Tuesday 18th April

Woke at 7am to find us off shore from São Miguel Island in the Azores, outside Ponta Delgada, the capital.

After we tied up at 8 & had breakfast we went ashore on to a very smart quay complex next to a neat marina, set on the sea front of a most impressive city. The island is the top of a mountain of volcanic rock rising from the Atlantic together with the others of the Azores & is known as the green island.

We found the Tourist Bureau & were given a map of the city, the island & a map & timetable showing the public bus routes around the 39 mile by 10 mile island. Unfortunately for us we had missed a bus at 9.25 & the next wasn't until 11.30, so we walked up to a lovely old church & then had our customary coffee & internet session before returning to the sea front for the bus to Rebeiro Grande across on the north side of the island.

The buildings in the old town date back to the 1600s, done in the Portuguese style & are literally all in black & white as the stone work is all from lava & the infill is white washed. It is a lovely town full of narrow cobbled streets & squares & all the paving is done in hand laid small cobbles of either black or white stones of about 100mm cubed all in defined patterns. In the squares are fountains & pollarded plain trees or flower gardens which all seem to be very carefully tended.

We took the bus across & enjoyed the ride though hilly but very green countryside with miles of dry stone walls in various states of repair which reminded us of parts of Ireland & England. There were many greenhouses & the soil appeared to be very fertile to us. The roads were in fair condition but in the little towns they were very narrow so that passing was very difficult. Although the distance wasn’t great it took an hour to get to Rebeiro Grande, which is far smaller but has some fine buildings & a fascinating small river which runs through the centre into the sea. After a wander we had an excellent Portuguese tart & coffee, walked down to the sea crossing an old bridge & passing a most unusual wall topped with kindling wood piled carefully to dry to about a metre above which enclosed a chook yard full of cages of hens & chicks with a huge rooster strutting around. We returned on a bus to the capital & after Jane bought some leather shoes we returned to the ship feeling that we would love to spend more time in the island exploring it.

The ship left at 6pm & travelled east along the coast for about an hour before heading north again for England.