Last week I spend my vacation on Sao Miguel, the largest island of the Azores. I needed the help of a colleague to persuade me to actually book the trip (thanks Jantine) and another colleague, Teresa, adviced me with respect to the destination.
Being a meticulous holiday planner I booked the flight, hotel, car and insurance 4 days in advance. As my flight was on monday I could still visit on saturday the bookshop Pied-a-Terre in Amsterdam to get the essentials for the trip and buy a printer so I could print-out my boarding pass and the route to the hotel. The rest I needed was time to read the german and english travel guides and hiking books. Fortunately flying time was 4 hours and a 4 hours stopover in Lisbon.
The Google Maps "directions" didn't quite bring me where the hotel was. It did bring me in one of the "rougher" neighbourhoods of Ponta Delgada although there is no reason for fear. Finding someone who speaks just enough english to give the correct directions was the hardest part. At that moment I even didn't managed to learn the portugese for "Thank You". Shame on me. The cab driver was helpful enough to try to explain with a lot of hand gestures where the hotel was. After driving around for over an hour I finally reached the lovely hotel. Later that week I was able to drive to the airport within 10 minutes. The exact location is here.
This was my view from my terace. Don't be fooled by the clouds. The clouds come and go. I enjoyed the sun and a good glass of wine.
