Azores 2004

AI-04 - Atlantic Islands - BAHAMAS, Bermuda (UK), Azores (Portugal), UNITED KINGDOM Date of travel: Apr 14 - May 1, 2004 ITINERARY: Very early on Apr 14, 2004 I leave Vista in a rented car from Budget for Los Angeles airport. Here I board an American Airlines plane to Ft. Lauderdale in Florida. There I board the ship “MV Discovery.” Overnight the ship sails to Nassau, a capital of the island country BAHAMAS. There is a sightseeing tour of Nassau in the morning. In the afternoon, I go by myself by boat to nearby Paradise Island with “Hotel Atlantis,” whose grounds I stroll through. After two days on the Atlantic Ocean with some interesting lectures our ship lands in Hamilton in Bermuda on Apr 18. The island belongs to United Kingdom. I take part in a sightseeing tour of the island with stops at an aquarium and a cave. In the afternoon, I visit the Royal Naval Dockyard with its fortress by myself using a ferry and a bus to get there. Later I take photos and video of Gibb’s Hill Lighthouse. The following day I visit St. George by a local bus. It was the first capital of Bermuda. In the afternoon I walk through Hamilton, the present capital of Bermuda including the Hamilton Fort. Next 4 days our ship is sailing on the Atlantic Ocean. I listen to more lectures. On Apr 24, we land at the Horta harbor on the island of Faial in Azores which belongs to Portugal. In the morning, there is a sightseeing trip of the island culminating with a visit to the volcano Fundo do Caldera dominating the island. In the afternoon, I go on a solo walk through the town. On Apr 25, we land in Ponta Delgada on the island Sao Miguel. Ponta Delgada is a capital of all nine Azores Islands, which are an autonomous region of Portugal. I take a full day sightseeing trip passing by the St. Bras Fortress, visiting the greenhouses of a pine-apple farm, then driving among the various fields of the island to the second town of the island, Ribeiro Grande. The island is beautifully green. We stop in other towns of the island and return to our ship before 5 PM. Another 3 days on the ocean before our ship lands in Harwich, UNITED KINGDOM, in the estuary of Thames River. Before noon we leave the ship on a bus for London. There we disembark at our “Millennium Gloucester Hotel” in the center of the city. In the afternoon on Apr 30 I take a sightseeing trip to Windsor Castle and the Hampton Court. After seeing the Windsor Castle, we drive to Hampton Court, where we see the gardens but not the interior of the actual court. The following day afternoon, on May 1, I fly with British Airways to Prague, Czech Republic. Travel office: “Voyage of Discovery” through “Vantage” Who took part: I was one of a variety of passengers from many countries