Lisbon Stop Over

Posted on September 27, 2026 by marilyn

LISBON, PORTUGAL – 27 September 2026
I didn’t think that there’d be any point going on the Collette Lisbon tour as we’d seen a lot back two weeks ago but, turned out that they were taking us to the Palace, which we hadn’t seen before. So, I was keen for the Palace, but had to go to a few other places first. Continue reading →

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What else can go wrong?

Posted on September 27, 2026 by marilyn

TERCEIRA ISLAND, AZORES – 24-27 September 2026
We’ve had a few days were everything has gone according to plan, but now we’ve taken stuff ups to the next level (by us, not our tour guide), but more about those later.  After a 20 minute flight, we’ve arrived on the island of Terceira (population 53,000) and are staying in the town of Angra, checking into a really lovely hotel, Torel Terra Brava. Continue reading →

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Getting my caving hit

Posted on September 26, 2026 by marilyn

AZORES – It isn’t easy finding caves to explore in the Azores (or even in Portugal), mostly they are show caves, I don’t mind the odd show cave. However, getting to and from the caves can be challenging – I tried to book on a couple of commercial trips (once I knew what time I had free). Unfortunately, that they were mostly booked out.  Then I figured a taxi might work, but if it was a 20k trip, how would I get back?  I resigned myself to only seeing two and determined to be thankful for that lol. Continue reading →

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The Hunter Valley has nothing compared to Pico Island

Posted on September 23, 2026 by marilyn

FAIAL & PICO ISLANDS, AZORES – 22-23 September 2026
After 4 days on Sao Miguel, we were ready to hit the ground running with 2 days on Faial & Pico Islands.  The trip theme (things not going to plan) continued with Christine and me thinking that we needed to be in the lobby at 6am to catch the bus, so we weren’t in a hurry, then at 5.20am we got a call from Rhonda to ask where were we, the bus was to leave at 5.30am – talk about chaos! Continue reading →

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We’re going where???

Posted on September 21, 2026 by marilyn

SAO MIGUEL, AZORES – 18 – 21 September 2026
This is the start of what will be 10 days in the Azores. The archipelago consists of nine islands out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and they are part of Portugal.  We will be visiting four of them.  This blog post records our visit to the first and largest island, Sao Miguel (population 133,000), we will be here for four nights (3 days of exploring).  Embarrassing fact … I hadn’t even heard of the Azores until Christine suggested we add them to our trip! Continue reading →

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