throughout both flights. Joanne felt that both landings were more like crashes than landings. HA HA HA !
I had been excited to fly today … twice … on a Canadian built DASH-8 aircraft for the first time. But Joanne was right ! These flights were rough ! Especially the landings !
We retrieved our luggage, caught a taxi outside the terminal at 5 PM and were checking into our guesthouse at 5:30 PM. We got set up in our room, then went to walk around the neighbourhood. We checked out the nearby small supermarket, and the nearby indoor shopping mall. In the shopping mall we found the restaurant Joanne had found online and had chosen as the likely place to have our first meal here in Ponta Delgada.
At 7 PM we returned to the grocery store, bought a few items (water, Diet Coke for me, iced tea and chocolate milk for Joanne, etc.), took the groceries home and stored them in the communal kitchen’s fridge, then went back to the restaurant at 8 PM to buy large, custom built salads for dinner. Good choice, my dear, thank you.
Thursday ; Cloudy, mild, windy.
This morning while Joanne showered I walked a couple of blocks to a local bakery and bought some pastries for breakfast. Around noon we headed out for an afternoon of exploring Ponta Delgada. We’re in the old part of the old city, a block from the waterfront. We avoided the waterfront today because of the strong winds blowing in off the Atlantic. We wandered and explored west of our guesthouse in the afternoon, and east of our guesthouse briefly on our early evening walk.
We found a restaurant that appealed to us, and had their “pratos do dia” / daily specials for a late lunch. Today’s special was supposed to be tomato soup, although they served us what seemed to be cream of carrot soup, and grilled chicken cutlets in a creamy mushroom sauce, accompanied by both seasoned rice and fries, common in Portugal, but that seems odd to us Canadians. We also found a large Spar supermarket so we took the opportunity to buy some groceries, although we’re only going to be here for six days.
We returned home late in the afternoon. I napped briefly then we went out for another walk and more exploring, but it was getting chilly at dusk, and we were tired from our earlier exploring, so we returned home around 7:30 and prepared a light supper of lunch’s leftovers. While I worked on the computer Joanne did some research and planned two interesting outings while we are here in Ponta Delgada.
Friday ; Overcast, windy, intermittent rain.
At noon we left our suite to head out on an adventure planned yesterday by Joanne. We walked a couple of miles to … <blink blink> … a pineapple plantation. In the city ! I thought that was odd until Joanne reminded me of the many times we have visited Shield’s Date Farm in the middle of Indio, a “suburb” of the Palm Springs urban area.
The pineapple plantation was a self-guided tour followed by a free sample of pineapple liquor and pineapple jam in their large dining tent. Great business model ! Allow visitors to wander around the very interesting farming operation, housed in a series of very large “greenhouses”, followed by a multi-media audio-visual presentation in a theatre, followed by tastings that inspire having a reasonably priced (but obviously profitable for them) lunch or snack of pineapple specialty products. See photos below.
As we were finishing our lunch it began to rain heavily. <sigh> We contemplated calling a taxi to return us to our guesthouse, but decided to wait fifteen minutes or so and see if the rain diminished. It did. However, the heavy winds did not decline. We walked home in the light rain and heavy winds, a somewhat difficult task for those of us who find walking on wet cobblestones akin to walking on ball bearings.
We were tired and stressed by the time we got back to our guesthouse. I needed a nap !
Saturday ; Overcast, mild, windy near the waterfront.
It was forecast to be raining all day today. But … it didn’t ! YIPPEE ! So … at noon we went out to explore the waterfront. We walked one block from our guesthouse to the waterfront, and wandered a long distance to the west along the waterfront. We wandered so far that eventually we decided to do what we had planned to do tomorrow, in case tomorrow is rainy. We turned north and headed inland to Jardim Botânico António Borges, a botanical garden Joanne wanted to visit.
It was a beautiful garden / park, and we enjoyed wandering around for quite awhile. Eventually we felt hungry and began heading to our planned lunch destination. Closed ! HMPH ! We headed to Plan B / second choice. Closed ! HMPH ! Eventually we realized, after passing by restaurant after restaurant, all closed, that most businesses in the old downtown area were closed. How odd ! Don’t know if that’s normal for Saturdays here, or if today was some kind of holiday ? Eventually we made it all the way back home without finding any open restaurants that appealed to us. We bought a couple of very nice sandwiches at a sandwich shop a few doors down from our guesthouse.
We went out again at 7:30 PM to walk to another restaurant that Joanne had selected to try. Supper at Apito Dourado (Golden Whistle) was very good ! And an old Portuguese man who now lives in Canada stopped by our table to chat, having recognized our Canadian accents. Too bad he could barely speak English. HA HA HA !
DSK
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