São Miguel - Azores

Welcome back to Europe! With a bit of jet lag, we landed early in the morning in Ponta Delgada, the capital of the Azores, on the island of São Miguel. Our rental car was now normally small again and the streets were European-narrow 😁. At the supermarket we were happy to see affordable prices without taxes for this and that at the checkout and vegan yoghurt! We were actually looking forward to the language, but surprisingly Portuguese has little in common with Spanish, sounded more like Russian to us and we didn't understand anything 😄. Our accommodation was available in the morning and after a short walk to the beach we rested before our parents arrived in the evening. The reunion was warm and super nice! We ate together, played and chatted until late into the night.

On the first day, tour guide Uli picked out a viewpoint, the Vista do Rei. The road took us through green slopes with colorful hydrangeas to the top of the mountain, from where we had a beautiful view of two crater lakes. Afterwards we drove into the valley and walked around one of the two lakes - at least until the bumpy jungle path became so steep and muddy that we turned around. It reminded us a bit of our hike on Oahu, it's not without reason that the Azores are called the “Hawaii of Europe” - even if it was unfortunately a little colder here. In the late afternoon we drove to a sleepy coastal town and found a bar that didn't have a siesta. It was right by the sea and provided us first with delicious coffee and then with cold alcoholic drinks at sensational prices. The Muddis and we scrambled to the natural pools right next to them and dipped our feet in the cool water. In the evening we all marveled at the beautiful sunset, which always looks great by the sea.

The next day got off to a leisurely start, after a hearty breakfast we drove to the town of Furnas in the east of the island. The Azores, like Hawaii or the Canary Islands, are of volcanic origin. Even though the last volcanic eruptions are long in the past, many hot springs still bear witness to their earlier activity. We visited Terra Nostra Park, which is actually a hotel but with public access to the thermal baths. The color of the water was not very inviting, but we all dared to go in - some with a little more persuasion - and enjoyed the warmth. So we splashed around for a relatively long time and when we came out, both our bathing suits and our skin were rusty-yellow thanks to the iron in the water. A small walking path runs around the thermal baths, which led us through dense greenery and past beautiful flowers and was reminiscent of an enchanted garden. In the evening we cooked delicious food again, played “Skyjo” and had a tough game of city-country-river.

The next day was a bit cloudy and rain was forecast. We drove to Ponta Delgada, briefly visited a small market and strolled through the cute alleys. After a detour to the botanical garden, where there were a surprising number of Australian trees and a large bamboo forest, we visited a pineapple plantation. Pineapple is one of the Azores' main export products and you could visit the plantation for free. At the end we had jam and schnapps as a sample and we also ordered other delicacies made from and with pineapple - except for Bärbel, who is unfortunately allergic to it. In the evening we went to a really delicious vegan-vegetarian restaurant.

We had booked two dives for both of us on Thursday and had to get up early for the first time this week. We took a rubber boat just 10 minutes away from the coast to a reef, where we saw lots of schools of fish, moray eels and strange millipede-like creatures. For lunch we went back to land, where we warmed up with tea - a bit like in Indonesia only with much thicker wetsuits 😁. The second diving spot was much more spectacular, after just 7 minutes of driving we arrived again and jumped into the blue and cool sea. A large container ship called “Dori” sank at this point 60 years ago and is now a marine protected area. The wreck was really impressively large and you could partially dive under iron struts. The anchor chain and the ship's propeller were huge and there was a lot of activity all around. We saw lots of small fish and also some barracuda. Back on land we drove to a tea plantation where we met up with our parents, who had spent the morning on the beach. After a small exhibition of the machines and a food tasting, we all bought tea and then walked through the plantation. Similar to Malaysia, we really liked it here.

The next two days were more of a sporty nature. First we hiked around the lake in Furnas and visited the fumeroles. These are holes in the ground from which hot steam comes out. Afterwards we drove to the Salto do Prego waterfall, which was supposedly right next to it. The way there was further than expected and led us through a jungle. It totally reminded us of Indonesia and was super beautiful. Peter bravely hiked along with his two new knees and we were all very impressed with how well he progressed. When they arrived at the waterfall, Christel and Philip decided to take a swim in the very frosty water. Afterwards we hiked back down the mountain and had our well-deserved dinner in a restaurant right by the sea.

On Saturday we drove to the beautiful Lagoa do Fogo and hiked the steep path down to the shore. Afterwards we soaked in the hot springs for a second time, this time a little less yellow and less warm, but with a more beautiful backdrop. We spent our last evening at home with pizza and a final round of city-country name-calling.

That was a great start in Europe. The Azores don't have to hide next to Indonesia, Malaysia or Thailand and even if the comparison with Hawaii is a bit flawed, it is definitely justified.

We are now getting closer to Germany, namely on the Portuguese mainland to Porto.