November 18 - The Azores

After 3 relaxing sea days, we reached our final port for this cruise, Ponta Delgada on the island of Sao Miguel in the Azores.  It is the largest of the Azorean Islands, and is known for its rich volcanic soil that produces a multitude of tobacco, tea crops, vineyards, botanical gardens and pineapple greenhouses and is nicknamed, "The Green Island".

The Azores is a cluster of 9 Portuguese islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean about 800 miles off the coast of Portugal.

We have been to the Azores twice before and did tours of the island both times.  Our friend, Gay, once again found a tour that looked very interesting to us.  She posted the information on our cruisecritic.com roll call forum and over several weeks more and more people contacted the tour company, Green Visions, and joined the tour.  We had about 6 or 7 vans of 8 people each, all with our own driver.  All the vans went their own way but everyone would meet up at a local farmhouse for a typical Portuguese lunch.

Our van had only 6 as one couple did not show.  Our driver/guide was Eduardo Filipe Miranda; he is a photographer who also does tours.  Green Visions hired him for the day to guide us around the island and he proved to be an excellent choice.

It was a cloudy, foggy day and we knew when we pulled into the port that it would be impossible to see any of the volcanic lakes high in the mountains.

So Eduardo revised the itinerary and it included stops that we had not done in our previous visits to the island.

One stop that was new was Our Lady of Peace church high atop a hill.

We climbed the 104 steps via a monumental tiled staircase to reach the chapel at the top.

Each of the blue and white tiles depicted a Biblical scene.

We peeked inside the small chapel that dates back to 1764....

...but the main attraction would be the panoramic view from the top of the steps....if the fog would lift.

The hillside next to the steps is filled with hydrangea bushes.  The island is filled with beautiful flowers, but not so much in November.  These were well past their prime bloom.

Back in the van we headed back down out of the clouds and stopped at a little town for a few photos.

We stopped by island's Furnas Valley where we saw hot springs, geysers, and hot mud pools.

We also stopped at a tea factory that was different than the one we had stopped at on previous visits.

The property was very beautiful.

A nice young lady showed us the equipment used to process the tea leaves...

 and we finished our visit with a cup of the"broken leaf" variety of tea.

Then, with a couple more stops for an overview of the beautiful coastline and the green, lush hillsides, we headed to lunch.

We stopped at a local farmhouse and experienced a home-cooked full Portuguese meal including appetizers of local cheese, sausage and fresh pineapple grown on the island.  The main courses included a fish and a pork dish with local vegetables and salad and a Portuguese dessert.

The family had rearranged their dining and living rooms to make way for tables to accommodate about 55 people.

Eduardo sat with us and explained all the dishes as we were served.

Terry gave our hostess, the farm wife, a big hug and thank you.  It was a very nice meal the family prepared for us.

It was then time to head back to the ship and begin our 6 days at sea before reaching Fort Lauderdale, Florida the day before Thanksgiving.  The seas were fairly calm and we enjoyed our time during those last days of the cruise visiting with our new friends, expressing hopes that we will travel together again.

In fact we will be soon traveling again with Gay and Phil and Richard and Karen from this cruise and also Gwen and Jerry, who we met on our Baltic cruise in 2014.  We all will be cruising the Galapagos islands later this spring on the yacht, M/V Evolution, through the company Quasar Expeditions....so stay tuned for another adventure of AngellTravels!

November 14 - Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona is the capital of the proud and distinct region of Spain called Catalunya. We have visited Barcelona once before on a cruise in 2011 and loved it.  At that time we devoted our day to everything Gaudi,  the artist/architect who is recognized as one of the greatest designers of the 19th and 20th centuries with his stained glass and towering, other-worldly buildings.  The most famous work of Antoni Gaudi, the Sagrada Familia, is still under construction almost one hundred years after his death.

This time when we visit Barcelona, we wanted to go outside the town to Montserrat, home of Catalonia's most important religious retreat, hidden high in the craggy Montserrat Mountains.  And we wanted to revisit some of the Gaudi sites, especially the Sagrada Familia to see how it has changed in the 4 years since our visit.

Our friend, Gay, found a tour that goes to both places so we joined her group of 16 people from the ship.  The tour company was Pepito Tours and our guide, Jose Soler, was requested by Gay as she had him as a tour guide once before in Barcelona.

The ship was late in docking so we didn't start our tour until 9:00 am.  It is a shorter day now than we even expected as we must be back on board by 4:30 pm.

We head out to Montserrat Mouintain and the Montserrat Benedictine Monastery Complex built high on the mountain nestled in the jagged peaks at 2,400 feet.

As we ascended the mountain, we left our sunny blue skies and went into a cloud.  We could hardly see anything as we disembarked the bus.

Jose led us up to the entrance of the monastery, telling us a little about its history.  The first hermit monks built huts at Montserrat about 900 A.D.  By 1025, a monastery was founded and this has been Catalunya's most important pilgrimage site for a thousand years.  And the clouds were beginning to lift...

Our guide, Jose Soler.

As we stand in the courtyard, the skies are beginning to clear and we can see some of the jagged peaks of the mountain top high above.

Montserrat was one of the great monastic complexes of the Middle Ages, drawing monks and philosophers from far and wide.  This courtyard is over a thousand years old, dating back to a time when religious hermits occupied the mountain caves.

We went into the basilica for a peek.  It is decorated with statues of Christ and the 12 Apostles.

And then we joined the line to view the Black Virgin.  It is a gilded wooden sculpture of Catalonia's patron saint La Morenta, also known as the Black Madonna or Black Virgin of Montserrat.

We both touch Mary's orb with one hand and held the other hand up to show that we have accepted Jesus.

Then it was time to take a few photos of the jagged peaks of the mountain since the fog had lifted and we had some blue sky.

These jagged peaks were the inspiration to Gaudi for the spires on the Sagrada Familia.

Minutes later it was covered in fog again.  We felt fortunate to catch a clear glimpse of the mountain.

We headed back down toward the bus parking area, stopping by the vendors to buy some delicious rosemary goat cheese and a baguette...this will be our lunch as we head back to Barcelona.

Once back into the city of Barcelona, our next stop was the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's most famous and persistent work.  It was started in 1883 and it is expected to be completed by 2026, which is 100 years after Gaudi's death.

The life of Christ is portrayed in elaborate sculptures on the 3 facades of the church--the Nativity, the Passion, and the Glory.

Jose obtained headsets and we followed him through the church listening to him give details about the church.

Upon entering the nave of the church, we are in awe with the beauty of the mosaics and the sun making them shine like jewels.

The  nave is so huge, it is hard to get a photo to capture it all.  With all the columns, it looks like a forest of trees.  Part of Gaudi's religious vision was a love for nature.  He said, "Nothing is invented; it's written in nature,"

the ceiling

Jose took us down to the basement of the church where there is a museum which tells the chronological story of the Sagrada Familia.

The models of the church are kept here along with photographs taken during the various phases of construction.

This photo above shows how much of the building was completed at the time of Gaudi's death in 1926.

Gaudi's original design calls for a total of 18 spires, representing in ascending order of height the 12 Apostles, the Virgin Mary, the 4 Evangelists and the tallest of all, Jesus Christ.  The model in the photo above shows the 8 spires that have been built as of 2010.

On the way out, we had just a few more minutes to admire the exterior facade.

 Below is a closer view of the Passion facade, depicting Christ's last days and death on the cross.

With our time fleeting away, we headed over to Parc Guell, Gaudi's intended housing project but it turned into a colorful park.  It was fun to see the terrace again with the colorful mosaic bench that snakes around the terrace.

It was very crowded and we had so little time here to really appreciate Gaudi's work.

We worked our way down to the front entrance of Parc Guell.

This is where we entered the park back in 2011.  I remember it being a jaw-dropping experience as we exited our taxi and looked up into the park.

It was then time to leave and return to the ship.  Not nearly enough time was spent at these sites, but we did enjoy seeing Montserrat for the first time and Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell for a second time.  Jose was a great guide and did his best to show us the sites we requested in the short amount of time we had available.

If you are interested in seeing how we toured Barcelona on our own back in 2011, here is the link: Barcelona 2011

If we are lucky enough to return to Barcelona some day, we definitely will do the siteseeing on our own rather than a tour so that we can spend enough time at the sites to fully appreciate and understand them.

Next we leave the Mediterranean Sea and head across the Atlantic, stopping at one more port....The Azores.