Portugal, Week 1, Sao Miguel Azores

"Ola" - Arrived without a hitch on Saturday morning, 7:30 Azores time while most of you were sleeping at 3:30 back in Ontario. As Canadians, we love to talk about the weather, so let's start there. Days are 16c and it feels cool and damp unless the sun is shining and then it's quite comfortable. Evenings are 12c, cool but residents, stores, restaurants all leave the windows and doors open to let in the fresh air. The Portuguese are a hearty lot, no heaters or furnaces. Thank goodness we packed thermal underwear!

We are spending our first week on the largest island in the Azores archipelago, in the city of Ponta Delgada, home of the only 2 shopping malls on the 9 volcanic islands. Talk about luck eh! 

We are staying in a home in the historical area where the streets are mostly 1 lane, so to avoid being side-swiped parking is safer on the sidewalks which are about 30" wide. As a pedestrian you have to be concerned about getting struck by a side view mirror on the small import cars zipping along the lava cobblestone streets. 

Most buildings, fences and roads have been built using lava rock with modern architecture using blocks cut from these rocks to give a more refined and uniformed construction.

The market is open every day selling locally grown pineapples, oranges and vegetables. Separate enclosed stalls sell beef, pork and fresh fish.

Restaurants won't allow you to bring in your own wine, and really with the price of an exceptional bottle selling for approximately $6.50Cd. there is no need, but there are establishments where you can bring in your own fish and they will cook it for you! 

There are about 94,000 dairy cows on this island that is only 213km in circumference and Sao Miguel is known for their wonderful cheese, wines and well...what else do you need?

On Monday, we road on a local bus line 15km from the south shore of the island to Ribeira Grande on the north shore, the widest width of the island. We watched surfers and because of the Gulf Stream, the water is warm enough for swimming. We've not seen the long sandy beaches we love, but hey, it beats the snow.

Today we toured the Chapel of SantaBarbara that was a convent in the 1800's. It was originally built by the Jesuits before they were banished from the island forever. Pictures are not allowed to be taken inside, but warm, beautiful smiles were permitted outside.

"Obrigado" for reading our 1st weeks' adventure.

(Oh-Bree-gah-doe)

Leaving Soon ...

Final preparations are in place for our imminent departure January 29th - SATA Airlines - Toronto to Azores!

Stay tuned for our version of Sun/Fun/Dance and Romance!

Week #5 Edinburgh

It's very hard to believe this is our last week in Scotland clearly five weeks has come and gone all too quickly. Nevertheless, we did very well in saving the City of Edinburgh for last as it proved to be an amazing place to visit. This week was even further highlighted by all activities surrounding the "Fringe Festival". As you might imagine, we soon immersed ourselves in as many activities as time would allow. 

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival has been going since 1947 and is the largest arts festival in the world and takes place each year during the last three weeks of August. Thousands of performers (big names and the unknown) take to hundreds of stages situated all over the city to present shows for every taste (comedy, dance, circus, cabaret musicals, etc). Listed below is a short sampling of a number of our highlights. 

#1 "Close Up" Sitting in the front row and watching these four acrobatic artists perform with such beauty and physical intensity  was a performance no one should miss. 

#2 "Gobsmacked" Featuring world class voices, and amazing harmonies using sounds that embrace all forms of a cappella. 

#3 "Comedy" Starring Fred MacAulay, a regular at the Fringe for 27 years, with humourous dialogue of his life since leaving BBC Radio Scotland, why he left after all those years and the various punches thrown.

As we can all agree a city needs greenspace and here you'll find dozens of small parks all within a short waking distance from the center of the old city. ( note: too funny, the new city was built in 1885). Naturally a must visit was the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens covering 70 acres. These gardens play a very important role in a worldwide network of institutions seeking to ensure all good things in the form of biodiversity and sustainability.  They claim 273,000 individual plants 13,300 different species that are grown here or in combination with three other smaller satellite gardens located in other parts of Scotland. Please find a few photo's below ... Center shows cloning of little garden helpers (I managed to get some seeds for friends back home)

A pub or formally a public house is in many places a focal point of the community. Since the history of these pubs can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon-alehouse where windows were made of frosted glass to obscure the clientele from the street, we thought it was of significant importance to check a few of them out and have a pint or two.

Sandy Bell's pub is truly a real Scottish pub with a sign out front that says it all: Purveyors of fine ales and spirits "Home of world renowned folk music". We stopped in for a wee pint and immersed ourselves in the fun and relaxing environment. 

Conan Doyle pub is across the road from Picardy Place, the birthplace of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is a veritable shrine to the author and his famous fictional creation with loads of information about Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. Being the perfect slueths ourselves we took time to suss out the veggie burgers.

Here is my eager travelling companion and I'm glad she wore that orange jacket every day so I wouldn't lose her in the crowds!

All in all a wonderful adventure and we would encourage anyone who visits the UK to take advantage of the beauty of Scotland and the Scottish people.

Cheers,

Week #4 Oban, Isle of Arran, and Edinburgh Scotland

This week saw a welcomed change in transportation, as we were off the buses and rails and into a car.  We met up with brother-in-law Ken, best wrong side of the road driver ever! 

This arrangement enabled us to see parts of Scotland we would have otherwise missed. 

We selected a location just outside of town of Oban in the very small village of Kilmelford as our central base of operation for the week. Staying at the the Cuilfail a traditional, small scale hotel with 12 rooms built in the 19th-century. Please find photo below. It has a bar and small lounge area were traditional pub grub is served. I don't want to be negative here because it was a lovely retreat it was simply unfortunate that their policy of $20.00 minimum visa transaction puts them in a league with the small time operators. Yes they took away my fun in having a quick beer with my brother-in-law and relaxing after a hectic days activity. 

A visit to Kilmartin Glen provided us with an amazing introduction into Scotland's past. We're told 800 significant archaeological sites lie within a six mile radius of this village so we simply took them at their word. Though we can certainly attest to attending several of the more than 150 prehistoric monuments as identified in the picture below. 

We made our way to the Mull of Kintyre in southwest Scotland. Luckily it was a beautiful clear day and we were able to see the coast of Northern Ireland. Though the song "Mull of Kintyre" was never a hit in North America this area seems to has been immortalized by the song. Twenty years ago Sue and I had front row seats when attended a "Wings Concert" at the Toronto Sky Dome so now we know what Paul McCartney was actually singing about. 

Off to Arran or the Isle of Arran - it's culturally and physically similar to the Hebrides, but is separated from them by the Kintyre peninsula. It's divided into highland and lowland areas by the Highland Boundary Fault and it to is described as a "geologist's paradise" inhabited since the 6th century. Photo below shows Sue keeping visual over horizon looking for Vikings and other distant family members.

A beautiful sunset as we close the week down saying goodbye to Ken and Mer as we make our final preparations for Edinburgh and our last week in Scotland.

Cheers,

Bill and Sue

Week #3 Kyle of Lochalsh, Isle of Skye, Fort William,

We started our third week off in Kyle of Lochalsh noted for its castles, hills and lakes as well as the main entrances into the Isle of Skye and to the north west coast.

There's a large collection of white-washed buildings in the main commercial centre of Kyle with a wide range of accommodations to suit most budgets. Though in the peak of tourist season it's very tough to find a room of any description.This point is of particular interest when discovering our Guest House host double booked our reservation.  So the scramble began and as luck would have it we stumbled upon quite an exceptional lodging at Rock View Guest House - yes completed as a seasoned travellers all in good stride without missing a step. Whew!

The Isle of Skye claims to be the best of Scotland and what with likes of Bonnie Prince Charlie and Flora MacDonald who can argue the point. We certainly enjoyed all the climbing and walking, listening to the piping and the fiddle, visiting the castles and of course getting to know the friendly people. The Isle of Skye is certainly at the very least a quite a magical place.

If you use your imagination the cliffs in the above photo will appear to have a Kilt like appearace - okay concentrate and try squinting harder then:) Oh! There are some amazing Cliff top views across the sea to mainland Scotland.

 We discovered a small crofting village where it was possible to see the individual crofts (small farms) marked out by the fence lines. The fenced areas contain the better ground for planting crops or temporarily holding animals. The rough hill ground outside the fence areas is shared or given to common grazing.

It was then was off to Armadale to catch the Mallaig ferry (Mallaig being a small fishing village) and then the train to our final destination to end the remaining part of the week in Fort William. FYI The hamlet of Armadale is on the Sleat Peninsula, at the south end of the Isle of Skye. 

Mallaig to Fort William is described as one of the great railway journeys of the world this 42 mile trip takes you past a list of impressive extremes. Starting near the highest mountain in Britain, Ben Nevis, (which we will soon plan on to take a bit of)

Fort William is the outdoor capital of the UK and also the largest town in the Highlands. This area is a mecca for hill walkers and mountaineers and our selected base for the next 3 days to discover these West Highlands. Sue and I both felt years younger when hanging with this group of enthusiastic hikers pictured below.

Our walks steamed from easy family strolls, through longer, wilder hikes to ascents of the rugged mountain range.

Okay guys hope you've enjoyed this segment of our trip we've certainly had a blast. Next week promises to be even better -as if that's possible as we prepare for travels into the town of Oban, village of Kilmarti and trips to the outer Hebrides.