{"id":458,"date":"2015-02-10T21:29:11","date_gmt":"2015-02-10T21:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/?p=458"},"modified":"2015-02-10T22:31:06","modified_gmt":"2015-02-10T22:31:06","slug":"tuesday-horta-and-orchestra-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/tuesday-horta-and-orchestra-concert\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday – Horta and Orchestra Concert"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2015-02-10<\/a><\/p>\n

Today, we arrived in Horta, the first of our two stops in the Azores island group.<\/p>\n

I must confess to having a bit of a soft spot for Horta, having visited on several occasions, but was surprised, when I looked out on deck, to see that we were berthed by a brand new quayside and terminal at the opposite end of the harbour to where we have always been parked before. Approaching the town from the opposite end felt a little odd, but I soon got used to it, once I started recognising familiar landmarks.<\/p>\n

I wasn’t assigned any tour escorting duties today, so my plans were very simple. After breakfast, I took a walk into Horta, filming video and taking photographs, and stopping off at the small square in the middle of town, where I knew there to be free wi-fi. As with Madeira, they’re very generous with their wi-fi here; in no more than 20 minutes or so, I’d downloaded and uploaded almost 500mb worth of podcasts and updates… very impressive!<\/p>\n

After playing with the wi-fi, I took a walk up to one of the old churches situated on higher ground, from where I could get some sweeping views of the town and bay. Across from Horta, on a neighbouring island, Pico Mountain rose dramatically into a head of cloud; at 7000 feet, it’s the highest mountain in Portugal, and one of the newest islands in the Azores (relatively speaking). It’s soil is said to be particularly good for growing grapes; Being volcanic, Pico wine is known for its ‘lava’ taste (whatever that means), and has famously been bought by kings and queens down the ages (apparently).<\/p>\n

\"2015-02-10<\/a><\/p>\n

After lunch, I took a second walk into town as far as the marina at the opposite end of the harbour. It’s been noticeably cooler today, and my three-quarter-length trousers have been replaced by full-length walking trousers. At one point, I even slipped my jacket on. It’s probably just as well; acclimatising us in readiness for our return home in just under a week.<\/p>\n

It’s been a bit of a lazy day, but having had 5 consecutive sea-days, with three lessons per day (and I’ll be on tour tomorrow) I figured I’d earned it.<\/p>\n

The Marco Polo Orchestra is a five-piece band that usually resides at the back of the stage, providing all the musical accompaniment to the shows. Tonight, however, they featured in a concert of their own. Coming forward and owning the whole the stage, the band, plus two guest percussionists (dancers), performed a selection of mostly Latin-American based tunes, with a Jazz \/ Reggae twist, and even a couple of original pieces that had been composed by members of the band during this cruise. It was absolutely fantastic! Not only are they an extremely talented bunch of musicians, but the showmanship they demonstrated was of the highest calibre, and the energy they generated was quite electric; the standing ovation at the end of the performance (something you hardly ever see in the Marco Polo Lounge) was well-earned indeed. This was their second show, which left me wishing I’d been to their previous one earlier in the cruise (note to self: don’t miss any of the orchestra shows in future…).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, we arrived in Horta, the first of our two stops in the Azores island group. I must confess to having a bit of a soft spot for Horta, having visited on several occasions, but was surprised, when I looked out on deck, to see that we were berthed by a brand new quayside and terminal at the opposite end...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions\/461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}