Wanderung 30

A Boat and Bike Trip

April - May 2015


 

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Ponta Delgada, Azores - Saturday May 2nd, 2015:

Before breakfast we watched the ship inching up to the old marine terminal right smack in the middle of Ponta Delgada just outside the small sailboat marina. We came in backwards docking on the portside. Our stateroom is on the starboard side and we could look out over the seawall onto the ocean where a couple of inter-island cargo ships were moored. My niece Kim lives on one of the other islands in the Azores group, Faial, and I was remembering one of her stories about living on such a remote island. She told us that when the monthly supply ship came, the local store shelves would be suddenly filled with goods, and then slowly the store shelves would be emptied over the course of the month and be almost bare at the end.

We watched as the Royal Princess also made her slow approach into port. She was supposed to be on a different itinary than we, but since we had to skip Bermuda and headed to the Azores instead we were now essentially on the same route. But the bigger Royal Princess had to dock across from us, up against the sea wall, whereas our smaller ship could use the mid-town dock.

The big advantage of docking at the old terminal is that it is joined to the center of downtown Ponta Delgada by a short promenade filled with cafes and tourist boutiques, rather than being way out on the breakwater, where the larger Royal Princess had to dock.

Thus our dock was an ideal location for us to walk into town and do some shopping. Our shopping list was a swimsuit for Monika, a charging cable for the cameras, and snacks as we were almost out of pretzels. (Curiously enough, pretzels are not available on cruise ships, and thus we buy them in ports wherever possible.) Bob had written some letters that we wanted to mail, but that was impossible in Ponta Delgada as the Post Office was closed for the day.

We wandered down the scenic waterfront to the main plaza and archway that marks the heart of the old city, and then turned in toward the cathedral . There we stopped to go inside, and found it to be very pretty in kind of a Rococo fashion. Folks were praying and no photos were allowed , so after looking around we donated some Euros and quietly slipped out to do our shopping.


 

We also visited a Tourist Information place. I was curious how difficult it would be to catch a ferry to Kim's island. Well, as it turned out, the inter-island ferry service did not even start until May 7th, so it was impossible to visit her. Oh well. When we asked where a camera shop would be, we were given some vague directions, and wanderering around, we did locate the shop, but they did not have the cabel we needed. Sigh. So we kept ambing about, enjoying the intricate patterns of black and white stones on the sidewalks and the gaily painted house doors and walls.


 


 

When we heard someone ask directions to the central market, we listened carefully and then tagged along. We enjoy the open air mercados where fruits, vegetables, and other things are sold by and for local folks. We were not disappointed when we got there; the abundance and variety of fruits and vegetables all grown on the island was astounding. In particular, i was fascinated by the pineapples, here called Ananas like in Germany, and next to it was something called Anona, looking similar but different. Now I wish I had bought one just to try it. Way back in one corner, among some arts and crafts stores, we found some honest-to-goodness scrimshaw depicting whalers hunting a sperm whale, and a stove top ceramic spoon rest in a unique boat-like shape. Yay!

After the market we found a sundries store where we bought some potato chips (also not found on cruise ships) to use as junk food since our pretzels were running low. A cruise ship has lots of food except for crunchy snacks to go with a drink in the afternoon. At a store with clothing Monika finally found a rather nice looking swim suit in her size, so our shopping expedition was not all in vain. Score!

We also chanced on the only other camera shop in the city, but we again struck out with the charging cable (unique to Nikons, perhaps?). As we each had backup batteries, we refused the outrageous offer of the shopowner to charge a battery for 5 Euro or about $6 for a little electricity! That's just gouging the tourists!

When we returned to the waterfront after a couple hours of ambling about, we were getting tired. At a little snackbar we saw comfortable wicker chairs and a large beer was only 3 Euro. So we sat and looked out over the harbour while Monika sipped a beer. We saw what looked like beginning sailing classes holding practice regattas. The Optimus Prams with brightly colored sails tacked around small triangular course marked with buoys, and it sure looked like fun.

At last we figured that we had done enough sightseeing and shopping, and we were hungry. So we went back on board for lunch and then sat out on our balcony to enjoy the afternoon sunshine. We watched the sailboats and sail boards tack up and back in the big gap between the two Princess ships while we munched on our bag of potato chips. Such fun!. One windsurfer had trouble tacking and went completely down in the water, which was rather spectacular, We enjoyed watching him get back up, pull his sail up, and then continue on his merry way.

But the oddest thing happened when I opened my ipad! Suddenly I was told that we had a new Gmail from Helga, and when I checked settings it said that I was connected even though we had never logged onto our ships' wifi system. We even got the news about Princess Kate having her new baby daughter on the updated BBC news, although the CNN and ABC news apps did not update. When we tried to figure out what was going on, Bob finally realized that our iPads had somehow logged in to the Wifi system of the Royal Princess, which was docked across the harbor from us! We had used our iPads on that ship back in January, so our iPads still had the Royal Princess as an "accepted" wifi site and they apparently tried to automatically login on that ship's wifi system. But it was 200 yards away and our accounts would have long since been de-activated on that system, so I couldn't figure out how the login would have even partially succeeded. 'Tis a puzzlement!

When all aboard time came, it seemed that two people were missing, so we waited till four before starting slowly to leave. The Royal serenaded us with the Love Boat theme and we were on our way to Cobh, Ireland.



Copyright 2015 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt


 

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