Visiting the Azores

It's been a while since my last post, and I though I'd catch ya'll up on our recent trip to the Azores. Jenn and I spent about 10 days in the Azores, they're islands owned by Portugal in the middle of the Atlantic. The great thing about them is that they're a 5 hour non-stop flight from Boston, the islands are beautiful, and it's a little quaint slice of Europe as well.

Before the summary, here's the trip by the numbers: 1 rental car, 2 hotels, 2 ferry rides, 3 islands, 4 gardens, 5 tires, 6 plane rides, 7 hours to walk around a volcano, 12+ ice cream bars!

When we arrived early Saturday morning, we were tired and jet-lagged. After a brief nap, we took a walking tour of the city of Ponta Delgada, the largest city of the Azores. The tour took a couple of hours, and we saw several beautiful buildings, deep blue skies, and an ice cream stand on every corner.

We finished the day by sitting in our room, and watching the sun set behind the mountains, while enjoying local wine, cheese, bread, and ham. It was the perfect way to end the first day of our vacation.

On Sunday we decided to extend our boundaries, and we walked to the far parts of the city by hitting some of the many beautiful parks they have. The first park, Jardin Antonio Borges, was the acutually the yard of Antonio Borges (I have no idea who that is). He spent years making trails, bridges, nooks and crannies in this garden. We enjoyed it so much that we visited it two more times.

The second garden we hit was very beautiful, but it was a complete let-down compared to the first garden. But there was one highlight; as we were eating our apples, I heard Jenn yell Chicken!" I looked to my left, and a rooster was charging us -- I had NO idea they could run soooo fast! Hector (that was the name Jenn gave him) continued to pester us until we gave him our apple cores -- which he ate completely. Next up, Azores Part II -- Driving With No Rules & a 7 hr walk around a volcano!