Reminiscing: Azores

“I don't know what it is about distant lands that make me want to visit them. Forget Paris or London. Give me the polar regions, or islands in the middle of nowhere ... like the Azores.”

Those are the opening sentences for the footprint I posted when we stopped @ São Miguel, the largest and most populous of the islands in the Archipelago of the Azores. Accompanied by mom and Aylin, my sister, this 2019 stop aboard Holland America’s Nieuw Statendam was our one and only visit to the Azores, so I didn’t have to pick and choose memories as I did with Bermuda.

Even as our ship was departing Ponta Delgada at the end of the day, Mui and I had already added the Azores to our must-return to places. Lush green scenery … deep blue of bodies of water big and small … smoking fumaroles and bubbling mud pots … beautiful azulejo tile details on white-washed buildings trimmed with black lava stone … tasty lunch of cozido das Furnas (the local stew cooked underground using geothermal heat) … and even tastier quijadas (Portuguese milk tarts). All excellent reasons to return.

Little did we know then that we would actually be stopping in the Azores on another cruise ship before we had a chance to do a land-based trip.

(For a bit more detail on what we actually did — and larger images from our day — you can check out the original post @ https://findpenguins.com/8pccjefaitoru/footprin….)Read more