Ponta Delgado, PT

Thursday - We arrived in the Azores this morning at Ponta Delgado, Portugal cruise terminal. Actually, we are at the commercial terminal as the cruise terminal only has room for one ship and it is currently occupied. That means that we needed to take a shuttle to the street as the public is not allowed to walk within the commercial terminal. 

We backed into the dock at 9:30 so we have about 8 hours at this port. We have no excursions planned and, if the shuttle process is quick and easy, we may wander around the town around the port.

First, I went to the completely deserted jacuzzi. Most people must’ve headed off the ship. It’s 72°F with a light breeze. Just about perfect weather. Scattered clouds so the sunshine comes and goes. 

After a light lunch, we headed out to the shuttle buses. It turned out that there wasn’t much around the port area. Some restaurants and souvenir shops. One small grocery store and a drug store. And for some reason, a lot of banks.

There were a few monuments in the area but I wasn’t sure what they were commemorating. Many black and white buildings and black walkways. The black walkways and building material being basalt (I think). A volcanic rock.

After about a hour or so of wandering, we headed back to the ship for a couple more hours of relaxation. 

Sea Day

Wednesday - We changed time zones again to Azores time. When traveling west, you have the benefit of gaining an hour every time. And, when traveling on a ship, the change is slow so no jet lag, obviously. So far, the seas have been pretty calm. You can tell that you are moving with some rocking. 

This morning, I went up to a lounge on deck 14. Actually, I think it’s about the only thing on deck 14. They had an introductory Spanish lesson for 30 minutes. Introductory is still beyond me these days. 

This afternoon, I went to the gym and tried the exercise bikes. In the past, I’ve always gravitated to the treadmills but with my sore ankle, I thought I’d try something else. The gym is at the front of the ship and there is a lot more movement. Up and down being added to the side to side roll. It didn’t feel comfortable while riding the stationary bike. I ended up lying around in the solarium. It still wasn’t sunny but it wasn’t as windy as on the open deck.

Vv

Sea Day & Gibraltar

Tuesday - This morning, around 5:00, we were passing through the Strait of Gibraltar. Unfortunately, sunrise was around 6:15am so visibility wasn’t going to be great. 

There was a crescent moon so there would be some light. To complicate viewing, we went through a time zone change at 3:00am but the phone didn’t change as it’s not on a cellular network. And, the ship-time didn’t update until around 6am. This is up on deck 13 at the front of the ship. I thought I might get a better view as it faces forward, but the glass panels were covered with dew. I went back to deck 12 and just watched from the railing on the starboard side. 

My older iPhone doesn’t take very good night photos especially when zoomed in, but this is the Rock of Gibraltar. Not as imposing as I was expecting but my expectations were based on movies and cartoons. 

This was taken from our balcony. We probably didn’t even need to go to deck 12. This was taken at 5:03 Western European Standard Time. And time to get a little more sleep before our 7:30 room service (coffee!).

The temperature prediction for today seems pretty boring. Only a 2°F variation from low to high. 

I sat in the jacuzzi for a while this morning and my ankle is much better. Almost “normal”. I got rained on a bit and it was deserted. No sun, overcast, rain. I wonder why.

The solarium is not crowded but not as empty as it has been. But it’s quiet. Most people are just reading or playing on their phone (like me). For us, having Internet on this cruise is a splurge. But it works for streaming. There are 12 Starlink dishes mounted to the rail on deck 12. And the speed is ~12Mbps down and 4Mbps up. Not bad at all for out on the ocean. 

Cartagena, ES

Monday - We arrived in Cartagena this morning. For some reason, I thought that this city was somewhere in South America. So much for my geography knowledge. 

After breakfast, we wandered into the area around the port. We found a long, scenic street with a number of shops and museums. We strolled a bit until my ankle started to bother me. I stopped for a milk-coffee (I hadn’t heard of that before) before making my way back to the ship. 

The walkway looked like it was marble. It looked very slippery when wet. Fortunately, today was dry. 

This is a very small harbor. Barely enough room for one medium sized cruise ship such as this one. Yesterday, I had left my hat, that I had picked up in Italy, at a seating area on the ship where we were resting. Today, I checked lost-and-found and it was there! It’s a small thing but getting my hat back made my day…

I found a nice, high deck on the ship. I guess it would be deck 13. It’s just a nice lounging area overlooking both the pool and the solarium.