Day 21: Back to Sao Miguel & Ponta Delgada

July 25, 2020

Today we fly back to Sao Miguel. Our plane departs at 9:45, so we leave our beautiful vacation home at 7 a.m. as we decide to take the coastal road.

After a good hour and many tractors on the winding road ahead of us, we reach the airport around 8:15. Now we still have 1.5 hours.

We sit at the edge of the runway and watch the fire brigade on their test drive on the tarmac.

At 9 o'clock we go to the terminal.

At the gate I watch as our plane is being loaded. The luggage cart is practically "empty", only 5 suitcases are actually flying in the plane - 3 of them belong to us :-)

At 9:45 we roll onto the runway and take off.

Unfortunately, I am sitting on the wrong side once again!

5 flights and EVERY time I am not sitting on the side where I can see islands...

The passengers on the other side are now able to enjoy the cloud-free view of Pico from above.... Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr............

I only catch a brief glimpse of Pico. Although there are only 15 people in the plane, which is meant for 80 people, the seats opposite are occupied and I can't see anything through the windows :-(

However, I am now sitting on the right side to see Sao Miguel during the approach. A small consolation.

According to the flight plan, we should land at 10:35, but apparently we have a tailwind and land at 10:15 - what a short flight! Only 30 minutes long!

Ponta Delgada welcomes us with bright sunshine!!

We usually only know the outside position from Frankfurt Airport, but they also have it here in Ponta Delgada. We land completely away from the airport building and take a small airport tour by bus

After standing alone at the baggage carousel on Terceira, it will be similarly clear with only 5 suitcases here in Ponta Delgada.

We will spend our last night at the 4-star Hotel Marina Atlantico

We were rebooked to Marina Atlantico because our small booked hotel apparently didn't open at all.

But since the location of the Atlantic is much more central, we don't complain, of course :-)

The hotel is clean, but in the upper floors it looks outdated, the rooms are also very small and worn and the bathroom is also very small and functional.

You can see that the hotel has already had its best years.

For one night, however, absolutely fine! If I had to pay the normal hotel price, I would have been annoyed.

We were rebooked here at the price of the previously booked hotel and now pay less for 2 double rooms than the price listed at the reception for 1 double room...

We occupy 2 double rooms on the 3rd floor overlooking the harbor.

The view of the harbor with the swimming pool and bathing area is really beautiful and the balcony is very inviting

The adjacent swimming pool is unfortunately closed due to Covid-19. Too bad - we would have liked to go swimming today.

But at the reception, we are told that there is a bathing area in the sea next to the swimming pool, which is even more "cool". We can see it from the balcony and decide to go swimming there after a little city tour.

It is after 11 o'clock and we are starting to get hungry.

We would have liked to ride the 'TukTuks' across Ponta Delgada - it was highly recommended to us - but when we ask at the reception and make a call, we find out that the small transport vehicles are also not operating due to Covid-19.

Too bad, now I have to "limp" through the whole city with my foot.

Right in front of the hotel we see a flower picture on a wall by the artist 'YVES', who is very well known here on Sao Miguel and whose flowers can be found all over the island

We walk along the promenade above the harbor towards the old town until we reach the square 'Praça de Gonçalo Velho' with the statue of 'Gonçalo Velho Cabral' and the arches 'Portas da Cidade' in the background

In Cafe Central, we sit at a table under a parasol (the sun is beating down quite hard) and have lunch.

Next door, the chimes of the church 'Igreja de São Sebastião' can be heard

After lunch, we take a walk through the old town, but since it is incredibly hot and I can only walk very slowly due to my injured foot, we decide to walk back to the hotel and go swimming.

In the cheese and gourmet shop right next to this little alley (R. dos Mercadores 28), we buy some cheese and bread to take home, then we walk back to the hotel.

After chilling in the hotel for an hour and putting our feet up, we grab our swimwear and head to the bathing area opposite.

There is an entrance at the entrance to the bathing area where the people who come and go are counted. Only a certain number of bathers are allowed in the bathing area at the same time, so colorful wristbands are distributed, changing colors every 30 minutes.

We are lucky at 3:30 and get a highly coveted wristband, which reminds us of our all-inclusive vacation, for a 1.5-hour entry. 2 people behind us are not allowed in anymore and have to wait.

Armed with a yellow wristband, we now have until 5 o'clock to swim extensively.

Since there are only sitting and lying areas on the hot and hard concrete floor, this will not be a long bathing session.

Since it is high tide at the moment, the tidal children's pool is completely underwater. At low tide and lower water levels, you can see a concrete wall.

The water is indeed a welcome refreshment - but it takes some effort to step into the "warm" 20-degree water and start swimming....

Once you're in, it's great and refreshing!

I also believe that it is especially good for my sore foot to be cooled down, so I stay in the cool water a little longer.

We stay for about an hour, then the hard concrete floor becomes too uncomfortable and it's too hot in the sun.

We walk back to the hotel and relax in the room for another hour before we go back to the harbor to have dinner.

We find a restaurant right away and actually get the LAST available table (all others are either occupied or reserved). Whew. As a farewell to our vacation, we treat ourselves to a bottle of rosé wine and enjoy the last evening.

The weather is pleasant, there is no breeze - really beautiful!

It's such a shame that we will be flying back home tomorrow....

After dinner, we stroll along the harbor for a while. The kids and dad climb the grandstand (or whatever it is?) and we reach our hotel at around 10 o'clock.

However, it is impossible to sleep here...

Since it is warm, we have the window open and until 4:30 in the morning, when the alarm clock goes off, we witness the party night outside the door.

It is incomprehensible to me how the locals can party all night without social distancing and mask requirements.

Somewhere across the promenade, there seems to be a disco open, the bass of which keeps waking me up during the night....