A Port Wine Day

Our morning started with the first lectures of our cruise. The expedition team did not want to send us on land without good facts about the region. It is amazing how much you see more when you got at least first information about everything you can expect to see.

Around 11:00 we reached Leixoes, one of Portugal’s major seaports. The harbor is located 4km north of the mouth of the Douro River, very near to the city Porto, and you can describe Leixoes as the harbor of Porto. Porto itself is Portugal’s the second largest city. The inhabitants are still proud that Portugal is called after their city.

Most passengers left the ship to visit Porto. Shuttle busses and the excursion busses were waiting for us. Experienced local guides guided us during the afternoon. We learned the city of Porto with all the historical important buildings, like the famous station, that belongs to the “top ten stations” of the world or the Cathedral out of the 12th century.

Window in the Cathedral

The famous station

The famous station

And of course we all visited a Port wine cellar.Here we learned about the Douro valley, with its special micro climate, which is so perfect for the wine. Only wine from wine yards in the Douro valley can be used for the Port wine. As this valley with its climate and the traditional vine yards is so important for Portugal and very unique it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Even the vine is called Port vine we recognized, that the vine cellars lay not in Porto. Porto was built at the sun exposed side of the Douro River. That’s nice for the inhabitants of the town, but not good for the vine. The vine likes it cooler and so all vine cellars lay on the other side of the Douro, and that is already the city of Gaia.

After our “Port wine lesson” we had the opportunity to sail on a typical historical “Rabelo” boat. These boats were especially built for the Port wine barrel transport on the Douro.  During the boat trip we had also the best possibility to photograph the famous bridges which connect Porto and Gaia. One of them was built by Gustave Eiffel.

 Back on board the “Chef” presented us a wonderful dinner. That was just the right thing after such a wonderful day.

A sunny end and sunny start in Lisbon

FRAM reached the harbor of Lisbon around lunchtime. The sunny weather made it not a bit easier for the passengers of the last cruise to say “good bye” FRAM. After a nice voyage it is always hard to go, and so it is no wonder that some guests made the decision to stay for another cruise, our trip “Southern Europe – The Great Easter Voyage”.

Most of the new coming guests arrived in the afternoon. The check in was done very fast and everybody had time enough to get a first impression of our lovely lady MV FRAM.

Before we could leave Lisbon everybody had to participate in an emergency drill. Around 20:00 FRAM set sail in the direction of Leixoes (Porto), where we expect to be tomorrow in the late morning.

It was already a bit dark during we were sailing along the silhouette of the spectacular town of Lisbon.

A wonderful sunset colored the sky golden, orange and dark red later on. It was still not cold on the open decks and so we could enjoy our first evening even outside.

At 21:30 our Captain Rune Andreassen welcomed us in the Observation lounge and introduced us to his officers. The Hotel Manager Else Kristine Tjessem gave us some important information for the trip. After our Expedition leader Karin Strand had introduced us to her team we had at least seen nearly everybody, who would be important for our holidays on board FRAM.

Tired from the long travel and all the new impressions we went to bed. 

Memories

No more islands on this trip. Sad thing...

BUT: What a new compilation of memories we have piled up in these 12 days! How many exotic places in very remote spots on the Atlantic map we have visited, how many plants and birds and rocks and craters we have seen, through how many picturesque villages we ambled, in how many churches we fell silent, how many miles we spent out on deck, breathing wonderful ocean air!

We

A little reluctant is the keyboard to capture the sea days now, as there is less to narrate, no friendly, wrinkled faces to describe, no beautiful landscape to portrait.

However, these days are busy days, too, in their own cozier pace. A whole new round of lectures and presentations is given, waffles lure everyone into the panorama lounge with their magnifi-scent (sorry, pun...), the bridge invited to a comprehensive visit, pianist Bjørn organized a really funny singing competition, and even the skies gave us a last adieu with an intense rainbow.

So, Captain's Farewell speech is spoken, passports are picked up. It is time to say good-bye to newly found friends, pack the suitcases and get ready for tomorrow.

Also I, your humble narrator for the last four weeks, will leave the ship today - vacation time. So I thank you all for following the story of our ship around the world. Those who traveled with us and heave a sigh reading it: You have those memories now, nobody can take them from you. Ever. That is a good thing, wouldn't you agree...?

And as things go, FRAM continues tonight, so - the Blog goes on!

Saved by the Bull

Terceira means "the Third", and although the meaning rather referring to the two facts that it is not only the third one to have been discovered but also the third largest of the Azores, it is certainly a suitable name for us, too. We visit Terceira as the third place in the third archipelago of our journey. And the last one. As if the skies knew, they make it a little easier for us to say Farewell, not much sunshine today, but rather foggy, so our visit to the observation platform of Serre do Cume is rather a "if-it-weren't-cloudy-we-could-see-the-following" thing. Not a big thing, there is more to the island than this view alone.

The 400 square kilometers are inhabited by 56.000 people and almost as many cows, mostly the black-and-white Holstein variety, very well known to our German guests. Although on the other Azores the emphasis of employment is rather in the service sector, dairy produce is the main income for the Terceirans. Cattle are deeply woven into the islanders history: In the year 1581 the islands bay of Salga was under attack from the Spanish who thought their invasion was unnoticed. A farmers wife not only alarmed the men who then went to fight, but also released all the bulls from the pastures and shooed them down to the beach. The raging animals violently drove the Spanish troops back to where they came from.

Ever since the bulls are part of the island's coat of arms and they enjoy an enormous respect: Terceira hosts no less than 260 bull fights every year between May and December. But other than the much despised, bloody events with a dead animal in the end, here the bulls can rampage among the crowd as it takes their fancy. These "bull on a string" events bring thousands of people into the streets, many of wich end up with broken bones. They really like this, the Azoreans...

Terceira was stage for historic events more than once, important battles of the Spanish-Portuguese War and the Portuguese Civil War were fought here. Hence the names Angra do Heroismo, the bay of heroics, and Praia do Vitoria, victory beach, and hence also the existence of the fortress of Monte Brasil which today is a curiously fortified leisure park. But also during WW II it proved to be the ideal location in the Atlantic, serving well to install a long runway on a lava platform for aircrafts of the Allied Forces. That did not change much during the cold war, and even today there is a mixed use of the airport for military (mainly American) and civil use.

Geologically, Terceira is sitting on probably the most precarious spot of the whole archipelago, right atop the "Terceira rift", an active spreading centre that manifests itself impressively in the "Furnas", steaming vents in the centre of the island. The spreading did not only rip the tiny "Goat Islands" apart but also caused the severe earthquake of 1980 that destroyed a large number of the historic buildings. Many have been repaired since, but others had to be left to the forces of nature. This didn't keep UNESCO from taking Angra do Heroismo into the list of World Heritage Sites in 1983.

History, nature and the cultural mix that came with Terceira's role as important port resulted in a small, but open-minded and friendly society with a huge tolerance to strangers. So it is probably the hidden gem of the Azores.

Glad that we visited it as the last one. The Third.

Above the Clouds

The second largest island of the Azores is named after its literally most prominent feature, mount Pico. This archetype of a stratovolcano is towering high above the sea and offers not only the highest summit in the Azores, but in all Portugal.

Spread around the immense cone are the villages of Pico, on the coast namely Madalena and Lajes.

The former should have been our port of call, or better disembarkation as we intended to use the small boats. The Atlantic, however, wanted to have a word in this and pounded us with heavy swell that made a landing impossible. So we had to go all around to the other side and look at the conditions in Lajes. Luck favors the brave - our detour earned us fabulous sightings of some common dolphins who played with our ship's nose. On the other side no swell, no wind to speak of, perfect. So we brought boatload after boatload ashore and the excursions could take off, albeit a little late.

Much to offer has the island of Pico, a long history of whaling which underwent the transition to the lucrative business of whale watching smoothly. A governmentally run museum has a lot of interesting artifacts and old movie footage to keep you busy for hours.

As everywhere in the Azores the volcanic soil is rich and fertile, which makes Pico one of the three Azorean domains for wine cultivation. Especially the whites are gaining more and more reputation among wine lovers. Growing the vines is quite a challenge here, the fierce winds have to be shunned, and this is done very efficiently - and beautifully - by framing the vines with low walls of lava rocks. The pattern of these walls on the green ground is a trademark of the Azores.

A drive across the island reveals its full charm, even on a day like this where the clouds are hanging low. Crater lakes are sunken in into the lush landscape and the plains at Mount Pico's are pocked with many parasitos, small secondary craters, some of them looking like made for a Hollywood decoration.

The probably boldest endeavor of this visit is undertaken by a small group that sets out as early as possible to make it to the top of Mount Pico proper. The weather doesn't look too promising - it is high mist or low clouds. But who cares?

So a small group begins the long, unknown climb into the clouds, into the invisible.

And a harsh one it is, 1150 meters up, over sharp rocks and slippery vegetation, steep all the time (as in using-all-fours steep). The clouds are cool and damp, but certainly nobody is freezing...

At elevation 1800m the light around us gets brighter and brighter, and a few minutes later we step out from the clouds - above them! Suddenly there is wonderful colors of rocks and plants and the blue skies, suddenly the intense smell of mountain thyme unfolds. Magic.

Still, there is more volcano to climb, and it's getting even steeper. After four hours of ascent we reach the last of the guiding poles and the summit. The top Mount Pico is a natural fortress, the basalt walls of the last eruption surrounding Little Pico, the very last cone that emerged only a few thousand years ago and now look like a pointy hat on Pico's head. 

This, of course, is an irresistible challenge for three of us. Seventy meters more of serious rock climbing - and yes! Significant moments in life...

The walk down is hard on the legs and demands all concentration we can muster, but some hours later am exhausted but utterly happy group returns to the ship, that now heads for the very last stop on this journey, Terceira.