Ponta Delgada, Portugal

We were onboard the Norwegian Cruise Lines 'Epic' on a repositioning cruise from Port Canaveral, FL to Barcelona with various stops along the way - the first stop being Ponta Delgada.
Ponta Delgada is 3,198 sea miles from Port Canaveral and 914 sea miles southwest of Portugal and it is the largest municipality (concelho) and economic capital of the Autonomous Region of the Azores in Portugal. It is located on São Miguel Island, the largest and most populous in the Azores archipelago.

Ponta Delgada is the largest city on São Miguel Island, which is 290 square miles in size. The island has a population of 68,809 which is a population density of 760 per square mile. The island has been populated since 1444 and Ponta Delgada was started in the year 1450.

Ponta Delgada Quick History Lesson: In 1427, São Miguel became the second of the islands discovered by Gonçalo Velho Cabral to be settled by colonists from continental Portugal. This date is uncertain, and it is believed that the island was discovered between 1426 and 1437 and inscribed in portolans from the middle of the 15th century. Its discovery was later recorded by Father Gaspar Frutuoso in the seminal history of the Azores.

The first capital of the island was Vila Franca do Campo, which was devastated by the 1522 Vila Franca earthquake and landslides. The tragedy helped to elevate Ponta Delgada to the administrative and economic status of capital and business centre from 1546.

Interesting Facts about Ponta Delgada / Where is it?   Map

• São Miguel is the largest of a total of nine islands that make up the Azorean archipelago.
• São Miguel is the only place in the world where pineapples are grown in greenhouses.
• São Miguel is home to the only tea plantation in Europe.
• There are web cams dotted around the island so you can do live weather checks via the "Spot Azores" app.
• You’ll find some incredible street art in Ponta Delgada.
• Good list of Restaurants in Ponta Delgada.
• Good list of Hotels in Ponta Delgada.

Click Image to view a larger map

The ship's scheduled arrival was 12:00PM and the assigned docking location was alongside the Molhe do Porto. This entire pier is also occupied by a series of shops, bars and restaurants so it was an interesting stroll into the city. No need for a taxi here, the walking distance into town was brief, the weather was nice, and it was great to be ashore after 7 days at sea!

As an ex-Navy sailor & a boat owner for many years, I was repeatedly impressed with the manner in which the Norwegian Epic was manuevered by the ship's Captain, let me explain; If you look at a map of the harbor you will be able to see that the harbor, although compact, has a long combined dock & breakwater named "Molhe do Porto", which is where the Norwegian Epic was going to tie up. Now because this is a compact harbor, without sufficient room for the Epic to turn around for departure (ie; no "turning basin"), the Captain/Pilot backed the ship into it's berth along the dock. This is technically interesting, but once I read that the Norwegian Epic has bow & stern thrusters I knew that docking would not be difficult. The ship was brought into the vicinity of the Molhe, the bow was swung about, and the ship was then backed into it's berth easily without any tug boats being required.

Now to put the above into perspective and to further explain why I found our docking so interesting, the Norwegian Epic size; 1,081 feet in length, 133 feet in width, over 155,000 tons & over 200 feet in height (keel to top). And yet the ship was maneuvered next to the dock without a pause!

The above pictures may give you some idea of the shops and bars on the Molhe do Porto. All we had to do to walk into town from the ship, was to walk past the shops and exit onto the city street that parallels the harbor.

As you can see in the third image above, all of the cruise ships would "back into" their docking locations because there is no "turning basin" in this harbor to allow them to turn around. So having the bow aimed at the departure direction allows them a simpler/faster exit.

Ponta Delgada is a small city and therefore easily walkable. We had no specific destination in mind, so we decided just to explore and try to find some interesting places and maybe some pastel de natas,

The street that paralled the harbor had a series of shops, restaurants and various other businesses and some of the sidewalks and streets had a nicely artistic appearance due to the manner in which the tiles were laid out.

The restaurant is a part of the Hotel Talisman (located immediately next door to the restaurant) and both are located next to a beautiful small park named Jardim Padre Sena Freitas.

On our stroll back in the direction of the harbor, we came across the Campo de São Francisco. This large square had several large trees ("metrosiderus tomentosa" originally from Australia) that looked like banyan trees. The trees had "support poles" holding up the enormous tree limbs that spread out over the area around the tree. The square was surrounded by several interesting buildings, including a pretty church named Santuário do Senhor Santo Cristo dos Milagres.

The Fort is located just to the south of the Campo de São Francisco square, and since it looked interesting, it became our next exploration goal. The Fort is now a combination of a museum as well as the original fortress itself, and it has a commanding view of the harbor. Considering that the Fort was originally constructed in 1560, it is in very good condition.

 Quick History Lesson 

The Fort São Brás is a polygonal base construction, designed by the Italian Tommaso Benedetti, with four bastions at the angles, prepared to receive pieces of artillery and low wall curtains, of great thickness. In its interior there is a square of arms and, in its around, a set of buildings of times and diverse configurations. Over the centuries, it has been altered with new additions and transformations. The fort was constructed in the sixteenth century with the purpose of protecting Ponta Delgada from pirates.

The analysis of the work of the seventeenth-century chronicler Gaspar Frutuoso who described in detail the most remarkable things on the island and reported the different incursions of privateers until then, circa 1586-1590, indicates only a lookout on the Fort site: "(...) guarded the hermitage of Our Lady of Conception, which is on the port (...)". Other warnings came from the lookouts then also in the Figueiral and Marvão.

When English privateers attacked in 1589 the High Rock was already possibly strapped with some cots and hawks, throwing stones as projectiles: "(...) declined Captain Bras Soares de Sousa from where the artillery is below the port (...). In this way, it is accepted that the primitive construction of the fort dates back to the beginning of the seventeenth century, or more probably to the second half of the same century, when the Captain-Major João Falcão de Sousa, 10th captain of the granary of Santa Maria (1654-1657), he held the position of Superintendent of the Fortification Works of the island.

 The above information was extracted from Wikipedia

The fort's role has now become a combined military museum and place of interest for tourists. As Portugal has had a series of military adventures in their prior colonies, the museum contains artifacts & images from those adventures.

The ship required all passengers to be back onboard prior to 7:30PM, so we decided to head back to the ship at approximately 6:15pm and find out what was on the menu for dinner! This would allow us to be at the dinner table during the ship's departure, which provides you with a view of the harbor as the cruise ship heads out to sea.

You can see that there were quite a few cruise ships in port that day, but that did not result in crowded conditions ashore. The city is relatively small & very walkable.

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