Afterwards, we dined at Prego.
Our host was Captain Glenn who was joined with his lovely wife, Marit, along with Cruise Director Rick Spath.
We sailed with Captain Glenn several times including World Cruises 2008, 2010 and 2012 along with some other non World Cruise voyages. Over those years, we always had utmost respect and appreciation for Captain Glenn who has many impressive skills including his technical & navigational expertise, strong management and interpersonal skills and terrific social skills including being a very effective communicator.
Captain Glenn often would put some pad in terms of arrival times in his pocket a term that he would use from time-to-time. For example, during World Cruise 2012 when we were traveling from Maui over to Noumea, New Caledonia and then onto Australia he was ahead of schedule and eventually when there was a storm that would have impacted the course of the ship, he was able to set a course away from the storm which required a longer distance but because of that pad we still made it into the ports of call on time. In fact, a ship of another cruise line which was sailing a similar itinerary did not adjust its course and it was impacted by that storm.
Captain Glenn would communicate frequently if there rough seas were ahead, reminding the guests to be extra careful such as holding on tight to the handrails on the stairways and being careful as they walked around the ship. These types of additional communications were always appreciate.
We had an absolutely wonderful time at dinner. As usual, we enjoyed the terrific cuisine, service and ambience of Prego, but what made the evening extra special was the table conversation. We reminisced about some of our experiences when Captain Glenn was in-charge of Serenity, spoke about other related experiences, talked about family and a variety of other subjects.
Rather than calling it a night, we went to the Crystal Cove for a post-dinner drink (is that what you call that) and ended up going to sleep much later than usual.
We slept very well last evening as we made our way to our next port of call. The seas remained relatively calm. In fact, maybe Keith slept too well. Between staying up later than normal, and all of this forwarding of the clocks, when Keith woke up it was a couple of hours later than usual so he took the morning off from a workout. Instead, he went up to the Lido Cafe for some coffee and to read and to write.
Next up was Anne Marie who walked for a short amount of time, as we had Rao come earlier with our breakfast. Keith also worked out for a short time.
These are some photos as we arrived to todays' port of call.
After several days at sea it was great to put our feet on land. This was the first time we have sailed to Azores/Ponta Delgada, Portugal.
This was our first visit to this port of call. The total population is only 70,000 residents.
The Azores are considered a small piece of Paradise in the middle of the Ocean. Mainland Portugal is 900 nautical miles to the east and Bermuda which is its nearest neighbor to the west is close to twice the distance.
There are nine islands in the chain of Azores which are divided into three different chains. The town that we visited, Ponta Delgada is part of Sao Miguel which along with its neighbor Santa Maria comprise one of the three regions.
The Portuguese first sighed the Azores in 1427. The pioneers represented a mix of Bretons, Jews, Moors and Portuguese natives and some of this heritage is still found today.
San Miguel was first settled in 1444 but development did not largely begin until 200 years later. Starting at that time there was prosperity and growth in this area and much of the Island's churches were build in that period. This area was a major stopover point for trading ships sailing between Brazilian colonies and Europe.
One of the major exports was Oranges which were sold mainly to England. This Island was also very instrumental to the Allied Naval Forces during World War II, as they supplied important harbors and their other importance was providing air bases.
A couple of minutes, after the ship cleared we were off the ship.
The weather was overcast but the temperature was just perfect for the long walk that we took. After we walked from the ship through the cruise ship terminal we then walked along the marina area with the water on our left and the old town on the right. We gradually walked to our right and then made another left until we came to the Forte de Sao Bras (the fort) and then after visiting the fort we passed by a memorial to the veteran's of World War I. We continued for awhile and then crossed the street on our right hand side so we could walk the old town area.
As we could see the fort, an airplane could be flying above us.
Throughout our walk, we saw many trees such as these trees.
World War I memorial
During our walk we saw many of the historic churches. This area probably looks beautiful after sundown.
As we walked many of the streets and side streets of the old town area we would come to road like this one and even some that were not as wide with small pedestrian sidewalks.
As we walked we took in all of the beautiful architecture that surrounds us.
We passed by several bakeries, small markets and grocery stores and eventually we came to a very large indoor market selling cheese, meat, fish, baked goods as well as fruit and vegetables.
After a very long walk, we made our way back to the pier and took a few photos as we got closer to the beautiful Crystal Serenity.
Shortly after we returned to the ship, we enjoyed lunch at the Lido Cafe and we had our usual lunch of salad entrees.
In the afternoon, Anne Marie walked for an hour and Keith worked out at the Fitness Center.
We will be back at the Crystal Dining Room for dinner this evening.
This was a wonderful day. We just love walking around Europe and the Mediterranean whether we are walking around a small or a large city.
One of the reasons why we extended this voyage was to get back to Europe since we had a wonderful time last year as well in Europe.
We wanted to share a couple of additional thoughts of the day that Captain Glenn share on the 2012 World Cruise.
TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY......
You aren't learning much if your moth is moving.
It is because we are different that each of us is special.
Keith & Anne Marie
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