Exploring the island of Sao Miquel, The Azores

Lagoon of the 7 cities

Lake Santiago

Lake Furnas

Our lunch coming out of the oven

For one week last summer we went to visit The Azores and we stayed on the largest island Sao Miquel. We did two day trips on the island and we saw lots of wonderful sights.

The first tour we visited the Lagoon of the Seven Cities, this is a twin lake situated in the cater of a dormant volcano. We had wonderful views from an advantage point called King`s View then we drove down to the bottom, everything was just so lush! From there we stopped and saw Lake Santiago which is situated also in a crater, surrounded by the Devassa Mountains. Again the view was just breathtaking seeing everything so green and serene looking. We also visited a pineapple planation which I have posted about here!

The second tour took us first to a ceramic factory where we saw plates, mugs and many other things being designed. Then we went to the only tea plantation Riberia Grande in Europe and had a tour around the factory to see the process from the leaves to the end product.

From there we went to a viewpoint to see the beautiful Lake Furnas and then down to the hot springs, where our lunch was being cooked. Furnas stew is lots of vegetables and meat, which had been cooking in the large pot from at least 5 hours. Men came from different restaurants in the town to collect the pots and return to each restaurant. It certainly was a novel way for our lunch to be prepared. We also walked around for a while, looking at the hot springs and steam holes. There was a strong smell of rotten eggs in the air which we found out was sulfur.

After lunch there was a chance to use the thermal baths, which Alessio and my dad did so for around 45 mins.

Then our tour was finished and we were driven back to the hotel. We really enjoyed both our tours and got to see pretty much most of the island. It is a beautful island and would heartily recommend a visit to The Azores. The other 8 islands can be visited too, sadly we had not enough time but I would have liked to have seen more.

Lake Bled, Slovenia

Back in March I visited Slovenia with my friend Arlene and one of our day trips was to Lake Bled. We took the bus there and once we arrived we wondered down to the lake, it really is such a wonderful place! We decided to walk up to the castle, which was really exhausting, it is not a long walk but uphill seemed to take ages. Once up the view is stunning of the church on the island on the lake and of the mountains and surrounding area.

We had coffee and cake, not just any cake but the Bled cream cake which tasted really delicious. Then we walked back down and started to walk around the lake with a little help of the tourist train. It is 6km walk around the lake but we did not do the whole lake just a bit of it.

There is the possibility to visit the church on the island on the traditional boat called the Peltna which is only made in Bled, it takes 20 people and you are rowed there by the Pletna oarsman. We did not do this but it would have been nice to see the interesting on the island.

A visit to Lake Bled is one of the big tourist places to visit and if we had had more time, I would have like to visit Lake Bohinj.

Photo of the Week - Bled Island

During the Easter break I visited Slovenia and one of the day trips I did was to Lake Bled. It was really a wonderful place and I will do another post about Lake Bled, but here is a photo of the island on the lake with the church.


News from around the world:

The longest rail tunnel in the world is in Switzerland. It makes going to Milan easier as a day trip!

I do like to see street art, here in Sardinia it looks very interesting

The new film with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling does look very funny and rather violent!


Enjoy the rest of the week!

A Visit to the Greifensee!

Fantastic view of Mountains

Heron in the reeds!

Granny with Alessio

While my parents were visiting we did a lovely walk part of the way around the Griefensee. To walk around the lake is 18km which would take roughly 4.5 hours. A bit too much for us, although it would be a great walk!

I drove and we parked very near to the lake at Niederuster from there we walked around to the other side to Maur.

The walk was very pleasant, we walked around a nature protected area for many birds. In fact we saw quite a few storks and some herons. There is a observation station for those people who are more into bird-watching. Since it was Good Friday there were plenty of people walking, jogging and of course on the lake.

Sort of halfway around our walk there is kiosk selling some sandwiches and soup, but we decided to carry on until we reached Maur. We were really in need of a sit down and some yummy food, before we caught a boat back to Niederuster.

That was certainly enough walking for us that day, back to the car and home!

An Afternoon in Ascona

I spent the 3 days after Christmas with my friend Natalie in the Ticino. Her mother has an apartment in the village of Ronco which is quite near to Ascona. We travelled down by train on the 26th and once we had settled in we went to Ascona.

I had never visited Ascona before so I was excited to walk around and see the amazing view of the waterfront. Ascona is on Lake Maggiore, this is a very big lake with most of it in Italy. We walked around the old part, looked at the shops which were mostly closed. The waterfront is very pretty with lots of lovely colourful buildings, which are mostly restaurants, cafes and bars.

We were lucky enough to see a wonderful sunset just as we arrived, it was lovely to watch. Then we walked about 15 mins to a bar/restaurant called Beach Lounge for some evening drinks. A good start to my mini!

Bubikon to Lützel Lake Hike

In September my parents always come to visit for just over 2 weeks, one of the main reasons is that Alessio has his birthday at the beginning of the month.

While they are here I try to plan outings and in the last couple of years we have had long weekends away. This year we had no long weekend away instead we did some day trips, we also like to try and do a hikes.

I drove to Bubikon where the hike begins, it is circular hike which takes you to the Lützel lake and then back to Bubikon. It started off well and we were walking and enjoying the lovely Swiss scenery and saw lots of animals. We liked seeing the cows wearing some massive bells and the sounds it made! Then suddenly my father realized that we had taken a wrong turning a bit back. We were heading in the right direction of the lake but not the way we were supposed to go, anyway we continued and finally made it to the lake. It was rather warm by this time and we were extremely glad to have some refreshments in the badi! The lake is very small and the badi was busy not everyone was there to swim. Some were like us just there to enjoy the scenery and warm day.

Afterwards we carried on our journey back to Bubikon, by this time we were all exhausted and happy to get back to the car. Just before we reached the outskirts of the town we saw many horses, and I mean possibly around 50 or maybe more. They all looked beautiful, we tried to count them but it was impossible.

Bubikon itself looked like a nice small town and as per usual on a Sunday in Switzerland everything was closed even cafes and bars. So we headed back to Kilchberg for a bit of relaxing!