Our Trip to Portugal, St. Michael

Nordeste

We were so lucky and fortunate that one of my best friends, Lillian, and her parents, graciously let us stay with them at their home for the first part of our trip!  We stayed in Nordeste.  The view was beautiful and Lil’s mom spoiled us by making us food everyday.  We were able to truly get the full experience.  We ate fish stew, all different meat dishes, and of course SOUP!!  And my favorite was the fresh bread!

 

 

 

The View

The view was just beautiful.  You could see cows in the pasture, the local church, and yes, everyone’s laundry!  Most houses do not own a dryer.  It’s like going back in time here.  The local farmer, Lils cousin, walks all his cows down the narrow streets to go get milked.  Unfortunately, we missed that because were out early every day to sight see.  All the neighbors were close knit and a lot of them were actually related to Lil.  They all knew we were there visiting and I’m sure it was the talk of the town!  Windows with shutters opened up and a friendly face would yell, “Ola!”

 

 

Bread!!!!!

Every morning, the bread guy drives around the street delivering fresh bread.   You can have it delivered daily and they will leave it in a bag on your door or you can run out when you hear him beeping and flag him down.  You have to be up real early though!  I think he came around 6:30!  Literally the best bread I ever had and I could totally eat it everyday for the rest of my life!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Center of Nordeste.

Most of the churches look the same and there is one in every village.

 

Garden Near the House

This was a beautiful park/look out near the house.  It was a pretty garden with a gorgeous view.  There were also a lot of cats who made this their home.  The locals keep their scraps and leave it for them.  The are well taken care of, like the gardens!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Caldeira Velha, Ribeira Seca 

Lils mom came with us to sit in the natural springs.  It was like being in the jungle with the lush green ferns and palm trees surrounding you.  It makes you forget the smell of rotten eggs that permeates from the hot springs.  The water is about 34 Celsius (93 Fahrenheit) at the top pool which has a beautiful small waterfall in the backdrop.  In the lower pools it is a little cooler but we chose to go there as the upper pool was a little crowded.  We pretty much had it to ourselves!  It was a great day for it since it was a bit rainy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parque Natural da Ribeira dos Caldeirões

 

 

 

 

 

 

This park had a great walking trail with lush greenery and waterfalls.  It had some old water mills from the 16th Century that you could venture into and a cute gift shop that was actually a house of one of the mill workers.  Well worth stopping at as the big waterfall is just beautiful!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cha Gorreana (Tea Factory)

The Tea Factory was amazing.  You can go in and take a tour through the museum and enjoy a fresh cup of tea at the end.  They say the tea has been picked by hand pesticide free for 130 years.  They say it is “World Class Tea”.

 

Priaia dos Moinhus

We walked down a windy road to get to the beach.  This was the first beach we visited.  The sand was the color of pepper (black sand beach).  The color of the water was so gorgeous, even under overcast skies.

I think us girls scoured that beach for every piece of sea glass there was!  They had a little store we sat at and admired our findings while drinking a Super Bock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Rental House in Lagoa

Our rental house made us all feel like we were rich!  It really didn’t cost that much since we all split the cost 3 ways.  We stayed here for the second half of our 9 days.  It had 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, multiple living spaces, an awesome pool area including a pool house area with an outdoor kitchen and bathroom/changing room.  We loved it!!  It was worth every penny.

 

Ponta Del Gada

I feel like this is the “City” of the island.  The monument, Portas da Cidade, represents the City Gates and was built in the 18th Century.  We had dinner with everyone on our Anniversary one night and on another day we walked around to do some shopping!  There are a ton of shops and places to eat.  In the picture below, where all the boats are, is where the cruise ships come in.  There are shops there as well.  But if that’s as far as you go when you get off a cruise ship, you are missing out on just about everything about the culture and beauty of this island.

Portas da Cidade

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Terra Nostra Park & Garden in Furnas

This park & botanical garden that dates back to 1775, is best known for its thermal baths.  We didn’t bring our bathing suits for this one.  It looks disgusting, but I’m told it’s nice and warm and obviously very popular!  We walked the garden trails and took lots of pictures.  Very pretty and was so worth our time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Logoa as Furnas

I was so excited about this place!!  Of course I love food and love to cook.  So I really was excited to see how they put the pot of food into the ground and cooked it.  Turns out that’s about all there is to it.  All the covered pots are covered with a mound of dirt and a little sign as to who it belongs to.  Some are restaurants and some you can actually pay to use.  We were lucky enough to be there when a restaurant was taking out their pot.  We made reservations at one so that we could be served the dinner.  It consists of all kinds of meat and vegetables.

There is bubbling mud and water from the springs all around.   To get here we drove through the village where there are hot springs that you can go see.  Again, rotten egg smell, but just so incredible, the heat that is coming out of the ground boiling the water that is pooled there.

 

On the road….

The roads are lines with huge gigantic hydrangeas.  It’s something I can’t imagine you would see anywhere else.  As you drive around the island, from most places you can see the ocean because you are almost always higher up.  There a cows everywhere.  We pretty much went through every town, village, and city.  Each place having it’s own personality.  Food and alcohol is very inexpensive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Praia do Mosteiros

This beach was also a black sand beach.  There a large rock formations that make the view amazing.  The landscape on the way there was breathtaking.

 

 

Sete Cidades

This lake is a volcanic crater 3 miles wide.  But the amazing part is that one half is light green and other half blue!  Which according to legend, were formed from the tears of a shepherd and a princess who shared a forbidden love.  First we stopped up in a higher region where the view teased us to want to hurry and get down to see more!  When you’re at ground level it actually isn’t as exciting.   Because we had inside information, we snuck into an abandoned hotel high up and got on the roof to take the most fantastic pictures!

Monte Palace

This was a 5 star hotel open for only 18 months when in closed it’s doors.  The owner claimed bankruptcy and according to what I read it was because in that area it rains 200 days out of the year which meant most of the time you would not be seeing the amazing view.   So if you plan to visit make sure you check out spotazores.com which has live weather cameras around the island.  One area could be raining while others in bright sunshine.  This is one you only can see in bright sunshine.  Otherwise, you will see nothing but grey clouds.

 

Agua de Pau

This place was so fun!  It’s a great swimming spot with a restaurant!  I made Rob, my husband, go back to the car and get our bathing suits.  I really wanted to at least just jump into the turquoise water just once.  Even though I had to drag him, I think he was glad he did it too!  People just lay around on their towels and jump in when they get hot.  I loved this spot.  However, we were just visiting and getting a bite to eat.  There was a big glass display case with all of the days fresh catch.  I literally did not recognize one fish.  All the guys ordered something different as far as fish.  I’m not a fish person, but I tried all of theirs and it was delicious.  None of them were terribly fishy.  I can’t speak for the eyeball Earl ate though!

 

A THANK YOU to my Bestie and friends!

Lil, my bestie, thank you so much for running around to the places you’ve already been just to entertain us and let us experience all that you have.  Your parents were so kind to us and super gracious to let us stay at the house.  What an amazing vacation!  And what a great group of friends to go with!  We really had a great time!  Love you guys!