Ever since I heard about the Azores I've wanted to go check them out. They call it Europe's Hawaii, and there are definitely some similarities since both are volcanic islands in the middle of oceans. The Azores are about a tenth of the size of Hawaii though, and were an important shipping route back in the exploration years. So while they are Portuguese, they also have British, Flemish and Spanish influence, as a lot of countries tried to set up shop here. Makes for interesting and beautiful architecture, and there are a lot of little ghost towns and abandoned summer homes straight out of a zombie apocalypse.
City gate of Ponta Delgada
Also, it smells. The first thing we all noticed when the plane landed was it smelled like cow manure. We figured we were just near a farm, but turns out the entire island is overrun with cows.
Cow outside our hotel window
But it was beautiful, and you can't smell pictures. We did what felt like a million different enchanted forest / waterfall hikes, and explored the volcanic bubbles of Parque da Grená. And there was a cat that Evie fell in love with that we nicknamed Lil Chonkers, and he was fed a little of our Cozido das Furnas (traditional Portuguese dish cooked in the earth by hot volcanic steam).
Two person at a time bridge...
The Azores are known for their naturally occurring hot springs. We went to three inland hot springs (only pics of two). I'm not going to lie, they were very cool (or warm), but a bit crowded at times and not quite as pretty or with the design and infrastructure of Tabacon, in Costa Rica (still the best place ever in my book to experience hot springs).
Velha de Caldeira
Terra Nostra. The iron gives it that color.
At the next hot springs, Dona Beija (not pictured), we made ourselves iron facial masks and it took Evie 48 hours to fully wash it off.
The one hot spring stand out was Ponte da Ferraria, which I understand is the only place in the world where volcanic steam / rock heats up ocean water at low tide, and you can experience an "Oceanic Hot Tidal Pool." Low tide was early in the morning while we were there and it was the other side of the island, so we got up early, got our Egg McMuffins (yep, first Mickey D's stop in Portugal and the kids were so hyped), and got to the edge of the world. We had missed the low tide marker by about an hour, and a couple people were leaving, so we had the whole cove to ourselves for a little bit. It is an incredible place. There is a ladder cemented to volcanic rock and some ropes in the water so you have something to hang onto and don't slam into rocks or each other when these huge, turquoise waves rush in with cool water, and then the water that runs back into the ocean is hot tub warm. It felt so good, and magical. Eventually a Polish family joined us, and 10 minutes later a few others started coming down, but the water was already starting to get cooler and more violent with the rising tide, so we moved on. It was our trip highlight for sure.
Bird's eye view
The other awesome thing to do in Sao Miguel is look at lakes. The island just has crazy topography, all of these lakes so close to the ocean, separated by ridges of volcanic, fertile (mostly grazing land now) soil. We hiked a few, and we drove to a couple, but here are a few of our favorites:
Lagoa de Fogo "Lagoon of Fire" (was not hot)
Lago das Furnas
Lagoa de Santiago
Blue and Green Lake in Sete Cidades at Vista Rei
The coastline in Ribeira Grande wasn't too shabby either:
Our last night there we even got to have an excellent Azorean dinner with a couple familiar faces :)
All in all the Azores are incredibly unique and gorgeous, and we enjoyed exploring São Miguel. On the flight back we were a little travel fatigued, and a little sad that we are nearly 2/3rds done with our Portuguese adventure. These last few weeks especially have flown by, but we are grateful for all the memorable experiences.
Last week we took another whirlwind trip, this time starting out in a region along the southern coast of Portugal known as The Algarve. I'd heard good things, and it's a more "resorty" area of the country. The weather looked iffy though, so I was worried it wouldn't go well.
At first glance, I wasn't particularly taken by what I saw when we arrived...it felt like any old golf community you may find in a non-descript spot in Florida. The hotel we stayed it was big and generic with a bunch of pools too cold to swim in, but generally nice. The room was on-point size wise which was a nice change, finally we had not one but three bathrooms, and three bidets! Buddy tested them all. One of the perks of this place was a swanky spa that we had access too. Evie and Erin even got a massage together, and I think Evie is now hooked on day spas. That night we headed to the beachfront in Quarteira for tapas and some delicious Portuguese wine followed by some frolicking on the beach.
Our big goal on Saturday was to tackle the Seven Hanging Valleys Hiking Trail, regarded as one of the most beautiful hikes in all of Europe. We kicked it off with lunch in Carvoeiro, a cute town just to the west of the trail. (Erin edit to add: while this was a fun place to kick off the hike and we saw amazing stuff, it is quite far from the actual start of the hike. This meant we hiked for two straight hours before we got to the official start. The three of us were not super thrilled to learn of this development). The coastline here was all steep limestone cliffs with tons of unique geologic structures like caves, sinkholes, islands, etc. The waves crashed violently into the cliffs which I never got tired of watching and listening to. The real magic happened when it started raining a bit on us, which felt pretty nice actually...and gradually a faint rainbow appeared. It got bigger and bigger, and more vibrant until a second one started to appear as well...and we could see both leading right into the ocean. It turned into one of the most amazing sights we've ever seen.
Starting off in Carvoeiro
Evie doing her best impression of a sea cave
Having a sit
Epic beaches and limestone structures
Magical Double Rainbow
This probably goes down as the most beautiful hike we've ever taken...actually even beating the Grand Canyon (though it's close). We caught a beautiful sunset, and had a well-earned dinner and beer in Albufeira which is more Moorish and impossible to drive in. Carnaval had let out so people were milling about in costumes and we were next to a sing-a-long bar where they belted out a very sloppy version of American Pie, which the kids apparently had never heard of(?)(!) After a little dance and an american music history lesson we all crashed hard.
Perfect Ending
Seville
Sunday we headed out of Portugal to Seville, Spain..stopping in a cute little river town called Tavira (where we yet again ran into another set of American ex-pats). Getting into Seville was bananas, I have never driven down narrower roads in my life, with literally less than an inch clearance on both side mirrors. We unpacked and ditched the car in a parking ramp so we could hoof it the rest of our stay.
Seville is definitely best experienced on foot, very flat (unlike pretty much all of Portugal) with charming narrow streets, outdoor eateries, gorgeous architecture...and orange trees literally everywhere! That was the piece that surprised me the most...these adorable ornamental orange trees on every block, the whole city smelled like citrus :) Just seeing row and row of trees with softball sized oranges hanging all over them just blew all of our minds.
We grabbed tapas and took a long stroll to check out the huge central park and one of the most impressive architectural structure I've ever walked around on, the Plaza de España. In a future post, I'll espound a little more about my impression of Europe's approach to public beautification...but this is case in point.
Monday during the day primarily was taken up by a guided tour of some of the major city highlights (The Cathedral of Seville and the Royal Palace of Alcazar). I did not realize that it was the 3rd largest cathedral in the world. There were some very interesting artifacts and things, and our tour guide was this goofy spanish art history nerd, but we were quickly getting "museum legs" and just needed a nice sit. Thankfully, our hotel had a lovely little rooftop terrace, so we grabbed some drinks and enjoyed a bit of a sit in the warm Spanish sun.
Outdoor eatery (anywhere Seville)
So hard to capture all the beautiful architecture. most streets were windy and narrow.
Big church stuff
Alcazar, a blend of Moorish and Catholic design
Resting legs on rooftop terrace. it was 75 degrees!
Our night was one of the most fancy planned evenings of our entire 3 months here...a Flamenco show. To be completely honest, I've been extremely excited ever since booking this weeks ago. The venue was just a non-descript little entrance on a small side-street and the room was very cozy. Probably about a dozen tables and a small stage. The food and drinks were fantastic, and when the dancers and musicians took the stage it was absolutely captivating. The rhythmic precision, dramatic movements, and music steeped in centuries of tradition were just incredible to take in. The venue prohibited video recording, which I completely understand...I watched some videos after the fact and they come nowhere close to capturing how cool the performances were, I guess you had to be there. We all agreed that it was the highlight of our trip to Seville.
One of the biggest disappointments of visiting Seville was when we swung by literal Barber of Seville to get Buddy a haircut (which he sorely needed) but the barber was all booked up. We sadly headed back to the car ramp to find that my car was completely parked in on both side, requirement to climb in from the trunk in order to get out. Yay Europe!
On the way back to Sintra, we passed through the town of Loulé, Portugal...which happened to be the home of the oldest Carnaval festival in the country...and today was Carnaval! Obviously we stopped and the parade did not disappoint. Samba Schools, satirical parade floats, an ungodly amount of confetti, and topless women! Fun! It seemed like it was literally going to last all night, so we did have to pull the plug and hit the road since it was actually a school night.
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