Ponta Delgada, Azores ...
Just to show you how bumpy our ride was during some part of the journey, here the pilot vessel from the Azores ... trying to get the pilot on board ...
Well, finally on land, we had a bus tour to the crater lakes, starting in the capital of the island of Sao Miguel, Ponta Delgada ... one of the first things we saw was this wild hog graffiti ...
Further on we saw the Sao Miguel version of the Twelve Apostles ;-) ... pretty nice landscape there towards the west ...
It was a tad windy there, but - still - we were lucky: no rain!
As in many parts of the world whale hunting has been converted to whale watching ... nice play on words "futurismo" ... the future of tourism ...
Next stop was "Sete cedades" (seven villages) ... very picturesque and quiet ... unless tourists coming and entering their backyards ... here a photo composition called "German tourist with green house" ;-)
Nice little church ... of course with two tourists again ... photographing another one ...
... and here you see the invasion of the richer tourists in full force (they could afford the jeeps, we only had money for the bus) ...
Up we went ... hundreds of metres ... to see the crater lakes ... very impressive ...
... here the little windy roads up there ...
All the way up we had a photo stop for more lakes ... but we found this abandoned 5-star hotel "Monte Palace" ... Thomas made his way away from the group and went in ... really scary ... left on its own for 30 odd years ... Some investor thought to make the real buck there ... but the weather is just too unpredictable ...
Back in Ponta Delgada, Cynthia and Thomas had an extensive walk through town ... little roads, really nice ...
And we came across this pensive fellow ... contemplating the world ... waiting for something to happen (definitely not tourists taking photos of him!)
Here the central plaza with the city gates ...
... and - as you can see - the tourist season was over in November ...
Another plaza with funny cut trees ...
... further on we found the local brewery (which was mentioned during the bus tour) ... the Germans actually helped in the beginning in the 19th century ... And as you can see, when a guy really CAN'T take photos, funny effects happen ... as the pub is sharp, the two of us look like put in by photoshop ...
A couple of days later - in the middle of the Atlantic - we saw these little whales crossing our path ... as our stop in Madalena was cancelled (as was the whale watching there) this was at least a little consolation So if you don't pay for the whale watching, you only get little whales!
One night on the way to the Bermudas a Musical Show was on the agenda ... really good performances and great numbers including "Big spender" here ...
The guy there - Luthair Ethon - performed "Starlight Express" in Bochum, Germany, over 2.000 times ... really great!!!
Here another wonderful dinner in the restaurant Venezia ... of course incl. Italian wine! btw ... the huge pepper mill in the background is actually working ... needs four people ;-)
Our impression of the Azores (we were only on the island of Sao Miguel) and Ponta Delgada was really good ... you're not going there for a beach holiday, but it is a beautiful island!