The Azores

The Azores are a group of nine volcanic islands in the Atlantic Ocean 850 miles west of Portugal.They were first settled in about 1440 AD and belong to Portugal. Although Portugal was officially neutral in WW II they leased airfields to the Allies . When my father flew home from Europe at the end of WW II his plane landed at one of those airfields for refueling. Our cruise from Tampa to England stopped at the port of Horta, on Faisal Island. We were there only a few hours but did get off the ship and wander around Horta.

Above is our ship at the pier in Horta. The photo below is of a brightly painted house.

This old rock house is probably one of the older houses in Horta.

A small park, church steeple in the background.

This building is built around the corner, as it were, as is one in the second photo.

I love all this color.

Another interesting corner building.

I love these gardens.

We found this little bit of America. We have known more than one European who couldn't leave until they had seen Route 66.

The photo below is a view of  Horta and the harbor from our ship. The tugboat is taking one of our tenders away. The winch broke on this tender and it couldn't be retrieved. The captain said it would be picked up by a container ship and taken to Lisbon where our ship would pick it up in a week or two. He assured us that there was plenty of room in other lifeboats for the passengers that were assigned to that tender.

This last photo is of Mt. Pico, on Pico Island, taken from Horta. Mt. Pico is 7713 feet elevation, and is the tallest mountain in Portugal.