We had a slower day today, the first time in almost a week that we had some down time. I had fallen a few days behind in my blog over this time :( It started with the early flight from Lisbon, the rush to trek up to the caldera in Corvo while the weather was nice, and then unplanned fast boat to Flores. Anyways it was nice to have a relaxing day.
We saw the Atlânticoline ferry come in around 10am. This was the same as the Saturday one that was cancelled due to the high winds. It was small, holding only 16 people. It’s fully enclosed so folks didn’t get wet, but that would also cut down on visibility. When our Saturday ferry was cancelled, I had tried to rebook for today’s (Tuesday) but it was sold out - no wonder, considering it only holds 16.
We got to the Fábrica da Baleia do Boqueirão (Whaling Museum) around 11:15. Google said they closed at noon for lunch but they’re open straight through the day. It cost us 1 EUR each to enter. We had previously seen both the Whalers Museum and the Whaling Industry Museum in Pico which we really liked. The museum here in Flores was a combination of both, housed in a former whaling factory. It was more extensive than I had thought, it took us almost 90 minutes to get through. We really liked it.
We decided to have a big lunch and then just munch on our leftovers for dinner. We ate at the other recommended restaurant in Santa Cruz, O Mergulhador. It was excellent, we liked it better than O Moreão. We split the octopus salad, grilled steak and marrow bone.
We walked around town for a bit after lunch, looking for a souvenir shop, but it was slim pickings.
We checked out the Flores Museum. The history of ship wrecks was interesting, as well as the notable corsairs.
We stopped in at the grocery store to get some fresh buns to make sandwiches for the layover tomorrow. The supply ship (or plane) must have just come in - the fruits and vegetables were fully stocked. We saw the owner from O Moreão stocking up. She recognized us and said hi.
We got back to our bnb around 4:30pm and relaxed the rest of the afternoon. I mostly caught up in my blog. Later we packed up a bit, getting ready for the flight tomorrow. Our suitcases were disorganized after the mad rush to pack and catch the fast boat from Corvo. I had taken a pic of the 7.9kg contents of the carry-on suitcase so we could repack it. Heather’s cottonballs were now in her big suitcase so I swapped in her gloves. Hopefully that won’t push it over.
A Travel Blog
by Heather and Eric
Tuesday, May 05, 2026
Monday, May 04, 2026
Flores Island, Azores
May the fourth be with you! We had a slow start to the morning, enjoying the nice sunny day. It was the clearest view we’ve had of Corvo since we arrived here in Flores.
We saw a fast ferry arrive in Flores, the first boat crossing since the windstorm dissipated. Their captain was not anywhere near as good as ours, you could actually hear the thump-thump-thump as they crested waves. They had a tarp over the windward side of the boat, which probably kept them dry, but blocked half the view. We would have got seasick.
We finally got our day underway around 11am. First up was the cheese factory / museum across the island, in Fajãzinha (population 71). The cheese factory is down some pretty narrow streets on the edge of town.
Turns out the only thing available to the public is a small fridge selling two kinds of cheese. Not sure why it’s so hyped up on Google Maps. Even the tourist info folks had suggested we check it out.
That was really the only thing we had planned, so now we had some time on our hands. Walked around Fajãzinha and took some pics, it’s a cute little place. After we saw the parking lot outside town and realized we were supposed to park there and then explore the town on foot.
We drove down to Igreja de Nossa Senhora Do Carmo, on the outskirts of Fajã Grande. I had taken a bunch of pics of the church from afar a couple days ago. The road leading to the church was fairly level and picturesque, so we decided to have lunch and then park and revisit the church again on foot.
We went to the same lunch spot as the first day in. We were there at 1pm, and our lunch order was queued up behind all the other tables. We only got our food around 2pm. We tried their breaded shrimp, which was good, but we’re probably done with deep fried food for a while.
After we parked at the trailhead (so to speak), and walked along the road to the church. There’s numerous waterfalls visible along the way. They fall from 600m cliffs, and the flow is low so about half way down they disappear into mist. It wasn’t that long of a walk (only about 2km) but it was nice.
We did not feel like waiting for food for dinner, so instead decided to get some charcuterie from the local grocery store and just have dinner at our bnb. I also got a bottle of Pico wine, which we really enjoyed back in 2019. The vineyards are a UNESCO site and the wine has a slight hint of sea salt. Anyways I took the opportunity to try it again.
The views were beautiful from our bnb on the hill as the sun went down. It was a nice relaxing end to the day.
We saw a fast ferry arrive in Flores, the first boat crossing since the windstorm dissipated. Their captain was not anywhere near as good as ours, you could actually hear the thump-thump-thump as they crested waves. They had a tarp over the windward side of the boat, which probably kept them dry, but blocked half the view. We would have got seasick.
We finally got our day underway around 11am. First up was the cheese factory / museum across the island, in Fajãzinha (population 71). The cheese factory is down some pretty narrow streets on the edge of town.
Turns out the only thing available to the public is a small fridge selling two kinds of cheese. Not sure why it’s so hyped up on Google Maps. Even the tourist info folks had suggested we check it out.
That was really the only thing we had planned, so now we had some time on our hands. Walked around Fajãzinha and took some pics, it’s a cute little place. After we saw the parking lot outside town and realized we were supposed to park there and then explore the town on foot.
We drove down to Igreja de Nossa Senhora Do Carmo, on the outskirts of Fajã Grande. I had taken a bunch of pics of the church from afar a couple days ago. The road leading to the church was fairly level and picturesque, so we decided to have lunch and then park and revisit the church again on foot.
We went to the same lunch spot as the first day in. We were there at 1pm, and our lunch order was queued up behind all the other tables. We only got our food around 2pm. We tried their breaded shrimp, which was good, but we’re probably done with deep fried food for a while.
After we parked at the trailhead (so to speak), and walked along the road to the church. There’s numerous waterfalls visible along the way. They fall from 600m cliffs, and the flow is low so about half way down they disappear into mist. It wasn’t that long of a walk (only about 2km) but it was nice.
We did not feel like waiting for food for dinner, so instead decided to get some charcuterie from the local grocery store and just have dinner at our bnb. I also got a bottle of Pico wine, which we really enjoyed back in 2019. The vineyards are a UNESCO site and the wine has a slight hint of sea salt. Anyways I took the opportunity to try it again.
The views were beautiful from our bnb on the hill as the sun went down. It was a nice relaxing end to the day.
Sunday, May 03, 2026
Flores Island, Azores
It was another windy day, with bigger waves than yesterday out on the Atlantic. We had a relaxing breakfast in our bnb. I made up some scrambled eggs, along with local cheeses, bread and pineapple jam. Mmm good.
Just like yesterday, it was mostly sunny, just really windy, which was fine for sightseeing and pics.
Today’s road trip started at Farol de Albarnaz, a lighthouse just past Ponta Delgada on the north end of Flores. From there you can see Monchique Islet, supposedly the westernmost point in Europe. It sits on the North American tectonic plate, so it’s more of a marketing claim than anything.
We had lunch at Flor de Lótus, a permanent food truck just outside Ponta Delgada. It was just what we were looking for. Heather had a hotdog which is what I should have ordered too, as I didn’t care for my bifana. We also had onion rings and fries, which were pretty good. Heather couldn’t remember the last time she had a hot dog, lol. Probably at a Jays game.
It was still early in the afternoon, so we decided to try our luck at the Seven Lakes in the interior district of Lajes. It seems like it’s permanently cloudy there, with humid air rising up 700m inland.
First we saw Caldeira Branca. The lake was just beneath the cloud cover, enough that we had a full view. It was really windy though, not as bad as Iceland windy, but still pretty strong.
Next up was Caldeira Seca, which as the name suggests is a dry lake. This was less photogenic. Caldeiras Negra and Comprida were a combined miradouro, and the windiest of the bunch.
The next caldeiras were down the road a few minutes. We saw the same tourists at each of them, doing the same route. Caldeiras Funda and Rasa were also a joint miradouro.
Along the way to Caldeira da Lomba, we passed by another miradouro for Caldeiras Funda and Rasa, this time from a distance. The difference in elevation (Rasa 530m, Funda 360m) is striking, which we didn’t notice at the previous miradouro which sits between them.
Caldeira da Lomba was a bit of a dud, there’s not even signage like the other caldeiras. Oh well. The other six were cool to see, although they look better in person than in pics.
Almost all the restaurants in Flores are closed on Sundays. The only options were burger places and a Chinese restaurant, Restaurante Macau. After the hotdog and onion rings lunch, we didn’t feel like a burger, so opted for Restaurante Macau.
The reviews on Google said there was a long wait for food on Sundays (cause everyone in town is eating there), so we decided to head there at 6pm to get takeout, and then reheat it later in the evening at our bnb.
The kitchen didn’t open until 6:30pm, so we chatted with the person (the son of the family-run restaurant) and placed a takeout order for 7pm. They use locally sourced ingredients so we weren’t expecting authentic Cantonese. We did go off-menu and order a vegetable stir fry.
We had an hour to wait, and rather than drive back to the bnb and then back to the restaurant, we just walked around Santa Cruz. We hadn’t done much walking today, so it was good to get in our steps.
We drove to the south end of town and parked in the lot. We’ve realized that each of the towns has a designated parking area for tourists from which you can then explore on foot. It’s a great idea, although the car rental companies should mention it!
We took a bunch of pics of the Church of Santa Cruz das Flores which towers over the town. We then walked over to Parque Boavista. There’s cool views of the town over the harbour from the park. It also has a skateboard park (so did Corvo, a brand new one!).
It was getting close to 7pm so we got back to the car. We stopped a few times to get pics of street art of birds on various walls and buildings. Later I googled and most of the street art is by Morgan Bricca.
Restaurante Macau was bustling when we returned. Heather went in to get our take-out, while I waited in the car, illegally parked as the lot was full.
The food was pretty good, and went well with Sagres (the local beer). It was a decent option for a Sunday, plus we got to watch the sunset. There’s not much colour cause we’re on the east side of the island, but it was still nice to see night approach from up on our hill.
Just like yesterday, it was mostly sunny, just really windy, which was fine for sightseeing and pics.
Today’s road trip started at Farol de Albarnaz, a lighthouse just past Ponta Delgada on the north end of Flores. From there you can see Monchique Islet, supposedly the westernmost point in Europe. It sits on the North American tectonic plate, so it’s more of a marketing claim than anything.
We had lunch at Flor de Lótus, a permanent food truck just outside Ponta Delgada. It was just what we were looking for. Heather had a hotdog which is what I should have ordered too, as I didn’t care for my bifana. We also had onion rings and fries, which were pretty good. Heather couldn’t remember the last time she had a hot dog, lol. Probably at a Jays game.
It was still early in the afternoon, so we decided to try our luck at the Seven Lakes in the interior district of Lajes. It seems like it’s permanently cloudy there, with humid air rising up 700m inland.
First we saw Caldeira Branca. The lake was just beneath the cloud cover, enough that we had a full view. It was really windy though, not as bad as Iceland windy, but still pretty strong.
Next up was Caldeira Seca, which as the name suggests is a dry lake. This was less photogenic. Caldeiras Negra and Comprida were a combined miradouro, and the windiest of the bunch.
The next caldeiras were down the road a few minutes. We saw the same tourists at each of them, doing the same route. Caldeiras Funda and Rasa were also a joint miradouro.
Along the way to Caldeira da Lomba, we passed by another miradouro for Caldeiras Funda and Rasa, this time from a distance. The difference in elevation (Rasa 530m, Funda 360m) is striking, which we didn’t notice at the previous miradouro which sits between them.
Caldeira da Lomba was a bit of a dud, there’s not even signage like the other caldeiras. Oh well. The other six were cool to see, although they look better in person than in pics.
Almost all the restaurants in Flores are closed on Sundays. The only options were burger places and a Chinese restaurant, Restaurante Macau. After the hotdog and onion rings lunch, we didn’t feel like a burger, so opted for Restaurante Macau.
The reviews on Google said there was a long wait for food on Sundays (cause everyone in town is eating there), so we decided to head there at 6pm to get takeout, and then reheat it later in the evening at our bnb.
The kitchen didn’t open until 6:30pm, so we chatted with the person (the son of the family-run restaurant) and placed a takeout order for 7pm. They use locally sourced ingredients so we weren’t expecting authentic Cantonese. We did go off-menu and order a vegetable stir fry.
We had an hour to wait, and rather than drive back to the bnb and then back to the restaurant, we just walked around Santa Cruz. We hadn’t done much walking today, so it was good to get in our steps.
We drove to the south end of town and parked in the lot. We’ve realized that each of the towns has a designated parking area for tourists from which you can then explore on foot. It’s a great idea, although the car rental companies should mention it!
We took a bunch of pics of the Church of Santa Cruz das Flores which towers over the town. We then walked over to Parque Boavista. There’s cool views of the town over the harbour from the park. It also has a skateboard park (so did Corvo, a brand new one!).
It was getting close to 7pm so we got back to the car. We stopped a few times to get pics of street art of birds on various walls and buildings. Later I googled and most of the street art is by Morgan Bricca.
Restaurante Macau was bustling when we returned. Heather went in to get our take-out, while I waited in the car, illegally parked as the lot was full.
The food was pretty good, and went well with Sagres (the local beer). It was a decent option for a Sunday, plus we got to watch the sunset. There’s not much colour cause we’re on the east side of the island, but it was still nice to see night approach from up on our hill.
Saturday, May 02, 2026
Flores Island, Azores
I didn’t sleep very well last night cause we were still hopped up on adrenaline from the crazy boat ride to Flores.
Our bnb is up top of a hill with a great view of the town of Santa Cruz and the Atlantic Ocean. We could see the whitecaps and big waves, it’s no wonder there’s no boat crossings today.
First up was some admin stuff. Our driver from yesterday met us at 10:45 to drive us to the car rental pickup at the airport in Santa Cruz. The Ilha Verde folks were very quick. In the meantime, Heather dropped into the Info booth and got some good tips on seeing the island. Aside from the big winds, there was good visibility and it was a good day to tour around Flores, per the info lady.
We then stopped into a little cafe for breakfast. Breakfast isn’t much of a thing here, so we just had a cappuccino and bread with cheese, enough to keep us going. We then stopped into the local supermarket, Helios, to stock up on breakfast supplies for the next few days.
We drove back up to our bnb to get ourselves situated. The rental was a Renault Clio, a fun little car to drive. CarPlay worked well with the car.
We cut across the island on the ER2-2 towards Fajã Grande (there’s only two major roads in Flores, ER1-2 which circumnavigates the island from 12 o’clock to 9; and ER2-2 which goes straight from 9 o’clock to 3). We stopped at a few miradouros (lookout points) to take pics.
We had lunch at an ocean-side little restaurant and had bifanas, the best ones we’ve had this trip. We got there around 2:05 and the kitchen closed at 2pm but luckily they still served us.
Then we did a little more driving around and sightseeing. The area around Fajã Grande is surrounded by 600m cliffs, from which dozens of waterfalls make their way down. There’s lots of hikes in and around the area, although a bit technical cause of the extreme up-and-downs. The hikes are all rated difficult on AllTrails. However, there’s lots of miradouros accessible from the road, which is what we did.
We took the long way home, circling south through Lajes das Flores. Along the way we passed by Rocha dos Bordões, basalt rocks shaped like pipe organs. We’ve seen these in different countries, most recently in Iceland.
There’s a beautiful tiled church in Fazenda which we made a detour to get some pics.
We stopped at a few more miradouros on the way back to the bnb.
We didn’t have much time to relax as we wanted to get to Restaurante O Moreão for dinner. It was one of the few restaurants open this early in the season, and was packed. We waited 10 minutes to get seated, and then over an hour for our food. The restaurant only seats about 30 people, of which 20 were taken up by a group. We got stuck behind the group in our food orders, thus the wait. We had grilled squid skewers and grilled swordfish, both of which were excellent.
It was past 10pm by the time we got home, and we fell fast asleep.
Our bnb is up top of a hill with a great view of the town of Santa Cruz and the Atlantic Ocean. We could see the whitecaps and big waves, it’s no wonder there’s no boat crossings today.
First up was some admin stuff. Our driver from yesterday met us at 10:45 to drive us to the car rental pickup at the airport in Santa Cruz. The Ilha Verde folks were very quick. In the meantime, Heather dropped into the Info booth and got some good tips on seeing the island. Aside from the big winds, there was good visibility and it was a good day to tour around Flores, per the info lady.
We then stopped into a little cafe for breakfast. Breakfast isn’t much of a thing here, so we just had a cappuccino and bread with cheese, enough to keep us going. We then stopped into the local supermarket, Helios, to stock up on breakfast supplies for the next few days.
We drove back up to our bnb to get ourselves situated. The rental was a Renault Clio, a fun little car to drive. CarPlay worked well with the car.
We cut across the island on the ER2-2 towards Fajã Grande (there’s only two major roads in Flores, ER1-2 which circumnavigates the island from 12 o’clock to 9; and ER2-2 which goes straight from 9 o’clock to 3). We stopped at a few miradouros (lookout points) to take pics.
We had lunch at an ocean-side little restaurant and had bifanas, the best ones we’ve had this trip. We got there around 2:05 and the kitchen closed at 2pm but luckily they still served us.
Then we did a little more driving around and sightseeing. The area around Fajã Grande is surrounded by 600m cliffs, from which dozens of waterfalls make their way down. There’s lots of hikes in and around the area, although a bit technical cause of the extreme up-and-downs. The hikes are all rated difficult on AllTrails. However, there’s lots of miradouros accessible from the road, which is what we did.
We took the long way home, circling south through Lajes das Flores. Along the way we passed by Rocha dos Bordões, basalt rocks shaped like pipe organs. We’ve seen these in different countries, most recently in Iceland.
There’s a beautiful tiled church in Fazenda which we made a detour to get some pics.
We stopped at a few more miradouros on the way back to the bnb.
We didn’t have much time to relax as we wanted to get to Restaurante O Moreão for dinner. It was one of the few restaurants open this early in the season, and was packed. We waited 10 minutes to get seated, and then over an hour for our food. The restaurant only seats about 30 people, of which 20 were taken up by a group. We got stuck behind the group in our food orders, thus the wait. We had grilled squid skewers and grilled swordfish, both of which were excellent.
It was past 10pm by the time we got home, and we fell fast asleep.
Friday, May 01, 2026
Flores Island, Azores
We woke up a bit sore from the 14km walk up and down from the caldera (550m) in Corvo yesterday. Looked like today would just be on as level ground as possible.
It was pretty crowded at the breakfast area in the hotel, with about a dozen other guests.
After breakfast we checked in with reception, to see about boats to Flores on Sunday. Originally I had planned for us to take the ferry, but it’s still early in the season and it only ran Sat-Tue-Thu. It didn’t look good for the fast boats either, as they originate in Flores and are typically used by day trippers to Corvo.
We also were running out of things to do in Corvo. There are a couple more treks we could have done, if we were younger and didn’t wreck our knees / ankles etc on the first day’s trek up to the caldera.
So we decided to cut our time short in Corvo, and leave a day earlier on the Saturday ferry. Luckily our place in Flores was available for the extra day too. I was able to book the ferry online. The 9am ferry was sold out but we got tickets for the 4pm one. (I also hadn’t realized when planning that the ferry could sell out). I also called the car rental folks at Ilha Verde and our car was available early too.
With our revised itinerary sorted out, we started touring around Vila do Corvo. Most of the things we wanted to see were around the runway, with limited elevation changes. Good for our knees and ankles.
First up was an art installation by Bordalo II. He is known for his murals made from recycled trash. Near the west end of the runway, there’s an image of a grouper on the side of a beached boat. It’s somewhat hidden unless you’re actually looking for it. (Or you can just go to Google Maps like us, which is how I found out about it). It was pretty cool. He has another installation in Corvo on the outside the Community Sports Centre which we saw yesterday.
Around the south side of the runway are a three moinhos (windmills), so we took some pics.
We went back to BBC for lunch, and tried their bifanas. These were okay, we preferred the special yesterday. After lunch we wandered through the old cobblestone streets overlooking the docks. The streets rise sharply from the water up the slopes of the faja. It’s very picturesque. The steep streets weren’t helping our joints though.
We watched a fast boat loading passengers in the harbour. It was bobbing up and down in the waves, making it hard to embark. We then watched them boucing around as they left the harbour. We were glad we had booked on the ferry, and not the fast boat.
We got back to our hotel just in time for me to get an alert from the ferry company that tomorrow’s (Saturday) ferry was cancelled due to high winds :(
This did not bode well. We looked at other options to get off Corvo. The next flight with availability was leaving in a week’s time, the next ferry on Tuesday was already sold out, and the fast boats weren’t running for at least a couple days due to the high winds. We could be stuck on Corvo for a week! :( Also, there was a dance festival in Corvo the next three days and all the (limited) accommodation on the island was sold out. So we could be stuck with no place to stay :(
We reached out to anyone we knew in Corvo. The restaurant folks from yesterday suggested a boat person based in Flores. I sent them a WhatsApp, and they were willing to pick us up this evening if we bought out all the seats on the boat. The cost was not much more than flying, and would get us to Flores before the storm hit and shut down all transport for at least a couple days, so we agreed.
We rushed to pack up in less than an hour and were at the dock by 6pm. The winds had already picked up and it wasn’t guaranteed that the captain would make it from Flores to Corvo if he decided the weather was already too risky.
The nice folks from the restaurant (who had recommended the boat folks and were good friends with them) came down to the dock to wait with us and make sure we connected.
The boat rounded the corner into the loosely protected harbour, where the waves were over five feet high. I was nervous about loading our suitcases on to the bobbing boat, but the captain was excellent and everything was loaded safely.
We were just about to board ourselves when the couple that sat in front of us on the plane to Corvo ran up to the dock. It was obvious from the looks on their faces that they were in the same boat as us (ha ha), facing the option of being stuck on Corvo for a week. They asked if they could join us, and the captain said if they could be ready in fifteen minutes he’d wait. So they rushed off and packed and were back in less than ten minutes (very impressive).
And then we were off! It’s 21km to Flores, and it took us about an hour. The waves out in the open ocean were about 20 feet high. Our boat felt tiny in comparison. The captain was excellent, navigating through the waves without thumping. The seats were optimal too - it was like straddling a pommel horse with a seat back. We had a full view of the horizon, and never felt seasick at all, which was great. The winds were up to 40km/h blowing into my side of the boat, and I was soaked. We had dressed to get wet, with all our base layers. So I was wet but not cold. Heather had gloves but I didn’t, and my hands were freezing by the time we crossed. (It was about 14C, not sure of the wind chill). It started raining about half way through, which hurt like sleet in our faces. Luckily we knew enough to have worn our sunglasses, so that we could keep our eyes open to the horizon.
Anyways it was quite the adventure to get across. We finally got to the harbour in Flores, which was better protected from waves. We disembarked and unloaded our suitcases with frozen hands. The boat folks had connected us with a transport service, so we had a ride to our hotel.
The taxi guy was really nice too. It was too late to get in anywhere later to eat dinner, but one of his friends was the chef at a popular restaurant. So our taxi guy called his chef friend and arranged for take out to be picked up in an hour. We got dropped off at our hotel (really a bnb) and changed into dry clothes (I was soaked in salty water so had a shower too). Our driver came back in an hour and drove us to pick up our food.
It was hard to believe that a few hours ago we were looking at being stuck in Corvo for a week with no place to stay, and then through the kindness of the restaurant folks, the boat folks, the taxi guy, and the chef friend, we were now eating a fancy dinner in our bnb in Flores.
It was pretty crowded at the breakfast area in the hotel, with about a dozen other guests.
After breakfast we checked in with reception, to see about boats to Flores on Sunday. Originally I had planned for us to take the ferry, but it’s still early in the season and it only ran Sat-Tue-Thu. It didn’t look good for the fast boats either, as they originate in Flores and are typically used by day trippers to Corvo.
We also were running out of things to do in Corvo. There are a couple more treks we could have done, if we were younger and didn’t wreck our knees / ankles etc on the first day’s trek up to the caldera.
So we decided to cut our time short in Corvo, and leave a day earlier on the Saturday ferry. Luckily our place in Flores was available for the extra day too. I was able to book the ferry online. The 9am ferry was sold out but we got tickets for the 4pm one. (I also hadn’t realized when planning that the ferry could sell out). I also called the car rental folks at Ilha Verde and our car was available early too.
With our revised itinerary sorted out, we started touring around Vila do Corvo. Most of the things we wanted to see were around the runway, with limited elevation changes. Good for our knees and ankles.
First up was an art installation by Bordalo II. He is known for his murals made from recycled trash. Near the west end of the runway, there’s an image of a grouper on the side of a beached boat. It’s somewhat hidden unless you’re actually looking for it. (Or you can just go to Google Maps like us, which is how I found out about it). It was pretty cool. He has another installation in Corvo on the outside the Community Sports Centre which we saw yesterday.
Around the south side of the runway are a three moinhos (windmills), so we took some pics.
We went back to BBC for lunch, and tried their bifanas. These were okay, we preferred the special yesterday. After lunch we wandered through the old cobblestone streets overlooking the docks. The streets rise sharply from the water up the slopes of the faja. It’s very picturesque. The steep streets weren’t helping our joints though.
We watched a fast boat loading passengers in the harbour. It was bobbing up and down in the waves, making it hard to embark. We then watched them boucing around as they left the harbour. We were glad we had booked on the ferry, and not the fast boat.
We got back to our hotel just in time for me to get an alert from the ferry company that tomorrow’s (Saturday) ferry was cancelled due to high winds :(
This did not bode well. We looked at other options to get off Corvo. The next flight with availability was leaving in a week’s time, the next ferry on Tuesday was already sold out, and the fast boats weren’t running for at least a couple days due to the high winds. We could be stuck on Corvo for a week! :( Also, there was a dance festival in Corvo the next three days and all the (limited) accommodation on the island was sold out. So we could be stuck with no place to stay :(
We reached out to anyone we knew in Corvo. The restaurant folks from yesterday suggested a boat person based in Flores. I sent them a WhatsApp, and they were willing to pick us up this evening if we bought out all the seats on the boat. The cost was not much more than flying, and would get us to Flores before the storm hit and shut down all transport for at least a couple days, so we agreed.
We rushed to pack up in less than an hour and were at the dock by 6pm. The winds had already picked up and it wasn’t guaranteed that the captain would make it from Flores to Corvo if he decided the weather was already too risky.
The nice folks from the restaurant (who had recommended the boat folks and were good friends with them) came down to the dock to wait with us and make sure we connected.
The boat rounded the corner into the loosely protected harbour, where the waves were over five feet high. I was nervous about loading our suitcases on to the bobbing boat, but the captain was excellent and everything was loaded safely.
We were just about to board ourselves when the couple that sat in front of us on the plane to Corvo ran up to the dock. It was obvious from the looks on their faces that they were in the same boat as us (ha ha), facing the option of being stuck on Corvo for a week. They asked if they could join us, and the captain said if they could be ready in fifteen minutes he’d wait. So they rushed off and packed and were back in less than ten minutes (very impressive).
And then we were off! It’s 21km to Flores, and it took us about an hour. The waves out in the open ocean were about 20 feet high. Our boat felt tiny in comparison. The captain was excellent, navigating through the waves without thumping. The seats were optimal too - it was like straddling a pommel horse with a seat back. We had a full view of the horizon, and never felt seasick at all, which was great. The winds were up to 40km/h blowing into my side of the boat, and I was soaked. We had dressed to get wet, with all our base layers. So I was wet but not cold. Heather had gloves but I didn’t, and my hands were freezing by the time we crossed. (It was about 14C, not sure of the wind chill). It started raining about half way through, which hurt like sleet in our faces. Luckily we knew enough to have worn our sunglasses, so that we could keep our eyes open to the horizon.
Anyways it was quite the adventure to get across. We finally got to the harbour in Flores, which was better protected from waves. We disembarked and unloaded our suitcases with frozen hands. The boat folks had connected us with a transport service, so we had a ride to our hotel.
The taxi guy was really nice too. It was too late to get in anywhere later to eat dinner, but one of his friends was the chef at a popular restaurant. So our taxi guy called his chef friend and arranged for take out to be picked up in an hour. We got dropped off at our hotel (really a bnb) and changed into dry clothes (I was soaked in salty water so had a shower too). Our driver came back in an hour and drove us to pick up our food.
It was hard to believe that a few hours ago we were looking at being stuck in Corvo for a week with no place to stay, and then through the kindness of the restaurant folks, the boat folks, the taxi guy, and the chef friend, we were now eating a fancy dinner in our bnb in Flores.
Thursday, April 30, 2026
Corvo Island, Azores
We had our alarms set for 3:30am to catch our 6am flight to the Azores. We had arrived at the hotel at 2am yesterday, so we paid for two nights but were only in the hotel for 26 hours :(
Caught our scheduled Bolt at 4am, got to the airport and checked in. The TAP check-in was a zoo; we were flying Azores Airlines which had no one in line. We also had Fast Track on our tickets so skipped the security lineups too. It was almost like we were flying business!
We slept through most of the 2.5 hour flight to San Miguel. We had a 45 minute layover during which we had our 2nd cappuccino of the day.
Then we took a small 48-seater to Horta, on the island of Faial. We visited Faial on our 2019 trip and really liked it. Our visit this time was much shorter, just 20 minutes while the plane refueled. The passengers on the right side of the plane had an amazing view of Faial on the approach to Horta. We were on the left side, seats 6A and 6B. The person in the window seat on the right side (6D) had videoed the approach, and I asked him after if he could share it. He airdropped it to me, I’ve posted it unlisted on YouTube.
There were only about ten of us on the flight to Corvo. It’s a small island, population 435, and has only one hotel with about 16 rooms. There’s also a few bnb’s, but overall there’s not much accommodation for tourists. Most tourists visit as a day trip from nearby Flores Island, a 21km ferry.
I had wanted a pic of the approach to Corvo, as it’s quite stunning with the little town of Vila do Corvo on a fajã. But we flew on a direct approach without a fly-by, so there were no pics to be had from either side of the plane.
It started raining as we deplaned. By the time we got our luggage, it had turned into a downpour. We all dug into our packs to find our raincoats.
There’s no taxis (it’s a small island). We waited for the rain to slow down, and then walked out from the airport towards our hotel. It’s only a nine-minute walk, which wouldn’t have been a big deal if it wasn’t raining.
By the time we reached the hotel, it was sunny again, typical of island weather. We were able to check in (it was only 11am).
We ventured out for lunch. There’s only one place in town open for lunch, the BBC restaurant (nothing to do with British TV). We had their special, beans and chorizo with rice, which was excellent. We had an espresso after to keep us awake. (There's also a buffet restaurant near the airport that's open for lunch, but it gets only a 3.9 on Google Maps).
It had turned into a beautiful day. All the locals we spoke with said we should visit the caldera today, as the next few days the weather was turning and it would be unlikely we’d seen anything cause the caldera would be covered with clouds.
So we changed into our hiking gear and packed for three seasons - cold, rain, and heat.
It’s about 700m elevation gain from sea level to the entrance to the caldera. It took us about 2.5 hours to walk up cause it’s super photogenic and we stopped a lot for pics. It might have been a 1.5 walk if we didn’t stop.
There’s beautiful views of rock-terraced farmland and the ocean and old basalt buldings and green fields and blue sky. There’s even an old chapel built into the hill, and new wind turbines too. We did go through all the variations of clothing along the way.
We reached the top, already impressed by the views on the way up, and then had a look into the caldera. This was even more impressive, the best caldera I’ve seen. It’s possible to walk down and around the inside, but for us, the view was the thing. We sat on a rock and just took in the view for about half an hour.
The walk down was beautiful too, but not so nice on our knees and ankles. We were a bit sore by the time we reached our hotel. Probably, we’ll be even worse tomorrow.
We had dinner at Restaurante Irmãos Metralha. I had emailed them a week ago to pre-order, as you can’t just show up for dinner (they buy the ingredients on a just-in-time basis).
Dinner was excellent, two types of fish, blackspot sea bream and veja. Both were cooked and seasoned perfectly. We chatted with the owner, he was really friendly and genuine.
It was a long day and we weren’t expecting to see the caldera today, but you have to take advantage of the weather when it’s nice.
Caught our scheduled Bolt at 4am, got to the airport and checked in. The TAP check-in was a zoo; we were flying Azores Airlines which had no one in line. We also had Fast Track on our tickets so skipped the security lineups too. It was almost like we were flying business!
We slept through most of the 2.5 hour flight to San Miguel. We had a 45 minute layover during which we had our 2nd cappuccino of the day.
Then we took a small 48-seater to Horta, on the island of Faial. We visited Faial on our 2019 trip and really liked it. Our visit this time was much shorter, just 20 minutes while the plane refueled. The passengers on the right side of the plane had an amazing view of Faial on the approach to Horta. We were on the left side, seats 6A and 6B. The person in the window seat on the right side (6D) had videoed the approach, and I asked him after if he could share it. He airdropped it to me, I’ve posted it unlisted on YouTube.
There were only about ten of us on the flight to Corvo. It’s a small island, population 435, and has only one hotel with about 16 rooms. There’s also a few bnb’s, but overall there’s not much accommodation for tourists. Most tourists visit as a day trip from nearby Flores Island, a 21km ferry.
I had wanted a pic of the approach to Corvo, as it’s quite stunning with the little town of Vila do Corvo on a fajã. But we flew on a direct approach without a fly-by, so there were no pics to be had from either side of the plane.
It started raining as we deplaned. By the time we got our luggage, it had turned into a downpour. We all dug into our packs to find our raincoats.
There’s no taxis (it’s a small island). We waited for the rain to slow down, and then walked out from the airport towards our hotel. It’s only a nine-minute walk, which wouldn’t have been a big deal if it wasn’t raining.
By the time we reached the hotel, it was sunny again, typical of island weather. We were able to check in (it was only 11am).
We ventured out for lunch. There’s only one place in town open for lunch, the BBC restaurant (nothing to do with British TV). We had their special, beans and chorizo with rice, which was excellent. We had an espresso after to keep us awake. (There's also a buffet restaurant near the airport that's open for lunch, but it gets only a 3.9 on Google Maps).
It had turned into a beautiful day. All the locals we spoke with said we should visit the caldera today, as the next few days the weather was turning and it would be unlikely we’d seen anything cause the caldera would be covered with clouds.
So we changed into our hiking gear and packed for three seasons - cold, rain, and heat.
It’s about 700m elevation gain from sea level to the entrance to the caldera. It took us about 2.5 hours to walk up cause it’s super photogenic and we stopped a lot for pics. It might have been a 1.5 walk if we didn’t stop.
There’s beautiful views of rock-terraced farmland and the ocean and old basalt buldings and green fields and blue sky. There’s even an old chapel built into the hill, and new wind turbines too. We did go through all the variations of clothing along the way.
We reached the top, already impressed by the views on the way up, and then had a look into the caldera. This was even more impressive, the best caldera I’ve seen. It’s possible to walk down and around the inside, but for us, the view was the thing. We sat on a rock and just took in the view for about half an hour.
The walk down was beautiful too, but not so nice on our knees and ankles. We were a bit sore by the time we reached our hotel. Probably, we’ll be even worse tomorrow.
We had dinner at Restaurante Irmãos Metralha. I had emailed them a week ago to pre-order, as you can’t just show up for dinner (they buy the ingredients on a just-in-time basis).
Dinner was excellent, two types of fish, blackspot sea bream and veja. Both were cooked and seasoned perfectly. We chatted with the owner, he was really friendly and genuine.
It was a long day and we weren’t expecting to see the caldera today, but you have to take advantage of the weather when it’s nice.
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Lisbon, Portugal
We slept in a bit as the breakfast hours at our hotel were rather broad. We’re staying at the 1908 Lisboa Hotel, a hipster kind of place in the gentrifying neighbourhood of Intendente.
We didn’t have any sightseeing planned here, as we’ve been through Lisbon a couple times before, in 2010 and 2019. The only plans we had were to find a self-serve laundromat, and eat yummy food.
We took our laundry to Laundry Self Service Ideal. The lady there was super helpful, and an hour later we had a bag full of clean clothes. The spin got them pretty dry too, they would finish hang drying before we packed up for the Azores.
We had a bit of a shock at the changes in Lisbon and how tourism-focused it’s now become. There were six-seater tuktuks everywhere, carting around their cruise ship passengers like sedentary folks out of WALL-E. Lisbon still maintains its charm, but it was disillusioning to us. We had bifanas for lunch at a random little place that were excellent. We didn’t want a big lunch cause we had planned a big dinner, and the bifanas hit the spot.
Later we had dinner at Sacco, a little restaurant about five minutes from the hotel. It was really good. We chatted with the owners who also commented on the exponential growth of tuktuks in Lisbon.
We finished the night in our hotel bar, having a beer and non-alcoholic cocktail with our welcome-drink tickets.
We didn’t have any sightseeing planned here, as we’ve been through Lisbon a couple times before, in 2010 and 2019. The only plans we had were to find a self-serve laundromat, and eat yummy food.
We took our laundry to Laundry Self Service Ideal. The lady there was super helpful, and an hour later we had a bag full of clean clothes. The spin got them pretty dry too, they would finish hang drying before we packed up for the Azores.
We had a bit of a shock at the changes in Lisbon and how tourism-focused it’s now become. There were six-seater tuktuks everywhere, carting around their cruise ship passengers like sedentary folks out of WALL-E. Lisbon still maintains its charm, but it was disillusioning to us. We had bifanas for lunch at a random little place that were excellent. We didn’t want a big lunch cause we had planned a big dinner, and the bifanas hit the spot.
Later we had dinner at Sacco, a little restaurant about five minutes from the hotel. It was really good. We chatted with the owners who also commented on the exponential growth of tuktuks in Lisbon.
We finished the night in our hotel bar, having a beer and non-alcoholic cocktail with our welcome-drink tickets.
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
Lisbon, Portugal
We had a travel day, flying from Malta to Lisbon via Zürich. They’re all Schengen countries, which with the new biometric entrance and exit requirements, is of more significance. It will be part of future trip planning for sure.
Zürich Airport (ZRH) is totally calm for an international airport. The flight announcements sounded like a meditation Swiss Air flight 182 is now boarding at gate 2. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. Or something like that.
We also used the lounge access benefit on my credit card, now that I was aware that I had this benefit. It wasn’t as nice as the free lounge in Istanbul, but hey, free food.
We arrived in Lisbon just before midnight, and lost our ZRH zen in the chaos of the ride-hailing app pickup zone. There must have been over a hundred people waiting for their Bolt (the European version of Uber).
We arrived at our hotel around 2am. With the hour gained (we were now GMT +0) it felt like 3am.
Zürich Airport (ZRH) is totally calm for an international airport. The flight announcements sounded like a meditation Swiss Air flight 182 is now boarding at gate 2. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. Or something like that.
We also used the lounge access benefit on my credit card, now that I was aware that I had this benefit. It wasn’t as nice as the free lounge in Istanbul, but hey, free food.
We arrived in Lisbon just before midnight, and lost our ZRH zen in the chaos of the ride-hailing app pickup zone. There must have been over a hundred people waiting for their Bolt (the European version of Uber).
We arrived at our hotel around 2am. With the hour gained (we were now GMT +0) it felt like 3am.
Monday, April 27, 2026
Mosta, Malta
We tried to take the bus to Mdina today, but we were getting conflicting routes from the Malta bus website between Heather’s and my phone. We ended up just taking a Bolt, which was just about the same cost as two transit fares, and much quicker.
Mdina is fairly close to Mosta, about a ten minute drive. It’s a walled city, sitting on a plateau overlooking the rest of the island. It’s supposedly very atmospheric with no cars allowed. It may have been like that before mass tourism reached here; now it’s overflowing with tourists and horse-drawn carriages (and enough vehicles that you need to beware of cars). It’s filled with souvenir shops and restaurants catering to large groups. Just not our thing.
We did get tickets to the cathedral and associated museum. The 15 EUR ticket may have helped reduce the crowds, as it was pleasant to visit both.
This morning I had woken up with my phone screen on the fritz again, and it got progressively worse throughout the morning. I had my camera so just used that for pics.
We had lunch at a small restaurant just outside the city walls. We sat at a shaded table on the stairs, with an amazing view of Valletta and the Mediterranean in the distance. We had a full lunch over the next couple hours. So the day trip was a success after all :)
We used Heather’s phone to get a Bolt back to Mosta. There was a phone repair shop about 100m down the street from our hotel. They said it was my screen again, and probably related to another bump rather than a poor repair job by the previous folks. I suspect that I may have damaged more than the screen.
We fly out tomorrow, but they said they could fix it this afternoon. It would just cost a bit more to have the part express delivered. Hopefully this will last me until we get home, when I’ll just get a new iPhone. Unrelated, they had a cute little dog that took a liking to Heather.
We walked down to the Mosta Rotunda. More formally called the Sanctuary Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady, it’s the 3rd largest unsupported dome in world. [citation needed]. It took a direct hit from a German bomb in WWII but the bomb didn’t explode. You can still see the tiles in the ceiling where the bomb went through, and the cracked floor where it landed.
It’s possible to climb up to the clock tower and view the interior of the dome. There’s a replica of the bomb in the church museum, and the ticket also includes a visit to the WWII bomb shelters under the church. Pretty good deal for 5 EUR! It’s a popular day trip for folks staying in Valletta; we had it pretty much to ourselves at 5pm.
Got back to the phone repair shop just after 6pm. My phone was ready, and working once again. Hopefully it will last two more weeks, as it’s doubtful I’ll find any tech repair shops on the smaller islands in the Azores.
We were still full from dinner, so just called it a day. Our flight’s not till 2:20pm tomorrow, so we didn’t need to do any pre-packing tonight.
Mdina is fairly close to Mosta, about a ten minute drive. It’s a walled city, sitting on a plateau overlooking the rest of the island. It’s supposedly very atmospheric with no cars allowed. It may have been like that before mass tourism reached here; now it’s overflowing with tourists and horse-drawn carriages (and enough vehicles that you need to beware of cars). It’s filled with souvenir shops and restaurants catering to large groups. Just not our thing.
We did get tickets to the cathedral and associated museum. The 15 EUR ticket may have helped reduce the crowds, as it was pleasant to visit both.
This morning I had woken up with my phone screen on the fritz again, and it got progressively worse throughout the morning. I had my camera so just used that for pics.
We had lunch at a small restaurant just outside the city walls. We sat at a shaded table on the stairs, with an amazing view of Valletta and the Mediterranean in the distance. We had a full lunch over the next couple hours. So the day trip was a success after all :)
We used Heather’s phone to get a Bolt back to Mosta. There was a phone repair shop about 100m down the street from our hotel. They said it was my screen again, and probably related to another bump rather than a poor repair job by the previous folks. I suspect that I may have damaged more than the screen.
We fly out tomorrow, but they said they could fix it this afternoon. It would just cost a bit more to have the part express delivered. Hopefully this will last me until we get home, when I’ll just get a new iPhone. Unrelated, they had a cute little dog that took a liking to Heather.
We walked down to the Mosta Rotunda. More formally called the Sanctuary Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady, it’s the 3rd largest unsupported dome in world. [citation needed]. It took a direct hit from a German bomb in WWII but the bomb didn’t explode. You can still see the tiles in the ceiling where the bomb went through, and the cracked floor where it landed.
It’s possible to climb up to the clock tower and view the interior of the dome. There’s a replica of the bomb in the church museum, and the ticket also includes a visit to the WWII bomb shelters under the church. Pretty good deal for 5 EUR! It’s a popular day trip for folks staying in Valletta; we had it pretty much to ourselves at 5pm.
Got back to the phone repair shop just after 6pm. My phone was ready, and working once again. Hopefully it will last two more weeks, as it’s doubtful I’ll find any tech repair shops on the smaller islands in the Azores.
We were still full from dinner, so just called it a day. Our flight’s not till 2:20pm tomorrow, so we didn’t need to do any pre-packing tonight.
Sunday, April 26, 2026
Mosta, Malta
We headed back into Valletta this morning. Now that we knew the drill for catching the bus it was pretty easy. Traffic was non-existent on a Sunday morning, it took us less than 25 minutes to get to Valletta.
There was a parade or procession in progress. It entered the city gates and went down the main street. That’s the only way into Valletta, so we had to cut through the parade a couple times to get into the city.
There were hardly any tourists in Valletta today. On Sundays, the cathedral is closed to visitors, which is one of the main draws. Also there were no cruise ships in port today. Saturday and Monday there were over 3,000 passengers in port, most of them visiting Valletta.
Fort St Elmo and the National War Museum (a joint ticket) are at the opposite end of the city from the bus terminal, about a 20 minute walk. We bought our tickets and checked out the gift shop. Heather saw they actually had mini door knockers, one of the souvenirs I was looking for for the key shelf. Cool!
First we explored the Fort, taking our tourist-less pics in case more tourists showed up later (spoiler, they didn’t). There’s really good views of the surrounding area, including looking back at the city, and of the three cities across the harbour.
Then we retraced our steps and went through the War History museum. The museum is laid out in seven rooms throughout the Fort. It’s really well done. I was ignorant about the history of Malta until this trip. Over the centuries, Malta has been ruled by the Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, and the Knights of St. John. More recently it was part of the British Empire (thus the left side drive) and gained independence in 1964. Malta had huge strategic importance in WWII (in fact, it’s been of strategic importance throughout history).
Anyways it took us a while to get through all that history. It’s neat that on this trip we’ve seen the story of the same civilizations but from different contexts.
We then walked over to the ferry terminal to get to the three cities across the harbour. The ferry was about to leave and in the confusion I accidentally bought tickets to Gozo. Fortunately we realized the mistake before we boarded; so it just cost us some money but not time.
We found the line for the gondolas to get across the harbour, and in a couple minutes we were on our way.
The gondola ride (3 EUR each) was really relaxing. The harbour is really protected and the water was super smooth. It’s a motorized ride except for the docking where they use oars.
The gondola lands in Vittoriosa. We walked 20 minutes around the marina to Senglea, where the better restaurants were waterside.
We actually sat inside cause it was only 20C and chilly in the wind. We still had a beautiful view of Vittoriosa though. We made this our big meal of the day, splitting an appetizer, pasta and main. It was really good.
We then explored up and down the streets of both Senglea and Vittoriosa. We really enjoyed this - there were hardly any other tourists here today.
Finally around 5pm we caught another relaxing gondola ride back to Valletta, and then a bus back to Mosta. We were both glad we decided to spend another day in Valletta and surrounds, it was a super enjoyable day. We could definitely see why Malta is such an attraction for folks.
There was a parade or procession in progress. It entered the city gates and went down the main street. That’s the only way into Valletta, so we had to cut through the parade a couple times to get into the city.
There were hardly any tourists in Valletta today. On Sundays, the cathedral is closed to visitors, which is one of the main draws. Also there were no cruise ships in port today. Saturday and Monday there were over 3,000 passengers in port, most of them visiting Valletta.
Fort St Elmo and the National War Museum (a joint ticket) are at the opposite end of the city from the bus terminal, about a 20 minute walk. We bought our tickets and checked out the gift shop. Heather saw they actually had mini door knockers, one of the souvenirs I was looking for for the key shelf. Cool!
First we explored the Fort, taking our tourist-less pics in case more tourists showed up later (spoiler, they didn’t). There’s really good views of the surrounding area, including looking back at the city, and of the three cities across the harbour.
Then we retraced our steps and went through the War History museum. The museum is laid out in seven rooms throughout the Fort. It’s really well done. I was ignorant about the history of Malta until this trip. Over the centuries, Malta has been ruled by the Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, and the Knights of St. John. More recently it was part of the British Empire (thus the left side drive) and gained independence in 1964. Malta had huge strategic importance in WWII (in fact, it’s been of strategic importance throughout history).
Anyways it took us a while to get through all that history. It’s neat that on this trip we’ve seen the story of the same civilizations but from different contexts.
We then walked over to the ferry terminal to get to the three cities across the harbour. The ferry was about to leave and in the confusion I accidentally bought tickets to Gozo. Fortunately we realized the mistake before we boarded; so it just cost us some money but not time.
We found the line for the gondolas to get across the harbour, and in a couple minutes we were on our way.
The gondola ride (3 EUR each) was really relaxing. The harbour is really protected and the water was super smooth. It’s a motorized ride except for the docking where they use oars.
The gondola lands in Vittoriosa. We walked 20 minutes around the marina to Senglea, where the better restaurants were waterside.
We actually sat inside cause it was only 20C and chilly in the wind. We still had a beautiful view of Vittoriosa though. We made this our big meal of the day, splitting an appetizer, pasta and main. It was really good.
We then explored up and down the streets of both Senglea and Vittoriosa. We really enjoyed this - there were hardly any other tourists here today.
Finally around 5pm we caught another relaxing gondola ride back to Valletta, and then a bus back to Mosta. We were both glad we decided to spend another day in Valletta and surrounds, it was a super enjoyable day. We could definitely see why Malta is such an attraction for folks.
Saturday, April 25, 2026
Mosta, Malta
We took the bus into Valletta this morning. We had to think about the last time we used public transit - we think it was in Fiji, when we took the bus from Savu Savu to the ferry to Taveuni.
Malta has a pretty decent bus system. They have a good website too, to help figure out what bus to catch. Also, they have free wifi on the bus!
We caught the bus about 100m down the street from our hotel. The bus terminal in Valletta is just outside the city walls. The entire city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, about 500 years old. It’s also a working city, with a population of about 5,000.
There was a cruise ship in port, and the streets in Valletta were bustling. We walked down the pedestrian Republic St, the main shopping street in Valletta. The volume of tourists wasn’t the shock to us that we had expected - the city is still amazing with the crowds.
We made our way towards St. John's Co-Cathedral, one of the main tourist attractions. I had bought tickets online a couple days ago. There was a long lineup (maybe fifteen minutes?) for those buying tickets onsite; whereas we just walked right in with our online tickets. I don’t know why more folks don’t buy their tickets online? Maybe they don’t know.
Anyways so we strolled right on in. It wasn’t too busy yet at 11am, we were able to get pics where we wanted without getting jostled about.
I also had to look up the definition of co-cathedral. So all my life I had thought a cathedral was an architectural term, meaning big church or something like that. In fact it’s a religious term, used for a church that is the seat of the bishop. A co-cathedral is when the bishop’s seat is shared amongst multiple locations, typically when an older cathedral is replaced with a newer one, but both still exist. Who knew?
St John’s is definitely worth the visit. According to Wikipedia, it’s one of the finest examples of high Baroque architecture in Europe. Amongst the artwork is Caravaggio’s masterpiece ‘The Martyrdom of St John the Baptist’, the only painting he signed.
It’s also possible to buy an additional ticket to climb the tower, but we couldn’t figure out the process.
After St John’s, we walked a little further down to the Grand Master's Palace and Palace Armoury, which is a combined ticket. There’s an elaborate security process after which we had to check our bags (as opposed to St John’s, where there was no security at all).
There’s a self-guided tour through the various rooms and things to see. It’s very extensive, it took us over 90 minutes to see it. The armoury in particular is amazing, and I’m not even into armoury.
It was mid afternoon and we were hungry. Made our way to the restaurants on the steps of St Lucia’s St, as recommended by our hotel. It was crazy busy at the restaurants closest to St Paul St. We stepped down to the restaurants near Triq Sant’ Orsia and were able to get seated at Koccio. We split the fish carpaccio, and then each had a sandwich. Heather had a meatball sandwich which was huge, and I had the mortadella with buffalo mozzarella. Both sandwiches were huge and tasty. Probably more than we wanted to eat but it was good.
After lunch we walked towards Upper Barrakka for the views over the harbour. We actually went to the Saluting Battery, just a level below. Once again we timed a visit perfectly. We got there around 3:55pm, just in time for the 4pm firing of the cannon.
We were feeling a bit drained after walking around in the sun all day, so sorted out how to catch the bus back to Mosta, and called it a day. With the big late afternoon lunch, we didn’t need dinner.
We only got through half of the things we wanted to see in Valletta, so decided to head back again tomorrow.
Malta has a pretty decent bus system. They have a good website too, to help figure out what bus to catch. Also, they have free wifi on the bus!
We caught the bus about 100m down the street from our hotel. The bus terminal in Valletta is just outside the city walls. The entire city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, about 500 years old. It’s also a working city, with a population of about 5,000.
There was a cruise ship in port, and the streets in Valletta were bustling. We walked down the pedestrian Republic St, the main shopping street in Valletta. The volume of tourists wasn’t the shock to us that we had expected - the city is still amazing with the crowds.
We made our way towards St. John's Co-Cathedral, one of the main tourist attractions. I had bought tickets online a couple days ago. There was a long lineup (maybe fifteen minutes?) for those buying tickets onsite; whereas we just walked right in with our online tickets. I don’t know why more folks don’t buy their tickets online? Maybe they don’t know.
Anyways so we strolled right on in. It wasn’t too busy yet at 11am, we were able to get pics where we wanted without getting jostled about.
I also had to look up the definition of co-cathedral. So all my life I had thought a cathedral was an architectural term, meaning big church or something like that. In fact it’s a religious term, used for a church that is the seat of the bishop. A co-cathedral is when the bishop’s seat is shared amongst multiple locations, typically when an older cathedral is replaced with a newer one, but both still exist. Who knew?
St John’s is definitely worth the visit. According to Wikipedia, it’s one of the finest examples of high Baroque architecture in Europe. Amongst the artwork is Caravaggio’s masterpiece ‘The Martyrdom of St John the Baptist’, the only painting he signed.
It’s also possible to buy an additional ticket to climb the tower, but we couldn’t figure out the process.
After St John’s, we walked a little further down to the Grand Master's Palace and Palace Armoury, which is a combined ticket. There’s an elaborate security process after which we had to check our bags (as opposed to St John’s, where there was no security at all).
There’s a self-guided tour through the various rooms and things to see. It’s very extensive, it took us over 90 minutes to see it. The armoury in particular is amazing, and I’m not even into armoury.
It was mid afternoon and we were hungry. Made our way to the restaurants on the steps of St Lucia’s St, as recommended by our hotel. It was crazy busy at the restaurants closest to St Paul St. We stepped down to the restaurants near Triq Sant’ Orsia and were able to get seated at Koccio. We split the fish carpaccio, and then each had a sandwich. Heather had a meatball sandwich which was huge, and I had the mortadella with buffalo mozzarella. Both sandwiches were huge and tasty. Probably more than we wanted to eat but it was good.
After lunch we walked towards Upper Barrakka for the views over the harbour. We actually went to the Saluting Battery, just a level below. Once again we timed a visit perfectly. We got there around 3:55pm, just in time for the 4pm firing of the cannon.
We were feeling a bit drained after walking around in the sun all day, so sorted out how to catch the bus back to Mosta, and called it a day. With the big late afternoon lunch, we didn’t need dinner.
We only got through half of the things we wanted to see in Valletta, so decided to head back again tomorrow.
Friday, April 24, 2026
Mosta, Malta
We had a direct flight from Belgrade to Malta on Air Serbia. It only cost about 80 EUR, and the cheap direct flight was one of the reasons we ended up choosing Belgrade for our revised itinerary.
The flight was at 11:40am, so we had lots of time for breakfast and packing up. I had booked our airport transfer through the hotel cause it wasn’t that much more than a taxi. We also did a pretty good job of spending our last Serbian dinars, reserving enough to tip the driver.
(The rest of the trip is in the eurozone, and we don’t mind having extra Euros at the end of the trip.)
Our carry-on suitcase was packed with the same items as the previous flight, weighing 7.9kg. We were able to check it at the counter. The saga of our carry-on suitcase will continue right through the Azores. For our flight home we’re allowed two checked bags each, so it’s really just the inter-island flights in the Azores that we have left to sort out.
The flight was uneventful until we got close to Malta and we got in a holding pattern. The pilot gave an announcement that the airport was closed for about ten minutes, and then we’d land. Typically this means there’s a military plane taking off or landing, although I did have flashbacks to our Kars flight being rerouted.
We did land in Malta (phew). It’s a small airport, the plane just pulled up to the terminal, and we walked from the plane to arrivals. No Cobus 3000 here.
We got through the new EU biometric stuff quickly, got our luggage and then sorted out where to wait for an Uber. There were at least a half dozen stag and doe groups waiting for their Uber / Bolt van pickup. Mostly these groups stay in the capital, Valletta. Our hotel was in Mosta, about mid-island and 30 minutes from Valletta.
It took a while for our Uber to arrive (Bolt is more popular, I’ll have to download that app later) but our driver was good. I hadn’t realized that Malta drives on the left - I should have rented a car here! (by chance, 10 of 13 countries we’ve rented cars have been left-side drive). After our drive to the hotel, I was glad we didn’t - it’s constant traffic (it’s basically one big urban spread from the airport to Mosta) and there’s nowhere to park.
Our hotel is a small boutique hotel. I had been WhatsApp’ing with the owner and they were expecting us. We had a coffee and chatted with Carmen and met their two friendly dogs.
We’re here for four nights so unpacked and spread out a bit more. I picked up some water and snacks from the convenience store next door (walnuts & bananas) as we our lunch on the flight was just a bag of pretzels.
Later we went for dinner at San Remo’s, a local restaurant recommended by Carmen. She had made reservations for us as it was a Friday night and super busy. She mentioned that some other guests (‘the Italians’, per Carmen, I wonder if she refers to us as ‘the Canadians’) had also later asked for reservations but she couldn’t get them in tonight.
The food was amazing. We tried some Maltese specialties. We split the snails in a pepper broth, and then for mains Heather had the half rabbit with peas, and I had the grilled octopus. We over-ate and went for a walk around the alleys in Mosta after dinner, and also checked out the Mosta rotunda in the main square.
The flight was at 11:40am, so we had lots of time for breakfast and packing up. I had booked our airport transfer through the hotel cause it wasn’t that much more than a taxi. We also did a pretty good job of spending our last Serbian dinars, reserving enough to tip the driver.
(The rest of the trip is in the eurozone, and we don’t mind having extra Euros at the end of the trip.)
Our carry-on suitcase was packed with the same items as the previous flight, weighing 7.9kg. We were able to check it at the counter. The saga of our carry-on suitcase will continue right through the Azores. For our flight home we’re allowed two checked bags each, so it’s really just the inter-island flights in the Azores that we have left to sort out.
The flight was uneventful until we got close to Malta and we got in a holding pattern. The pilot gave an announcement that the airport was closed for about ten minutes, and then we’d land. Typically this means there’s a military plane taking off or landing, although I did have flashbacks to our Kars flight being rerouted.
We did land in Malta (phew). It’s a small airport, the plane just pulled up to the terminal, and we walked from the plane to arrivals. No Cobus 3000 here.
We got through the new EU biometric stuff quickly, got our luggage and then sorted out where to wait for an Uber. There were at least a half dozen stag and doe groups waiting for their Uber / Bolt van pickup. Mostly these groups stay in the capital, Valletta. Our hotel was in Mosta, about mid-island and 30 minutes from Valletta.
It took a while for our Uber to arrive (Bolt is more popular, I’ll have to download that app later) but our driver was good. I hadn’t realized that Malta drives on the left - I should have rented a car here! (by chance, 10 of 13 countries we’ve rented cars have been left-side drive). After our drive to the hotel, I was glad we didn’t - it’s constant traffic (it’s basically one big urban spread from the airport to Mosta) and there’s nowhere to park.
Our hotel is a small boutique hotel. I had been WhatsApp’ing with the owner and they were expecting us. We had a coffee and chatted with Carmen and met their two friendly dogs.
We’re here for four nights so unpacked and spread out a bit more. I picked up some water and snacks from the convenience store next door (walnuts & bananas) as we our lunch on the flight was just a bag of pretzels.
Later we went for dinner at San Remo’s, a local restaurant recommended by Carmen. She had made reservations for us as it was a Friday night and super busy. She mentioned that some other guests (‘the Italians’, per Carmen, I wonder if she refers to us as ‘the Canadians’) had also later asked for reservations but she couldn’t get them in tonight.
The food was amazing. We tried some Maltese specialties. We split the snails in a pepper broth, and then for mains Heather had the half rabbit with peas, and I had the grilled octopus. We over-ate and went for a walk around the alleys in Mosta after dinner, and also checked out the Mosta rotunda in the main square.
Thursday, April 23, 2026
Belgrade, Sofia
Yesterday we had checked off most of the things we wanted to see here in Belgrade. It was another beautiful day, so just wandering around the city today sounded good to us.
The one thing on our list was seeing the Museum of Contemporary Art. It didn’t open until noon, so we had a couple hours to wander :)
We started at the Zeleni Venac Farmer's Market. It was okay, probably not worth going out our way to see it. It was close though to the waterfront along the Sava River which was our next destination. There’s a nice boardwalk that runs along the waterfront around the historic centre. It’s also where the river cruises dock, there was one in port today. We walked along the boardwalk until we could see the confluence of the Sava and Danube. I always find these types of confluences to be anticlimactic.
There’s a bridge and walkway up to the fortress from the cruise terminal. We took it up and then headed into town, to check out an art gallery we had seen yesterday. It didn’t look open, so we walked over to the main pedestrian shopping area looking for souvenirs.
Around 11:30 we headed over towards the Museum of Contemporary Art. It’s across the Sava, in Novi Belgrade. The bridge had separated path for pedestrians and cyclists, which was busier than I would have thought.
Across the Sava, we took a staircase to river level and then walked through Usche Park to the museum.
The current exhibition from the museum’s collection was about the evolution of modern art in Serbia. It was pretty interesting, and extensive.
We spent about 90 minutes checking out the art. For lunch, we went to a food court in a nearby mall. Probably not the healthiest lunch, but we just wanted something different.
By the time we walked back across the bridge and to the hotel, it was nearing 4pm and that was it for our day. We had a coffee and dessert at a nice cafe near the hotel. Later I went back to the restaurant we ate at the first night, and had their pasta with sausage. It was excellent.
Thus ended our itinerary substitution. Tomorrow we fly to Malta and return to our regularly scheduled programming.
The one thing on our list was seeing the Museum of Contemporary Art. It didn’t open until noon, so we had a couple hours to wander :)
We started at the Zeleni Venac Farmer's Market. It was okay, probably not worth going out our way to see it. It was close though to the waterfront along the Sava River which was our next destination. There’s a nice boardwalk that runs along the waterfront around the historic centre. It’s also where the river cruises dock, there was one in port today. We walked along the boardwalk until we could see the confluence of the Sava and Danube. I always find these types of confluences to be anticlimactic.
There’s a bridge and walkway up to the fortress from the cruise terminal. We took it up and then headed into town, to check out an art gallery we had seen yesterday. It didn’t look open, so we walked over to the main pedestrian shopping area looking for souvenirs.
Around 11:30 we headed over towards the Museum of Contemporary Art. It’s across the Sava, in Novi Belgrade. The bridge had separated path for pedestrians and cyclists, which was busier than I would have thought.
Across the Sava, we took a staircase to river level and then walked through Usche Park to the museum.
The current exhibition from the museum’s collection was about the evolution of modern art in Serbia. It was pretty interesting, and extensive.
We spent about 90 minutes checking out the art. For lunch, we went to a food court in a nearby mall. Probably not the healthiest lunch, but we just wanted something different.
By the time we walked back across the bridge and to the hotel, it was nearing 4pm and that was it for our day. We had a coffee and dessert at a nice cafe near the hotel. Later I went back to the restaurant we ate at the first night, and had their pasta with sausage. It was excellent.
Thus ended our itinerary substitution. Tomorrow we fly to Malta and return to our regularly scheduled programming.
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Belgrade, Serbia
We were up early-ish, what with the hour we gained. We had one of the better sleeps we’ve had so far on the trip. The bed, pillow and room temperature were all ideal. We found in Türkiye that hotels like to jack up the heat, which we don’t like at night. But here it was perfect.
The breakfast buffet was good, although I miss the Turkish tea already.
We started our touristing at Kalemegdan Park, home of the Belgrade Fortress. It was a bit chilly at 10am, about 12C, but it warmed up to 17C by the afternoon.
There weren’t many other tourists out this early. We explored around the Fortress. It takes up a lot of ground, it took us a while to get around. From the historic centre, it’s mostly walls and turrets and views of confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers. Around the north end, we came across the Roman well. It didn’t open until 11am, so we continued with our fortress exploring.
The Despot’s gate and Zindan gate are pretty interesting, with stairs and bridges across (empty) moats and passageways through the fortress walls.
Just outside the gates are a couple small churches. The interiors of both churches are pretty spectacular, with frescoes covering Ružica Church, and mosaic tiles in St. Petka Chapel. Both are active places of worship.
Back in the fortress, we walked past Damad Ali Pasha turbe, a mausoleum and one of the few surviving relics of Turkish rule.
It was almost 11am and there were now a handful of tour groups, although the grounds are large enough to absorb the crowds.
We walked back to the Roman well. The ticket booth person was just arriving to open up, and we were the first in. This is one place where it helps to avoid the tour groups. The well is over 51m deep, and lined with spotlights all the way down. There’s also spiral staircases on the outside of the well. It would have been quite the undertaking to dig this back in the day. It would have provided a constant water supply for when the fortress was under siege.
After Kalemegdan, we walked over to the Cathedral Church of Saint Michael the Archangel. We can see its spire from our hotel room. The cathedral is surrounded by 3-4 storey high buildings, so it’s not easy to get a full pic. Across the street is the Serbian Orthodox Church Museum, which also has nice architecture, complementing the cathedral.
We then walked about 30 minutes towards the Nikola Tesla Museum. We had lunch at nice cafe. We both had their gnocchi, which was excellent, followed by a Serbian coffee. A Serbian coffee (here at least, a sample size of one) was the size of a small coffee but muddy like a Turkish coffee. It was a lot of caffeine. We liked it.
We showed up at the Nikola Tesla museum around 1:45pm. That’s when we realized that visits are organized, scheduled on the hour. The 2pm tour was already full (there’s maybe 50 people allowed per tour). They suggested we come back at 2:30 to line up for the 3pm tour.
What to do for 45 minutes? Luckily, there was another highlight we wanted to see, about 15 minutes away. Perfect!
We walked over to the Church of Saint Sava. It’s a large building, white with green domes and black trim. Aside from its size, it didn’t stand out, although the design was based on the Hagia Sophia. Then we went inside, and were blown away. It’s completely covered in mosaics and sculptures. The size is really impressive inside. When we visited the Hagia Sophia, it was half covered in scaffolding and so we didn’t get a full appreciation of its size. Here the size is fully visible and it’s enormous. We were really impressed.
There’s more mosaics and artwork in the basement. We did have a schedule to keep (we’d almost forgotten about the Nikola Tesla museum) so didn’t spend much time down there.
We poked our heads into the St. Sava Small Church, it was just as elaborately decorated inside, but as its name suggests, smaller.
Then we walked quickly back to the museum. We got there around 2:35, there were maybe fifteen people already in line. Within minutes, the line grew down the stairs and out the gate, beyond where it was when we showed up originally.
At 3pm, they started letting folks in, ten at a time, to buy tickets. It’s cash Serbian RSD only.
There’s three parts to the tour. First we watched a fifteen minute video on the history of Nikola Tesla’s life.
Then there were demos of three experiments. The second experiment was the most nerve-wracking. We stood around a large transformer, with a few of us holding fluorescent light bulbs in the air. We grounded the electricity and the bulbs lit up. Heather filmed a video. I’m the fluorescent bulb closest on the left.
On the last part of the tour, we were free to wander around the museum (really just a few rooms in a house) and take pics. They have replicas of some of his patents, and some of the tools he used. Tesla’s ashes, stored in a spherical urn, are also displayed in a separate room.
Overall it was interesting to see, but not what I had pictured the museum to be.
We walked back to our hotel, taking in the street scenes. There’s a lot of wide sidewalks with mature tree canopies, and sidewalk cafes everywhere. It’s too bad they don’t turn Yonge St south of Bloor into something like this.
We had dinner at Lola, another restaurant close to our hotel. We over-ate, and had to go for a walk down Kneza Mihaila after. We also walked over to the nearby Republic Square, which reminded us a bit of the Zócalo in Mexico City. There was a band busking, playing a really catchy tune that stuck in my head right up until we fell asleep.
The breakfast buffet was good, although I miss the Turkish tea already.
We started our touristing at Kalemegdan Park, home of the Belgrade Fortress. It was a bit chilly at 10am, about 12C, but it warmed up to 17C by the afternoon.
There weren’t many other tourists out this early. We explored around the Fortress. It takes up a lot of ground, it took us a while to get around. From the historic centre, it’s mostly walls and turrets and views of confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers. Around the north end, we came across the Roman well. It didn’t open until 11am, so we continued with our fortress exploring.
The Despot’s gate and Zindan gate are pretty interesting, with stairs and bridges across (empty) moats and passageways through the fortress walls.
Just outside the gates are a couple small churches. The interiors of both churches are pretty spectacular, with frescoes covering Ružica Church, and mosaic tiles in St. Petka Chapel. Both are active places of worship.
Back in the fortress, we walked past Damad Ali Pasha turbe, a mausoleum and one of the few surviving relics of Turkish rule.
It was almost 11am and there were now a handful of tour groups, although the grounds are large enough to absorb the crowds.
We walked back to the Roman well. The ticket booth person was just arriving to open up, and we were the first in. This is one place where it helps to avoid the tour groups. The well is over 51m deep, and lined with spotlights all the way down. There’s also spiral staircases on the outside of the well. It would have been quite the undertaking to dig this back in the day. It would have provided a constant water supply for when the fortress was under siege.
After Kalemegdan, we walked over to the Cathedral Church of Saint Michael the Archangel. We can see its spire from our hotel room. The cathedral is surrounded by 3-4 storey high buildings, so it’s not easy to get a full pic. Across the street is the Serbian Orthodox Church Museum, which also has nice architecture, complementing the cathedral.
We then walked about 30 minutes towards the Nikola Tesla Museum. We had lunch at nice cafe. We both had their gnocchi, which was excellent, followed by a Serbian coffee. A Serbian coffee (here at least, a sample size of one) was the size of a small coffee but muddy like a Turkish coffee. It was a lot of caffeine. We liked it.
We showed up at the Nikola Tesla museum around 1:45pm. That’s when we realized that visits are organized, scheduled on the hour. The 2pm tour was already full (there’s maybe 50 people allowed per tour). They suggested we come back at 2:30 to line up for the 3pm tour.
What to do for 45 minutes? Luckily, there was another highlight we wanted to see, about 15 minutes away. Perfect!
We walked over to the Church of Saint Sava. It’s a large building, white with green domes and black trim. Aside from its size, it didn’t stand out, although the design was based on the Hagia Sophia. Then we went inside, and were blown away. It’s completely covered in mosaics and sculptures. The size is really impressive inside. When we visited the Hagia Sophia, it was half covered in scaffolding and so we didn’t get a full appreciation of its size. Here the size is fully visible and it’s enormous. We were really impressed.
There’s more mosaics and artwork in the basement. We did have a schedule to keep (we’d almost forgotten about the Nikola Tesla museum) so didn’t spend much time down there.
We poked our heads into the St. Sava Small Church, it was just as elaborately decorated inside, but as its name suggests, smaller.
Then we walked quickly back to the museum. We got there around 2:35, there were maybe fifteen people already in line. Within minutes, the line grew down the stairs and out the gate, beyond where it was when we showed up originally.
At 3pm, they started letting folks in, ten at a time, to buy tickets. It’s cash Serbian RSD only.
There’s three parts to the tour. First we watched a fifteen minute video on the history of Nikola Tesla’s life.
Then there were demos of three experiments. The second experiment was the most nerve-wracking. We stood around a large transformer, with a few of us holding fluorescent light bulbs in the air. We grounded the electricity and the bulbs lit up. Heather filmed a video. I’m the fluorescent bulb closest on the left.
On the last part of the tour, we were free to wander around the museum (really just a few rooms in a house) and take pics. They have replicas of some of his patents, and some of the tools he used. Tesla’s ashes, stored in a spherical urn, are also displayed in a separate room.
Overall it was interesting to see, but not what I had pictured the museum to be.
We walked back to our hotel, taking in the street scenes. There’s a lot of wide sidewalks with mature tree canopies, and sidewalk cafes everywhere. It’s too bad they don’t turn Yonge St south of Bloor into something like this.
We had dinner at Lola, another restaurant close to our hotel. We over-ate, and had to go for a walk down Kneza Mihaila after. We also walked over to the nearby Republic Square, which reminded us a bit of the Zócalo in Mexico City. There was a band busking, playing a really catchy tune that stuck in my head right up until we fell asleep.
Tuesday, April 21, 2026
Belgrade, Serbia
Our flight from Sofia to Belgrade wasn’t until 4pm so we did have the morning available. Unfortunately we couldn’t get late check out as someone else had our room booked. The weather was crappy; cold, windy, and raining. So we just stayed at the hotel until noon.
I packed up our luggage to meet the Air Serbia rules 23kg / 23kg / 8kg. We didn’t have a scale in the room so I just guessed.
We used the Yellow Taxi app to get to the airport. It was pretty cheap, about 16 EUR, and the app used ApplePay.
The Air Serbia counter didn’t open until 2pm, so we had lunch and a coffee at Costa Coffee. Next was the big reveal, how much did our luggage weigh? It came in at 22.6 / 20.5 / 7.9. Pretty good! So no overweight fees for us :)
It was a small flight, on an ATR 72, and only half full. I had to gate-check my carry-on as the overhead bins are tiny.
We had a nice view of the Danube and fields of bright yellow canola as we approached Belgrade.
Our luggage was quick to come out (it’s pretty fast when there’s only 30 passengers), we met our driver, and drove into Belgrade.
The traffic in Belgrade is almost as bad as Toronto’s. It took us over 30 minutes to get to the hotel.
We gained an hour, so had plenty of time to organize ourselves and head out for dinner. It was just starting to rain so we took our umbrellas. The restaurant was literally across the street, but we had to get some cash for tipping and the ATMs were a few minutes away. The area that we’re staying in is full of pedestrian areas and cosy cafes and restaurants. The restaurant we ate at was small, seating maybe 24 people. We had pasta for a change, which was really good.
We walked around the historic centre for a bit after dinner. Belgrade looks like a nice city to spend the next couple days. This was an add-on to our trip after we cancelled the southeast leg of Türkiye, so we hadn’t done much advance planning. When we got back to the hotel we sketched out some things to see while we’re here.
I packed up our luggage to meet the Air Serbia rules 23kg / 23kg / 8kg. We didn’t have a scale in the room so I just guessed.
We used the Yellow Taxi app to get to the airport. It was pretty cheap, about 16 EUR, and the app used ApplePay.
The Air Serbia counter didn’t open until 2pm, so we had lunch and a coffee at Costa Coffee. Next was the big reveal, how much did our luggage weigh? It came in at 22.6 / 20.5 / 7.9. Pretty good! So no overweight fees for us :)
It was a small flight, on an ATR 72, and only half full. I had to gate-check my carry-on as the overhead bins are tiny.
We had a nice view of the Danube and fields of bright yellow canola as we approached Belgrade.
Our luggage was quick to come out (it’s pretty fast when there’s only 30 passengers), we met our driver, and drove into Belgrade.
The traffic in Belgrade is almost as bad as Toronto’s. It took us over 30 minutes to get to the hotel.
We gained an hour, so had plenty of time to organize ourselves and head out for dinner. It was just starting to rain so we took our umbrellas. The restaurant was literally across the street, but we had to get some cash for tipping and the ATMs were a few minutes away. The area that we’re staying in is full of pedestrian areas and cosy cafes and restaurants. The restaurant we ate at was small, seating maybe 24 people. We had pasta for a change, which was really good.
We walked around the historic centre for a bit after dinner. Belgrade looks like a nice city to spend the next couple days. This was an add-on to our trip after we cancelled the southeast leg of Türkiye, so we hadn’t done much advance planning. When we got back to the hotel we sketched out some things to see while we’re here.
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