Wednesday, May 15th is the day that we make our first island hop - from Sao Miguel to Terceira. But the flight does not depart until this evening, so we spend the day exploring three of Ponta Delgada's parks

The parks we visit are the Jardim Jose do Canto (where there is a magnificent stand of bamboo, but not much colour), the Jardim do Palacio de Sant'Ana (that surrounds the office of the President of the Azores - a colourful building that overlooks a garden with an attractive lake); and the Jardim Antonio Borges - in contrast to the first two gardens, which had few visitors, this one is crowded as it seems to be a short cut into town used by students. The garden must have originally been ornate with grottoes, a fern ravine, and lakes, but now needs refurbishment.

 

We follow the students into town and get refreshments at our favourite cafe

SATA flight SP406 takes 24-minutes to fly the 103-miles to Terceira's airport at Lajes (which contains an American base) and we are then driven to the Hotel Terceira Mar at Angra do Herosimo where we have the usual buffet dinner

The hotel has a lovely location overlooking a bay. All the rooms are on the gently curving front of the building and have balconies to take advantage of the views. These views include the sea and a large hill dominated by fortifications - the peninsula of Monte Brasil, which will be our first call on the next day's tour of the island

Thursday, May 16th: from the highest point on Monte Brasil, we have an excellent view of our hotel's location. The vantage point has the remains of a British gun emplacement from the Second World War and a column commemorating the 1432 date that Portugal claimed the island

Our route to explore the island takes us along the coast road to view the Islets of Goats (left - named after a former practice of using these uninhabited rocks to graze sheep and goats), where the action of several photographers exiting the coach to get a good shot, excites a St Bernard dog.

 

Driving on, we make a coffee stop at Porto Judeu, and then stop at Sao Sebastio where we find an excellent example of one of the many chapels on the island that are known as 'Imperios' (right)

The decoration of the chapel includes many hydrangeas

and a mural that is described by our local guide.

Nearby, a monument (below) commemorates the 1581 Battle of Salga when the local inhabitants defeated an invading Spanish force by stampeding cattle at the enemy

The tour then takes us to Praia da Vitoria

where we firstly visit the town market and its fish counters

The town of Praia da Vitoria has an attractive square and fine mosaic paving. The Liberty Statue overlooks the square