Thursday, January 13th, 2025. Praia Da Vitoria, Azores
Updated: Jan 28
The last 4 days at sea have been extremely rough with 7 metre swells and very high winds. Our nice Queen’s Grill suite with all of it’s rocking and rattling has done a great job of keeping us awake at night; this downside is somewhat offset by the fabulous restaurant food and service.
This morning the Queen Victoria warped into the sheltered harbor and docked at the town of Praia Da Vitoria in the Azores, a collection of 9 islands in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean; the Azores were discovered in the early 15th century by Portuguese explorers and are an autonomous region of Portugal - Praia Da Vitoria is a small windswept spec of a town on the island of Terceira.
The ship’s shuttle bus delivered us to the center of town, about a 15-minute ride. The weather was overcast with a threat of rain, but not too cold – we were just glad to get our feet on terra firma after such a rough crossing. The small town had a definite Portuguese feel to it; many streets cobbled with the distinctive black and white stones so familiar in Portugal, and the Christmas decorations still hanging from the recent holiday – another tradition we’d observed back in the mother country. With a pedestrian, cobbled, main street, an esplanade along the sea front and two significant churches we realized it was not going to take all day to explore Praia Da Vitoria.
In search of a classic Portuguese tart we sought out a tiny coffee shop, but after trying several tarts, gave up – I guess the original tart has evolved a bit in the Azores. One thing we were trying to do today was to track down some nice Azores cheeses; there is a small farm back home in Sonoma County where farmer, who is from the Azores, makes the traditional cheese – it’s very good. I did a quick Google search while we sampled our tarts, but it seemed that the only possible cheese shop was in a remote part of the island – maybe we’ll have more luck on our return journey when we’ll be stopping at a different island in the Azores.
Making our way along the main street we found the tiny central market and then the very small town square. At the far end of the town a small hill rises from the sea and is crowned with a statue of the patron saint of the town, Imaculado Coracao de Maria. The summit of can be reached via an enormous staircase built into the side of the hill, we decided to save this climb for another day . The two main churches of the town both showed interesting architectural features that reflect the volcanic nature of the region. The façade of both churches show the dates they were established in the early 16th century, but they also indicate major rebuilds in early 19th and 20th centuries – testament to the dedication of the congregations in the town over the centuries. I found the church interiors to be very peaceful with some beautiful artifacts and clear evidence of the rebuilding activity over the years. I’m not sure why such a small town needed two significant catholic churches.
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