October 31, 2014 - Ashore in the Azores

Ponta Delgada, Azores

Sailing in to Ponta Delgada it looked as though all the buildings were white. As we got closer we could see that most buildings were in the customary Portuguese style of white-washed walls with tile roofs. Often buildings were trimmed with volcanic rock. It was a very neat Mediterranean look.

The Azores were discovered by the Portuguese in 1444, although there is evidence that the Greeks, Viking, Irish, and Arabs may have visited centuries earlier.

On shore we met our tour guide, Rui Medeiros of Azores Private Tours, and driver, Ricardo. There were 13 in our private tour group and we had a 15-passenger bus. Our group included a man in a wheelchair and a woman with a walker.

Our first stop was a pineapple "plantation." We were told that pineapples were currently the major agricultural industry in the Azores, along with tea. The pineapples in the Azores are grown organically in greenhouses. They take two years to mature here - about 6 months longer than in more tropical climates where they can be grown outdoors. They are a little bit smaller than the pineapples from Brazil, Hawaii, etc. They cost about €5-6 in a local market. It is not cost effective to export them. 

After the tour of 3 small greenhouses, we were given "free time" in the gift shop. It was a very small place. We could taste such concoctions as pineapple mustard, pineapple chutney, pineapple marmalade, and pineapple liqueur. What I tasted wasn't that good. They also sold crappy souvenir merchandise at inflated prices and stuff that looked like it came from the flea market at the senior center. All of this merchandise was crammed into a tiny shop with aisles so narrow you could barely pass. A large motor-coach full of tourists arrived right before we left and I wondered how they were all going to fit into the cramped, crowded gift shop.

Artsy shots taken near pineapple plantation

The next paragraph is a bit of a rant, so feel free to skip it.

Mr. Wheelchair was taken in first and parked by the food samples. This effectively blocked the aisle and no one could get by or taste the samples or look at anything in the store. Now, I am happy to accommodate people with disabilities, and I am happy to let them have the front seat on the bus, so they don't have to walk far. But they are no more entitled to be rude or oblivious than anyone else. Instead of always having to be the first one off the bus and holding up everyone else while they slowly get off, maybe they could let everyone else off first. If they are not able to enter the greenhouse with the rest of the group, maybe they could position themselves somewhere other than right by the door if they wish to carry on a loud conversation while our guide is talking. And maybe they could just be a little bit more aware that they are blocking the way for the whole group. Finally, being old does not automatically entitle you to special status. Most of the people on this cruise are old. 

End of rant

Upon reflection, after the tour was over, I realized the following:

          1. The pineapple plantation wasn't very interesting.

          2. The gift shop was even less interesting.

          3. I very much doubt that pineapples are the major crop in the Azores. The so-called plantation we visited seemed to consist of about 5 small greenhouses. We saw no other greenhouses during our drive around the island. Maybe we just didn't go to the right part of the island. The port guide says there are thousands. 

          4. If they don't export pineapples, and if they are fairly expensive and are considered a special treat, how can they be a "major" crop?

Conclusion: This was all a ploy to get us into the horrible little gift shop because it was far away from the main shopping areas. We were taken there first so that we wouldn't have a chance to see prices elsewhere and figure out that their prices were jacked up. Pineapples are not the major crop.

Except for this stop, our tour was fantastic and Rui was an excellent guide. Many other tours also stopped at the pineapple plantation, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. The economy is very bad at this time and you gotta do what you gotta do.

For the rest of our tour we drove around the island and stopped at several scenic lookouts. The Azores are volcanic and that defines the landscape. 
 

I don't know what it is

 
We visited an area called Sete Cidades (Seven Cities). This refers to six craters located inside a very large seventh crater.

One of the six craters in the foreground. The mountains in the background are part of the seventh crater. It's huge!

Also found inside the large crater are the Twin Lakes - one green and one blue. 

The Twin Lakes

The Green Lake and the Blue Lake

Everything is lush and verdant. It's not particularly tropical, though. 

We stopped in a small village inside the large crater for coffee and pastry. It seemed like Paradise. 

Peaceful church inside the crater

Between each stop, Rui gave us information about life in the Azores. The unemployment rate is high - about 27%. (As with Samoa, the number of Azoreans who have emigrated is about 3 times the number living in the Azores.) But you wouldn't know the unemployment is so high from looking around. Everything is very well-tended and there is very little evidence of poverty. There is very little trash lying about, and very little graffiti. We didn't see a lot of men standing around on street corners. 

We did see many neat, comfortable, freshly painted homes with carefully maintained yards. We saw lots of neat green pastures with dairy cows grazing in them. We saw schools where the children were wearing Halloween costumes. Well-maintained roads. Late-model cars. Parks and picnic areas. Pride of place.

And hydrangeas everywhere. They lined the roads on both sides. They formed the hedgerows between fields. They decorated gardens. They decorated parks. Mostly, the hydrangeas were blue, but we also saw pink, purple and white hydrangeas. They are very sensitive to the pH of the soil and this determines their coloration. The hydrangeas were already past their peak. I would love to have seen it earlier in the season.

There was an obnoxious woman on our bus who was a heavy smoker. She made only a token effort to stand out of the way while she smoked. Every time she got back on the bus she reeked of smoke. At one of the scenic overlooks we stopped at I watched her go over to a hydrangea bush and I knew what she was going to do. She broke one off. I couldn't believe anyone would do that, but if someone in our group was going to do it, she would be the one I would bet on. Then she tried to tuck it behind her ear. Of course, it is a huge blossom on a thick woody stem and it wouldn't stay put. I could have told you that in advance. Other people admired her flower. Apparently they saw nothing wrong with going to a foreign country and picking flowers. I don't care if they were growing wild.

One of the reasons the Azores look so unspoiled is probably the lack of tourism infrastructure. Our ship was the tallest man-made object in Ponta Delgada. It's just a little too far away from everything to become a major tourist destination.

After the tour we walked around the city center a little. It is a lovely place with the typical Portuguese construction style that seems so suited to this island. There are a number of shops. Most of them are not tourist shops. There are some statues and a beautiful old church. The Azores are so lovely.
 

 

 

 

A local yarn shop is ready for Halloween

  Meanwhile, back on the ship . . .

Back on the ship we enjoyed dinner, went to listen to Derek Floyd, and watched passengers wearing Halloween costumes.

Could I have a pumpkin spice latte, please?

October 30, 2014 - Game Time

At Sea

It's nice to have a day at sea to relax. It's amazing how fast the day goes by even when you are doing nothing. But it is regenerative. When you are at sea, your world is reduced to a very finite world. There are very few "shoulds" and "ought to's." (Is that grammatically correct? Why would "to" have an apostrophe but not "should?" I ought to look that up when I get home.)

As I was saying, your world becomes finite. No chores, no shopping, no cooking. No mail to deal with. o e-mail to deal with. No unfinished projects triggering guilt (like a quilt). No board work. No bored work. No stress.

I started the morning at the Knitters and Knatters Get-Together. (Don't ask me what a knatter is.) I had made several Candy Corn Coffee Cup Cozies for Halloween and I wanted to weave in all the ends so as to finish them off before Halloween. That is the boring part, so I hadn't been working on them diligently. The knitters and knatters (about 20 of them) were a nice group of ladies and the time went by quickly and was not boring at all.

Today's lecture was Sink the Bismarck! I remember the song, but I really didn't know anything else about the Bismarck, so it was an interesting presentation.

The two of us spent some time sitting on our balcony enjoying the lovely warm sunshine. We saw an airplane and one other ship. The sea was calm and flat and went on forever, it seemed. (Finite world, remember.)

Next, we went to a lecture on the sinking of the Bismarck. It was filled with interesting anecdotes. Why can't I remeber one to put in my blog? DId I take a little nap?  We had a light lunch in the Internationl Cafe and sat in the atrium people-watching and working on my blog. On this segment of the cruise it is harder to play Guess Who Is British. But there are many other possibilities. Guess Who Hasn't Bought New Clothing in 20 Years. (Usually men, but not always.) Guess Who Hasn't Been to the Optometrist in 20 Years. (This is getting harder now that large lenses are coming back in style, but I'm certain Mr. and Mrs. Magoo on the other side of the room don't have those gigantic glasses because they are stylish.) Count the Men Wearing Gold Chains. (Self-explanatory.) Who Has Had Some "Work" Done? And for women: Who Has the Same Hairdo She Had in High School?; for men: The Combover World Championships. If you don't want to have to keep track of all these different games, there is the one-size-fits-all game: Don't You Have a Mirror in Your Room?

We had an awkward dinner with a Canadian couple and a French couple. The French Couple spoke much better English than I can speak French, but it was still hard to have more than a superficial conversation with them. The Canadians (from British Columbia) spoke to the French couple and to us as though we were children who could not understand English (loudly and slowly). 

It soon became apparent that they both had the same philosophy of touring, and it was the opposite of ours. Ours is: research, plan, learn, get as much as possible out of your visit. Their approach to travel is: show up, wander around, do what the "locals" do (whatever that means). They don't do tours. They get off the ship, find a taxi, and just have the driver drive them around, or take the local bus. It works for them and they have a good time doing that. I think they miss out on a lot. But I didn't want to stir the pot, so I didn't say anything while they went on and on about what savvy travelers they were. The Canadians had also mentioned that they were visiting cousins in London who told them where to go, so it's not like they just wandered around London with no plans, despite what they would like to think.

I embrace being a "tourist," engaging with a tour guide who, in many cases has studied for several years and passed a licensing exam, and trying to understand the country by learning about its history, art, and natural history. Enough of that. You have to approach it in the manner that suits your personality, and what works for me might be tedious for someone else.

Back on the ship we had a pleasant evening. We went to a production show called Boogie Shoes. We had seen it a year or two ago, and on seeing it again were reminded that it wasn't one of the better Princess shows. It was very disjointed. There was no theme at all. Some of the numbers were annoying - bright lights shining in your eyes, or shrill singing. But it wasn't so bad that we walked out.

After dinner we went to listen to Derek Floyd again. A nice way to end the evening.

October 29, 2014 - 'Tis Bon in Lisbon

A great day! Beautiful weather! Beautiful Portugal! A terrific tour with Madalena from Spain Day Tours!

The day started with a sail-in to Lisbon. We could see a lot as we sailed under the April 25 Bridge (named after a bloodless revolution in1974 which saw the overthrow of the dictator Salazar): the baroque Jeronimos Monastery, the 16th-century Belém Tower, the Monument to the Discoveries, and more. It looks somewhat Mediterranean with so many whitewashed buldings with terra cotta roofs. Many buildings have a facade covered with beautiful tiles.

Lisbon may have been founded by Phoencians as early as 1200 BCE. Lisbon was later occupied by Romans, and from the 8th to 12th centuried it was occupied by the Moors. 

Upon arriving at the dock we met our tour guide, boarded our 20-passenger van, and met our driver, Sergio. Our tour started with a drive-by of some of Lisbons' busy squares. Eighty percent of Lisbon was destroyed by an earthquake in 1775. As a result, a lot of the city was rebuilt in the years after the earthquake, giving the city a fairly uniform look - far different from the hodge-podge that is London. Many of the older buildings which survived the earthquake were built in the baroque Manueline style.

aguas furtadas?

Some of the newer buildings in the business district gave the city a very modern and prosperous look. However, in other areas we saw pleasant balconied buildings whose facades were covered with beautiful hand-made tiles. We also passed through areas where the buildings were in disrepair, mildew was evident, and there graffiti marred almost every structure.

Leaving Lisbon, we headed for Sintra, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Sintra is one of those charming hill towns with narrow winding roads, cobblestone streets, and lots of nooks and crannies to explore. But first, we drove up a wooded mountain to the absolutely stunning Pena Palace, itself a UNESCO World heritage site. To me the palacewas definitely the highlight of the tour.

At 1400 meters, the Palace offers a commanding view of the countryside. Part castle, part Moorish fortress, part Baroque, part Potuguese Romantic, part Manueline - the Pena Palace is an eclectic mixture of styles enhanced with artifacts from all over the Portuguese empire. The original structure was a 12th-century chapel, a 16th-century convent, and an 18th-century monastery.  In 1838 King Fernando II purchased it and began an ambitious remodeling project. The palace continued to be occupied by members of the royal family, as a summer home, until 1910, when Portugal became a republic.  

The palace is painted yellow and red with white trim. The red portions were the private quarters of the royal family; the yellow portions were guest quarters and public areas. There lots of domes and turrets. There were numerous embellishments which echoed a nautical theme, and there were also numerous details which reflected the Moorish history of Portugal.

The palace is surrounded by a huge wooded park containing trees imported from all over the world. Apparently the surrounding mountain had been treeless, and the king planted thousands of trees to turn the hillsides into a forest.

We saw perhaps 20 rooms inside the palace. They all told a story. Some were tiled with Portuguese-Arabic tiles.

Some were painted with trompe-l'oeil designs. Some reflected the height of Baroque interior design. The bathrooms were state-of-the-art for that time, as was the early-model telephone.

Afterwards, we descended the mountain to the town of Sintra where we were scheduled for some free time. Madalena recommended a bakery where we should try a pastry called travesseira. We went to the small crowded bakery and ordered one tuna crepe, one chicken crepe and two travesseiras. The crepes were excellent. The pastries were good, but not as good as the build-up. We wandered around past cork shops and port wine shops and bought a few small souvenirs.

We proceeded down narrow, winding roads toward the coast. We stopped at a lighthouse at _____, the westernmost point of continental Europe. We continued to follow the coast back to Lisbon, passing through Cascais and Estoril. 

We drove by the Beautiful Tower of Belem and the Institute for Unknown Things. It's not a UFO museum, but a place where scientists search for cures for diseases and other scientific unknowns.

Our final stop was the Monument to the Discoveries. This is a large Art Deco memorial to Henry the Navigator, Henry's mother (the only woman) and 31 other men who played important roles during the Age of Portuguese Expansion. The Portuguese are very proud of the leading role played by Portugal in the "discovery" (from the European point of view) of more than half the world.

Upon returning to the ship we had to stay on our bus until Madalena could take a selfie with the 18 of us and the bus driver. Then she hugged each of us goodbye as we left the bus.

After dinner we went to hear Derek Floyd, the piano bar entertainer. Tonight he was doing "Beatles Night". He started out with a Beatles Name That Tune. Ken and I teamed up with DIck and Pat and we won! For our prize we got to pick among various Princess tchotkes - a keychain, a carabiner, a magnet clip. We chose the magnet clip.