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Set Sail To The Azores Islands
eing excellent navegators linked and therefore there is a
and having a deep desire to tight tie between the festive
expland its territories, celebrations held all over the
The Azores Islands were founded islands in the small chapels from
by the Portuguese in 1317. This the 26th of August until the
is a clump of nine islands in the 31st. This celebration is to
rough Atlantic Ocean about 1,400 honour the Holy Spirit which the
kilometers west of Lisbon, islanders feel will protect them
Portugal. As a curious traveller, from any natural disaster,
I always make it a habit of especially the ones related to
finding out how a city, town or its volcanoes.
in this case an island got its "
name. The name Azores comes from Of all territories that Portugal
the name of a bird similar to a once possessed, only Macao, the
goshawk which is what the first Azores Islands and Madeira still
settlers thought they saw, but it remain. Under the command of
turned out that what they were Henry the Navegator, these
seeing in abundance was just a islands became a very important
type of eagle. stop over for ships sailing in
" the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore,
The nine islands that make up the they received visitors from all
Azores are called Santa Maria, over the world who not only
Sao Miguel, Terceira, Graciosa, brought riches and stories but
Pico, Faial, Sao Jorge, Corvo and also fruits, spices and plants.
Flores. As far as we know, they In 1420, Henry sent settlers to
are all from a volcanic eruptions the island of Madeira with plants
and still seem to be active as that he thought would grow well
far as registering seismic in the volcanic ground and in the
movements. Culture, tradition and mild year round climate typical
religion have always been closely there; the grapevine and sugar
cane being the best product up there is a 17th century castle
until now, both heavily used in called Saint John the Baptist.
the Portuguese cuisine and well All over the islands there are
as other spices like the black lagoons which look like big
pepper and cinnamon. But cauldrons which offer a
nowadays, the Azores have changed breathtaking view of its natural
their tea, tabacco and fruit surroundings. If I had to
fields for livestock and tourism. recommend one or two outstanding
features, I would probably
" describe the beautiful Se or
Azores Islands and Its Cathedral with its bell tower
Third-Terceira decorated in blue, green and
" white tiles. Or even more so are
As its name well announces, the curious windows that the
Terceira was the third island houses still have, made from
discovered by the Portuguese stones in an arched formation
around 1450 having had as its with gaily painted frames such as
original name that of Island of green, blue and yellow. And the
Jesus Christ. At the beginning glass in these windows look like
Praia was the capital, being the its cracked or iced.
first beach were the Flemish "
colonizer Jacome de Bruges first Easy Come and Easy Go to
settled. But as we all know, Azores Islands
improvements were made and they "
decided to use the town of Angra But as all practical traveller,
do Heroismo as the new capital, the question of getting there and
probably because it was well accomodations is always an
protected by the bay ( angro ) important aspect to look into
and the Brasil Mountain standing when planning a comfortable
strong against the ocean. Here, holiday. On all the islands,
tourism is very well cared for Lajes on the Terceira island and
and the hotels are tops. You can in Ponta Delgada in Sao Miguel
choose between sea front four island, there are airports which
star hotels to quaint rural house have daily flights between them
in the mountains or simple and to Lisbon on mainland
campings. And in the location of Portugal.
About the Author:
Robert Carlton revealed a lot of articles for http://www.lisbon-and-portugal.com an website on Lisbon. Amongst his works he is publishing about Portugal and the Azores Islands http://www.lisbon-and-portugal.com/azores/azores-islands.html and other areas in this field.
Source: www.isnare.com
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