There’s always that last day rush to visit missed sites- landmarks, restaurants, whatever we couldn’t visit before. We had to pick up a rental car mid-afternoon so after breakfast we walked toward the waterfront toward the fort.

I am fascinated with everything that they build out of basalt in the Azores. It’s immediately identifiable since it’s dark and highly porous. Entire buildings are made out of pieces of basalt, and it’s especially striking when used in contrast to lighter colors like below. Soon after taking this it started to rain and we, along with ~8 other people, took cover in the entrance of a large buiness for 15 minutes or so. The whole building was made of basalt as well.

We saw an enormous BYD sales office. BYD, a huge Chinese automative manufacturer, is the fourth largest auto company overall now, and the largest dedicated to hybrid and fully electric. They copy a lot from Tesla and aren’t allowed in the US currently, but whatever you think of them it’s interesting to see what the rest of the world sees.

Forte de São Brás is a small fort with a military museum inside. Unfortunately, as we approached the rain burst again so Savitri found the best roof around, we gather a little play rocket for kids. Also unfortunately.. as you can see in the background the door is closed. Can’t deter us though, we walked the perimeter looking for an entrance.

No other doors found.. and many other people doing the same perplexed walk.. we discovered that today was a holiday that we didn’t know about. The various web sites we used didn’t seem to know about it either.. arrgghh.. We’re calling it a partial visit, albeit external. One last attempt.. 🤪.

We clearly earned gelato, and had a couple outstanding options lined up. We wanted to go to the number one rated gelato in Ponta Delgada, Abracadabra Gelato, but they were closed so. Next on our list was Artisani, and they were actually open so there we went! The lemon pie gelato was excellent, with crisp crust and strong lemon folded into the gelato itself.

By now Abracadabra was open, so we walked back there, shamelessly I might add.

We got three flavors, coffee, caramel, and orange-cream. All were delicious. Orange-cream was a unique and refreshing flavor. We agree however that La Gelataria’s coffee was a little stronger and better. Since we split one cup and we’re in it for the science of course.. we split a fourth serving of milk-free dark chocolate. It was.. remarkable. We both immediately compared it to frosting, in a good way. It was super rich and creamy. We have no idea how they did that without milk.

Content that we had now tried the top gelato options in Ponta Delgada, I picked up our rental car at Go Rental Cars and we drove 45 minutes to Furnas in the eastern part of the island. We are staying at Landescape Furnas, a beautiful modern cabin-like setting on the edge of town.

As soon as we exited Ponta Delgada it got lush in a way we didn’t see in Madeira. Now granted it was raining so every green was vibrant, but still it reminded us more of Wales or Ireland than mainland Portugal or Madeira. No exposed rocks nor even tree trunks, the roads cut through farmer’s fields and forest alike very naturally. In the background are big hills.. or maybe small mountains.. we don’t have full context yet.

For dinner we went to a top-rated restaurant a 15 minute walk away, Caldeiras & Vulcões. The menu was also very different from anything we saw in the city, with local sauces and geothermal cooking prominently featured.

Some pictures of pictures of geothermal cooking on the wall..

Fried dumplings filled with local geothermally cooked meats started things off. They were dense and not what we think of as “dumplings”, but for me they were unique comfort food. The mains had a similar quality, and the sauces were incredibly good with their contents.. or anything else (fries! bread!) dipped in them.

Dessert was absurd. The Azores are known for pineapple and we’ve of course had it in several contexts, but flambéed with this sauce (condensed milk maybe?) was out of this world. Each warm, gushing chunk of pineapple was savored and we scraped that bowl clean. good thing we walked.

We walked back to our new abode along the dark but adequately-lit narrow streets. There were people out and cars occasionally but it’s definitely remote and peaceful. Looking forward to hiking tomorrow and.. well of course we”re forming other plans…