Portugal — June 2023

So this trip was piece-mealed together after we got the great idea to take a cruise from Lisbon to Rome. Why that particular cruise??? Well, we were able to book flights from Fresno to Lisbon and home from Rome to Fresno … all with our accumulated air miles. The only trouble was, after we started looking at the cruise more closely, we didn’t like it. So, we just built this trip within those travel parameters.  So today was a travel day, the day to get to Rome. We went  Pico - Terceira - Lisbon - Rome.  Since we had to come to Rome to get home anyway, we decided to stay two full days in Rome. Today was kind of a wasted day, but beggars can’t be choosers.  Since we didn’t book flights all together, and our island hops were on a different airline than the flights to and from Lisbon, we had a close call on Terceira. After landing we had to get our bags and re-check-in for the next flight.  Scary sight … they had finished and closed the check-in desk for TAP (our fli...

We certainly didn’t catch any worms this morning. 😁 We did get up in time to enjoy brunch.  At about 1pm we decided to drive around the east end of the island. We stopped at every little vista point and made our way through some of the little towns. We ended up at Lajes again, made pit stop, and then headed up and over the island to get home. It’s only about 10 miles from Lajes when taking this direct route.  After some coffee and a snack we took a nap … Today is our 27th anniversary. We went to dinner about 7 o’clock. There are about three good restaurants in town. The one where we had the hamburger the first night, kind of a fancy one that we were told had small portions, and the one where we had a nice bottle of wine the other day for lunch — we opted for the latter. It was absolutely fantastic. We had an octopus salad appetizer and a linguiça in berry jam appetizer. They were both out of this world. We then each had a steak with different sauces. It was all delectable — w...

The Weather Channel was spot on … it was windy today … but not crazy windy; it was quite pleasant. The wind blew in some haze. Visibility was at least several miles, but less than 15 miles — we couldn’t see São Jorge.  We enjoyed most of the morning doing very little. We didn’t look exactly like the cats, but pretty close …  We did take a short walk into town to pick up a car we will use today, tomorrow, and to get back to the airport on Friday. It was a much better deal than they were offering at the airport when we arrived.  After lunch at home we headed to Gruta das Torres, the longest known lava tube caves in Portugal. Exploration of these caves are only by guided tour. After a 10 minute video about the geologic formation of the Azores and the caves, the tour was about an hour. Our guide was very knowledgeable, she explained a lot about the geological and biological aspects of the caves. Probably the most interesting fact we learned is that, sound does not echo in the...

We woke up very late to a beautifully sunny day. We decided to mostly hang around the house today, cook some food, and finish laundry.  That may not sound like vacation, but for us, doing a few chores is relaxing. Jim especially loves cooking, so it’s not really a chore. He started chicken braised in creamy red wine sauce … 🤤 Kristi took down the last of the laundry and got it folded and put away. She also fed the cats. 😁  Yes, this place has cats too. The owner told us we could give them scraps if we wanted to. We gave them some of the chicken trimmings from the dinner preparations. We had instant new best friends.   In the afternoon, we decided to take a walk back to town and check out the whaling museum. In the late 19th century up until the early 1980’s whaling was a big industry here on Pico. The factory where they used to process all of the whale blubber is now a museum. It was pretty interesting. It was a very short excursion. We were only gone a few of hours. Bu...

Tried to sleep in a little bit and then had coffee on the balcony for a while.  We then meandered into town and tried to find the things that we couldn’t find last night. We ended up at a restaurant at the pier for a buffet lunch and local wine. We figured out that we mostly like to travel so that we can eat lots of different things and try different wines/beers. Today we had a bottle of dry white wine that is produced on the island. Pico is known for its wine production. We then headed back home and stopped at a supermarket to get what we need for the next few days … chicken, beef, butter, potatoes, onions, a few other odds and ends, and wine.  On our way through town we passed by the public library … we stopped in to take a look around.  Made it back home by 4pm. Enjoyed the view and read/tic-tok’d for a while. Then we made a quiche and boiled potatoes for tonight and tomorrow. Kristi took a bubble bath. Oh, and we did some laundry.  At 9:00pm Kristi realized ...

Up at 7:00am this morning to get to the airport for the shortest commercial flight we’ve ever taken … 19 minutes, 16.9 seconds from wheels up to touch down. We hopped from Terceira to the island of Pico — named for the volcanic mountain peak, the highest point in Portugal at 7,713 feet.  Except for our accommodations, we literally have no plans for the next few days. After deciding that it was going to be much too expensive to rent a car. We decided to hire a taxi to give us a tour for a few hours of the island and then drop us off in the little village where we are going to stay. He ended up taking us to several spots that we would’ve never found by ourselves, including another lava tube cave that we were able to go into. He also took us about halfway up Mount Pico, and we stopped at the visitor center, where hikers begin their climb to the top. Hiking to the top is definitely something we could do and kind of want to do… But we are not prepared to do it on this trip. We shall lea...