Magic of Atlantic Islands. Azores, Portugal.

TERCEIRA ISLAND

Terceira's port once welcomed galleons laden with spices from the Orient, and gold and silver from the Americas Even today, its historic city streets transport you back to the 16 and 17 centuries. Out in the country, flat green fields in a chessboard pattern are dotted with dairy cows, and white houses nestle against the blue sky.

Terceira's locals have been welcoming people to the island for centuries, and enjoy traditional pastimes like street bullfighting, “tourada à corda”, and modern sports such as golf.

With its seamless blend of past and present, Terceira island is indeed a perfect place to spend exciting and complete holiday.

ANGRA DO HEROÍSMO, A WORLD HERITAGE SITE

Built in the 16 century, Angra do Heroísmo was the first European urban centre, and has achieved World Heritage status as a result. Its old streets highlight the city's fine architectural heritage, as do its churches, palaces and museums, together with the fortress

that defended the city and port from pirates.

Once you've sampled the delights of Angra do Heroísmo, you should visit the historic town of Praia da Vitória. Here you'll find the gothic church of São Sebastião, built by the first

settlers, and the manor houses, churches and chapels of São Carlos, Fontinha, São Brás and Lajes masterpieces of imperial architecture dedicated to the cult of the Holy Ghost.

BEAUTIFUL, UNSPOILT COUNTRYSIDE

Terceira's unspoilt countryside complements the fine historical monuments of its towns. The island boasts green landscapes and mountain ranges that are great for walks, beyond

which you can glimpse flower-dotted fields and the blue of the sea and sky.

A walk in the hills will also unearth some of Terceira's geological wonders, like the Caldeira de Guilherme Moniz, a 15 km wide volcanic crater, and the caves of Algar do Carvão with its lava stalactites and stalagmites.

You'll also find a challenging golf course on the island, and two marinas that give Terceira a cosmopolitan atmosphere by attracting yachts crossing the Atlantic. The surrounding sea offers much for those wanting an active holiday. Fishing, diving, surfing, windsurfing and sailing are the main sports on the island and those who enjoy swimming can take advantage of Terceira's natural pools – formed when volcanic lava met the cold sea.

From May to September, Terceira is the scene of many colourful traditional festivals. The Festival of the Holy Ghost, Festas do Espírito Santo is repeated in every village, and followed by a large banquet.
While the centrepiece of the Festival of St. John, Festas Sanjoaninas , is a procession of enthusiastic crowds.

Festival season also means good food. Popular traditional dishes include “alcatra” – an exotic spicy beef stew plus black pudding and octopus, whilst local sweets are varied and delicious.

No meal on Terceira would be complete without a glass of Biscoitos wine, a local speciality with its own dedicated museum

by visitportugal

Tavira Island, Portugal. Museum on a beach.

Rust In Peace: Portugal’s Eerie Anchor Graveyard

Tavira Island (Ilha de Tavira) hugs southern Portugal's scenic Algarve shoreline, it's long and slender dimensions hugging the coast for 6.85 miles (11km). Park of the Ria Formosa nature reserve, Tavira Island boasts some of the Algarve's best beaches.

Take a few steps back from the beach – not too many, as the island is only 500 ft to 3,300 ft (150 m to 1 km) wide – and you’ll find a curious sight among the shifting sand dunes: a graveyard of anchors.
Interestingly, the upturned tips of the half-buried anchors strikingly resemble some of the standing sea stacks characteristic of the Algarve coast.
The Cemitério das Âncoras, as it’s known in Portuguese, is an odd and unexpected assemblage of several hundred iron anchors. Gnarled and rusted from years of use and even more years of disuse, the anchors are positioned on their sides with one hook looping into the air and the other driven into the island’s moist, welcoming soil.

Anchor Species

There is no exclusionary fence at the Anchor Graveyard, no sign or signal as to who made it and for what purpose. What little we know, we have learned from the remaining descendants of the people who, for many generations, exploited the formerly abundant bluefin tuna that once plied the wild waves just offshore.
The rough and unpredictable waters where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean called for a unique tuna-fishing technique invented long ago, perhaps by the ancient Phoenicians who first explored and colonized the area before the Romans built an Empire.

The anchors might look like those used to hold small ships steady but they weren’t used for that purpose. Instead, Portugal’s traditional tuna fishermen used them to hold their huge funnel nets (“armações de atum”) in place against both the force of the sea and the exertions of massive, trapped bluefin tuna.

by weburbanist.com