Azores Shore Leave – Day 13

Angra,Terceira
Date: Thursday 06/19/2008
Weather: Overcast, light rain

Today, our last full day in the Azores, was overcast, but pleasant.

One thing that Robyn did not want to miss in Terceira was the Os Moinhos Resturaunt in Sao Sebastion. Her guide book said that this was unequivocally the best restaurant in the Azores. How could we miss that?

We had discussed going the night before, but it was late and it was in a town 30 minutes away. We would have had to get a taxi and have the driver wait while we ate dinner since there are no taxis in little Sao Sebastion. Since a cab for all that time would have cost as much as a car rental, we decided to wait until today and rent a car to see the island, and stop there for dinner.

There were a number of places on Terceira that were worth exploring. We rented the car and headed off.

First on the list was a little pottery shop called AzureArt. This woman made her own hand thrown plates and pots as well as tiles and other ceramics, all decorated in traditional designs. Her studio contained two kilns and all of her work in process, as well as finished product. We found her sitting at a work table painting designs on cups. I selected a rectangular serving dish and a little tile of a whale. Robyn picked out a number of serving size plates with a different traditional food painted on each one – sausages, bread, cheese, pork chops, … Eric picked out two tiles with line drawing of bulls. One was black with a white line drawing, the other white with a black line drawing. They will make very nice serving boards for cheese.

Next stop was the light house (Farol in Portuguese).



It was way, way, way down this single lane winding road.

Even then when we reached the light house it was very high above the sea. The light house had been automated so no one lived there any longer. You could see where they had.

This was the view from the light house.

We followed the road even further down until we came to a lookout overlooking the most incredible frothing water. It seemed to be more than just waves crashing, since it was not that windy. It seemed to me to be boiling and I wondered if there were heat vents like the fumas coming up under the water. We were not able to confirm my theory from the guide book or the signs around the lookout, so it probably was just waves. But either way, it was quite dramatic.

See how it looks like it is boiling.

Back up to the main road where we traveled a little further looking for the cheese factory. We found the cheese factory with its little café giving out free samples of their cheeses.

They were bringing the cows in from the pastures as we arrived. It was so picturesque, the cows lumbering by in single formation, some of them attempting to munch on the huge hedges of hydrangea as they passed them.

Then continuing down the village street to their barn.

The cheese was excellent. We ordered beer and the owner brought a big plate of cheese to sample. We bought some bread and that was our lunch. I wanted to bring some cheese home with me, but it was a soft cheese and the cheese maker said that it would not do well for 2 days without refrigeration.

Or next destination was a local winery. It was after 6pm and it was closed. Too bad, a little wine would have been a nice chaser for all the cheese we ate. Once again – Azorean cheese is some of the best I’ve ever had.

Horse drawn wagon with a milk can in Biscuit - the town that had the winery. This was not normal. This was the only example we saw of a horse drawn vehicle.

We continued our loop around the island and came to Vitoria. This is where the American airbase is and it was a much more modern city. It still had its old part with the narrow winding cobblestone streets, but much of it was modern and new.

We had to leave the beaten path to find Sao Sebastion. All day Robyn had remarkable luck in finding these little out of the way places. None of them were well marked, but she somehow would look up at just the right time to see some little obscure sign. That is what happened with Os Moinhos.


Os Moinhos used to be a water mill and was converted to a restaurant.

They are famous for their charcoal grilling. They also had the largest selection of wine we had seen to date, although we stuck with our favorite Pico wines. We knew we would not see them again when we got back to the states.

The guide book recommended reservations, however it was not a problem. We were the only ones there. The ambience was very nice, as was the food. Well worth seeking out.

We returned to Angra and parked the car. We would need it in the morning to go to the airport.

We had an 8am flight and planned on leaving the marina at 6:30am. That was another justification for the car – who knows how hard it might be to get a taxi that early. It was nice not to have to worry.