Sabbatical - remarks from traveling in the Azores

Starting Day 10 in the Azores with a beautiful view on the Pico mountain, its silhouette is as bold as ever  with the little lava cone sticking up on the top - like a cherry decorating a cake.

It looks really harmless but the climb was excruciating, some 1150 m vertical climb in 3.8 km. It was a non-stop ascent and which is worst, non-stop decsent. My quads are still aching after tree days - pretty unheard of. I spent 3h10min going up and 3h20min coming down. 

At the end of the trail, we could already feel the weather changing and so it did, the tropical storm Guston made its way to the Pico island and the following day we got trenched. Which was not that bad for a day of rest and celebrating my birthday!