Sao Miguel
September 21, 2023
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Above: Looking out over Sete Cidades from the west rim.
1 is the Minadouro do Caminho Novo, the lighthouse on the southwest coast of Sao Miguel, with Andy on watch.
2 is another hydrangea ... blue flowers are the result of growth in volcanic soil.
3 and 4 show the tower on the northern part of the Pico da Cruz caldera rim.
5 to 7 show the exterior, and then the rotting insides of the Monte Palace Hotel. The hotel had 5 floors with a total of 88 rooms
including 1 presidential suite, 4 deluxe suites, 4 double rooms with parlor, 27 double rooms, and 52 suites. There were 2 restaurants:
Dona Amélia Grill and Dom Carlos restaurant. The names are in honor of the king and queen of Portugal, who visited Sete Cidades in the summer
of 1901. The the hotel closed on November 26th 1990, only 18 months after the opening. On the same day when the director of Monte Palace
received the award for Hotel of the Year in Lisbon, the staff in São Miguel heard that the five-star hotel would close within a week. It's
pricey rooms, remote location and poor roads there in the 1980's did the hotel in. Today, it is abandoned, deteriorating and boarded up.
8 is a little church down in the valley in the village of Sete Cidades.
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