Belem

After carefully availing ourselves of our Lisbon transportation options, Jenn and I decided to bite the bullet and really be tourists for the remainder of the trip.  As such, we started the day by purchasing 48-hour tickets on the hop-on, hop-off double decker bus.  There were a lot of benefits to this, including its ability to take us to areas that the somewhat limited metro can't, an audio tour (that worked approximately 50% of the time), and getting to see a little bit more of the City in transit.

Today, we took the red line, which had a stop down the block from our bed and breakfast.  We got to the stop, and waited.  Then we waited some more.  And then we waited.  Finally, one of the drivers from another double decker tourism bus company (there are three) took pity on us and gave us a ride to Belem, which was our intended destination (all three bus companies use the same routes).

Belem is a fairly concentrated area at the mouth of the Tagus River.  Famous sites include the Tower of Belem, which we walked around for a while, and Jeronimo's Monastery.  Jeronimo's Monastery has lovely gardens outside, where we hunkered down and dozed in the sun near a large fountain.  The weather was pretty close to perfect - high 60s, mostly sun... beautiful.  When we completed our cat-like activities, we explored the Monastery, and walked around Belem a bit.  As you may have already guessed, the weather was perfect for gelato.  So obviously we got some.  And it was delicious.

We wandered a little further, and then found the hop-on spot.  There was slightly less waiting this time, and we stayed on the bus for about half of the almost-two-hour tour, to get a better sense of Lisbon.  We hopped off for half an hour or so at the Marques do Pombal square, so that we could climb to the top and see the view.

(I haven't uploaded my pictures yet, but this is exactly what it looked like)

By this point, it was getting a little late, so we hopped back on and headed back to the general vicinity of our B&B to find dinner and do a bit of souvenir shopping.  Dinner was actually at Burger King.  For some reason, I was really feeling a burger, and Burger King now sells bean burgers, which Jenn said was surprisingly tasty.  Now if only they had real Diet Coke... (this is my one-week-iversary without it... clearly, it can be done.  But why should it?)

More exploring (and shopping) tomorrow.  We're both trying not to go back to the ATM unless absolutely necessary (I had $9.14 in fees after withdrawing money on Sao Miguel - totally ridiculous, and we won't need leftover euros in the states), which puts us each at around 20 euros, after you take our money for our 4:15 AM cab ride to the airport on Saturday.  We'll see if we make it...

Lisbon!

Scene: 5:45 AM - Hotel Ponta Delgada
*Alarm goes off*
"I don't waaaaaaannnnnnnnnaaa get up."  grump grump grump.  Up by 5:55.
End scene.

And with that illustrious start, we headed to the airport, sat around for an hour (we were the only ones there for the first 30 minutes of that hour), boarded a flight to Tercierra (another island in the Azores), and landed 45 minutes later.  Our layover was pretty brief, and a 20+ person ensemble serenaded us while we waited and then again on the plane for Lisbon.  The weather was pretty crappy this morning, so we were pretty excited to see that it was upper 60s and sunny in Lisbon, and should remain so for the duration of our stay.

We were able to check in right away at Whatever Art Bed and Breakfast.  This is our room.  And, there were peacocks on the back patio.  In other words, life is good.  We spent a little time getting settled in, and then headed off to find lunch and explore the City Center.

So far, I like what I see of Lisbon.  After Ponta Delgada, the hustle and bustle is awesome, and it's been very pleasant to walk around thus far.  Tomorrow, we're planning to go to the Belem area, which comes highly recommended by the Whatever proprietor, Carlos.

And now, despite the brief blog post, I need to go finish the last little bit of my book.  Until tomorrow!

The Sea!

I think that if you go to an island and never go out on the water, that's a big ol' missed opportunity.  So, after almost missing our opportunity (the company (which was otherwise awesome) never sent us direction to the meeting spot, so we went to the wrong one twice), we took to the sea for a whale watching extravaganza. Due to our tardiness, we missed the English version of the introductory safety information, but we're pretty sure that it boiled down to "remember that you're on a boat and don't be stupid," and we did hear the "the sea - it is not flat" warning, so we assumed that we were all good.

Now, at least for me (possibly due to my New England roots), whale watching conjured up visions of small cruise ships with many levels, different places that you can hang out, get snacks, enjoy being out on the water, and ideally see whales and eat snacks.

With that picture in mind, allow me to introduce you to our seaworthy vessel for today's adventure (note the lack of snacks).

We got up close and personal with the marine life.  Really personal.

So, our group of 12 straddled our elongated pommel horses and headed out to sea.  We first headed to some traditional fishing boats.  Apparently, all fishing in the Azores is done in the traditional fashion - either hooks and lines or the nets seen here.  These nets allow for trapping fish, but do not trap dolphins, so they're very ecologically responsible.

And apparently, dolphins appreciate this ecological responsibility, and choose to hang out around the fishing boats, hoping to steal lunch.  We were able to see a few pods of common dolphins (~3M in the world), including this one.

So that's the benefit of the weird pommel horse boat.  The dolphins come three feet away from you.  Now we know.

After hanging out with these dolphins for a while, the captain of our blow-up vessel hear that there were other marine life sightings, and we took off for those.  At the next stop, we saw two converging pods of bottlenose dolphins (like Flipper, but without the jumps).  

The second dorsal fin from the left belongs to a baby dolphin.  Apparently, mother dolphins are pregnant for about a year, and then nurse for two years.  Most babies are born in the summer, so this guy was a little early.  We hung around and followed these guys for a while, and then headed further out to the open sea.

Unfortunately, the as we got further away, the visibility decreased, and we were unable to see any other marine life - so no whales this trip.  It was great to be out on the water though, and a very pleasant day for it (especially since Futurismo gave us rain jackets and pants to protect us from the spray - if only we had had our Frog Toggs).

When we got back to shore, we disembarked, had tea, and took off to meander through Ponta Delgada.  We stopped for lunch at a restaurant on the water and wandered through some of the side streets in town (continuing to be impressed by the mosaic sidewalks).

Later, we headed back to the hotel for a little downtime before dinner.  We've been staying at Hotel Ponta Delgada, which has overall been very pleasant.  The room isn't huge, but it's a good size, and we've made excellent use of the breakfast provided every morning.  The only weird thing (and I don't know if this is standard for the island, or what, but) is that the entry light and the bathroom light are only controlled through a motion detector.  So, it's very possible that you're taking a shower in the evening, and all of a sudden it's pitch black.  You then flail around for a while until the lights return, so that you can start the process all over again.  And it's vindictive - sometimes it gives you two or three minutes, sometimes it gives you 30 seconds.  I probably won't miss that system.  Jenn won't either - I asked.

Off to Lisbon tomorrow!

Sete Cidades etc.

We took our time getting going this morning, as Jenn had some work to do and I did some sewing (which has traveled the Atlantic very well thus far).

Around 11:30, taking advantage of the freedom afforded to us by Stripey McStriperson, we headed off to Sete Cidades, which is a protected area around a lake, and one of the Ten Wonders of Portugal.

The first place we stopped was a designated lookout area across the street from an abandoned hotel.  These were some of our first views of Lagoa Azul (the distant lake) and Lagoa Verde (the closer lake).

Clearly, very lovely.  In search of better views, we decided to explore the abandoned hotel.

This is what the hotel looked like from the outside...

.... And this is the lobby.  So, clearly the hotel has seen better days.  Which is sad, because we wandered through some of the suites, and clearly in its prime, this place was gorgeous.  Ultimately, we did get our better views.

Moving on from abandoned hotel land, we drove down to the lakes and stopped at a few more viewing places along the way.  Unfortunately, the town itself is pretty small and didn't have much for us to stop and do.  As such, we decided to head to the beach at Mosteiros.

We made it there, but not before getting in our ridiculous hike du jour.  So, today, we'd had pretty good luck with the marked lookout points.  So, on the edge of the crater (this island is volcanic, and Sete Cidades sits in the center of a volcanic crater), we saw a sign for a lookout point.  Not believing that Stripey would do well on the dirt roads, we decided to walk.  Forty minutes later, straight up the mountain, we decided that we must have somehow missed it, and we headed back.  We now don't think that we missed it, it was even further out.  We did get run off the road by cows though, so that's something.

And we also got some lovely views, and what turned out to be a very solid hike.  So it's all good.

When we did make it to Mosteiros, the sun was more or less trapped behind a cloud, so we sat on the beach for a little while, decided it was too breezy, and opted to head to the hot springs 20 minutes away instead.  I did gather some sand for Dr. Fenster, since Mosteiros has lovely black sand beaches.

Next, we went to the hot springs at Ponte de Ferraria.  We had been warned that the time to go was at low tide, otherwise the chill of the ocean water overwhelmed the hot spring itself.  As you may be able to tell from the picture, this was not advice that we followed, and thus observed the hot springs rather than participated in them.

Also, given that we were at the bottom of a very, very harrowing drive to the coast, and there were exactly two other people in the general vicinity, there was nothing that really screamed safe about the "climb down a ladder and swim across this cove of unknown depth, to where you can hang on to a rope and experience the warm water" experience.  So we passed.

After an equally harrowing drive back up the cliff (and almost having Stripey run off the switchback by a land rover), it was getting late, so we headed back to Ponta Delgada for dinner etc.  The island has kind of a weird deserted feel.  We never see too many people, and there aren't many shops/restaurants open at all.  Don't worry, though.  I was able to get a magnet for the refrigerator.  So it's all good.  

We ended our tour with a brief stop at a lighthouse.  Which apparently also operates as a house-house.  Who knew?

Whale watching tomorrow!  So excited!!!

A whirlwind tour of eastern Sao Miguel

We decided that today and tomorrow would be our car rental days, so that we could explore the island at our own pace.  After a very yellow breakfast (yellow eggs, buttered toast, yellow cheese, orange juice), we picked out a rental car and waited for it to be delivered.  This is our rental car.

The racing stripe is clearly what makes the car.  We're tentatively calling it Stripey McStriperson.  Nothing else really fit.  Anyway, after signing off on our rental car (a steal at 35E per day), we took off to explore.  

First on the general list was going to the tea factory, which Wade and Katie had highly recommended.

And we did that, but first we stopped at a lookout point (marked on the highway by a pair of binoculars - they're really pretty good about people not knowing any Portuguese, as we found out today).  So, for some scenic views:

 The second picture was taken by a member of a tour that hit the scenic outlook at the same time we did.  First, he tried to take a picture of us with his camera.  Then he got artsy.  This was the result.  It really was beautiful, and we got a great sense of what the coastline looked like.

We also hit the tea factory at the same time as that tour group, so we decided to take the "easy walk" through the tea plantation.  I'm beginning not to buy the words they use here to describe their exercise activities.  This was probably two and a half miles, at a better than 30 degree incline the whole time.  Conceivably, it was made not-easier by my somewhat inappropriate footwear, but I really do feel like I'm getting my daily dose of fights with my legs.  So that's good.  

The tea plantation was really fragrant and lovely.  Apparently, the tea is entirely harvested by hand, and this operation has been ongoing since the late 1800s.

After the tea plantation, we headed to Furnas, where we explored the city a bit and ended at the hot springs. These springs (labeled a geothermal phenomenon) were very heavy on the sulfer, and just over 100 degrees F.  Very pleasant to hang out in for an hour or so, and well laid out, so it was very pretty and calming.  And at 2E for an unlimited stay, who can complain?

(This was taken by someone other than me - I wasn't sure about the conditions, so I didn't bring in my camera.  Original image can be found here.)

After we finished at the hot spring and got a snack, it was around 4:00, so we started heading back in the general direction of Ponta Delgada.  This required a lot of travel on narrow and winding roads, which requires me to say how very, very thankful I am that Jenn has done all of the driving thus far.  I think I would have been a hot mess for a good chuck of this.  We tried to stop at a ceramics factory on the way home, but despite our best efforts (which required some very nimble smart car maneuvering) to find the correct street (maps here aren't all that good), it seems that the factory was closed.

Instead, we found some stairs that led down to the beach.

One more scenic lookout, and we headed back to the hotel for the evening (or at least until we go out and find some dinner, which will likely be soon).

Can you tell that I've rediscovered my favorite camera feature? :) 

... Dinner

Shortly after we started napping, it started raining.

This was somewhat surprising for us, as generally reliable websites like weather.com refuse to acknowledge that the Azores have weather.  It will typically give us the temperature, with no indication of possible precipitation or wind.  As such, we had assumed that it would be largely good (packing is way, way easier if you assume generally good weather).

When we got up and moving, we tried the hotel restaurant, not wanting to walk too far in the rain.  It was booked until after 8:30, so we retraced our steps and found an open restaurant within a mile or so.

Overall, it was a pretty good dining experience.  Jenn had a vegetable soup, which we're now pretty sure had meat products in it as well, despite our having asked about it specifically, and a vegetable omelet.  I had tuna steaks, which were local, and good, but a little bland.  They gave us each a glass of champagne for toasting, and we had a local white wine with dinner.

It was a little funny, but literally every guest in the restaurant except Jenn was from Massachusetts.  See, about a week and a half after we booked our trip, there was a Groupon for the Azores, with SATA flights direct to the island leaving out of Boston-Logan (Mom, Dad, you guys should watch for that - you would love this place).  Wade and Katie from our earlier adventure had also done the Groupon, though they had flown Dallas to Boston before getting here.  So, this was the last night of the Groupon, and there were a lot of people out and about.

One of them kept going outside to report on the status of the rain.  Every time he came back, he reported that it was raining buckets out there.  By the time we were ready to go, I was 100% convinced that he just wanted to stay and drink longer, because every time he came back, he stopped at the bar for brandy.  When we actually stepped outside, the rain had mostly tapered off, and we were able to get back to the hotel in a mostly dry fashion.

It's interesting how they've done the sidewalks here.  Everything in town is cobblestone, including the sidewalks, which are smaller, flatter cobblestones.  The sidewalk for each street has a different pattern of light and dark cobble stones, so we know that when the cobblestone patterns go from squares to stripes or waves, the road names have changed as well.

Our plan for tomorrow is to rent a car and explore.  Wade and Katie spoke very highly of the tea plantations and several very scenic lakes, etc., which will be much more accessible if we strike off and explore on our own.  Smartcar, here we come!

The Canyon

Today we went canyoning, which is apparently a real word.  And, because I am endeavoring to include information that would actually be useful to someone (or myself) traveling in the future, we used this company, and I would highly recommend it.

The trip started around 9:00 AM, when we were picked up at our hotel.  There were six of us total, with two girls from Spain, and Wade and Katie, who were from Texas.  We drove to Nordeste, which is on the northeastern side of the island.  There, we donned wetsuits, and headed up.

And up.  And up.  Our guide said that this would be an ~5 minute walk.  That was a damned lie.  I'd say that we probably climbed up for close to a half hour, in wetsuits and harnesses.  And this was over some pretty rugged terrain - big slippery rocks, mud, a relatively fast moving bigger-than-a-stream-but-smaller-than-a-river, in wetsuits.  I was thrilled that we had opted to rent the canyoning boots - I think it would have been awfully difficult to manage in just my running shoes, which was the other alternative.

Anyway, once we climbed to what Dionisio described as "the middle of the run," we got a brief overview of how rappelling works.  And then we scrambled over rocks in the river for a while, until we got to the first rappel point.  I wish that I had a photo of this, because my description won't do it justice.  We rappelled over (and somewhat into... for me, more than somewhat) a waterfall.  So, we're getting ready, one by one, and we're reminded what to do, and told that at some point, the water will hit us, and we'll need to try to get behind the cascade, but to try to stay to the right of the big dead tree sticking out of the water.

And now, I'm in the harness, trying to descend.  A few things happened pretty quickly.  I was able to get down about six feet, and I was braced to get hit by the water.  Cool, did that, got behind.  Couldn't see quite where I was supposed to go, came out of the waterfall.  More or less rappelled directly on to the dead tree.  Tried to move away.  Didn't work.  Somehow, I found that tree a solid three times.  While I can't claim that I was graceful in this descent (or had any kind of form to speak of), it was really a pretty cool experience.

Over the next few hours, we rappelled down along another waterfall (much less self-water-interaction on that one) and did several jumps (10-15 feet) and rock slides downward.  Mostly, it was scrambling over rocks in a stream-river-thing, but the jumps and rappelling were pretty neat.  I opted to rappel down the last place in the stream (read: wussed out - just couldn't bring myself to jump 30 feet into a pool), but Jenn was much braver than I was and jumped the last bit.  One final water slide, and we got to remove ourselves from our wetsuits, which, while invaluable in actually progressing through the stream (and providing excellent padding for the less coordinated among us!), was a welcome activity.

There will be pictures of the activities described above - Dionisio had a camera and took several - I'll add them as soon as he emails.  All in all, definitely a cool way to experience nature on the islands, and Dionisio and his partner did an awesome job making sure that we felt comfortable and safe (I was way, way more concerned for my safety when doing reasonable things like walking than I ever was doing the jumps I did or rappelling).

Now we're back at the hotel.  We wandered around town a little, found the place shown below (I'll figure out what it is and add a caption), and we're going to go find dinner in a few hours, but for now, a nap is definitely in order.  Hope everyone is having a great weekend! 

Ponta Delgada

WE'VE MADE IT!!!

Almost a full 24 hours after embarking from Charlotte, we have touched down in Ponta Delgada, over paid for a taxi (10 euro for a maybe 5 minute ride), and checked into our hotel.  We're looking forward to canyoning and exploring the area tomorrow, but for now, showers and bed.

Lots and lots of bed.

Munich

We've finally completed my first, Jenn's second, and the longest leg of our journey.  The flight from Charlotte to Munich was just over eight hours long, and there are a lot of nice things to say about Lufthansa (mostly having to do with the frequent food/beverage service and the extensive movie selection).  Those nice things being said, we're pretty thrilled (in a mellow, exhausted kind of way), to be off a plane for a little while.

And if we have to spend two hours anywhere, shouldn't it be somewhere with brezels?  I say yes.

From what I saw when I checked in yesterday, this next flight looks to be not at all full - really, really hoping that's the case, so that we can both take a bunch of seats and crash for a while.  That would be lovely.

Next Stop: Lisbon!

Portugal!!

On the plane again... I can't wait to be on the plane again.

So long as it's going anywhere but BWI, that is.

Tomorrow, Jenn and I take off for our awesome Portugal adventure.

(This was our Colorado adventure.  It was also awesome)

We'll be flying CLT -> Munich -> Lisbon, and then moseying across the airport to hop on a plane bound for the Azores (see map below).

We'll be on the island of Ponta Delgado from Friday evening through the following Wednesday morning.  During that time, we're thinking we'll incorporate some smattering of kayaking, horseback riding, canyoning, whale watching (the Azores are apparently one of the best places in the world to see all different types of whales), hiking, and general exploring (and, because we both have upcoming races, we'll try to do all of it as quickly as possible.

On Wednesday morning, we fly back to Lisbon, where we'll spend the rest of our trip.  We're staying at one of TripAdvisor's most highly rated bed and breakfast establishments (our room even has its own website!)  We don't currently have too much planned for Lisbon, but my guess is that we'll figure something out (if anyone has any can't miss experiences, please send them our way).

Really looking forward to taking some time to relax.  My current book list includes Night Film, the Goldfinch, Transatlantic, and the Third Kingdom (there are probably more to come, since we have a lot of plane rides on this trip).

1 USD = .72 Euro

1 Euro = $1.39

Not the best exchange rate of all time, but we're counting on Portugal being excited to have tourists.  Because we're excited to be tourists :)