I visited the beautiful city of Angra do Heroismo on the 15/16/and 17th of oct.2024.

During my stay I visited the usual places that every tourist probably visits there like the Se Cathedral of Angra,the church of our lady of Mont Carmel (3€ entrance fee) next to the palace Capitaes-Generais, the iconic church de Misericordia( free entrance) and the statue with Vasco da Gama in front of it or the Angra museum with the Guia church and the Sao Fransico convent.

On the first day I visited the Jardim Duque da Terceira park in the late afternoon and walked up to the memorial of Pedro IV from where the view of Angra is magnificent and breathtaking...especially at sunset. About a 2-minute walk from the memorial exit there is a workers' snack bar where you can get a sandwich and a cold beer and then return to the memorial to watch the setting sun and the panorama from there with beer and food. I repeated everything the following day at more or less the same time in the afternoon. ..just too magical, the sunset over the lovely and bewitching city of Angra.

Of course, I also climbed Monte Brasil, enjoyed the view from there, met exotic free-roaming chickens, had a short look  at the local bird aviary with its wonderful birds, looked at the various anti-aircraft installations and military installations from more recent times, and had a look at the chapel and visited two different viewing platforms there. On the way up I passed Fort Sao Joao, which is used by the Portuguese military. I spoke to the guard who told me that I should go to the nearby military museum because I could book a tour there.

After my descent I did exactly this. The military museum itself is free, but not very interesting. They offered me a tour(5€) in portuguese the following day at 2 p.m. or one in English at 10:30 two days later. I decided on the english-speaking tour because I understand Portuguese to some extent (speak spanish), but I understand everything in english. The tour lasted a total of 1.5 hours...

The Sao Joao Baptista church was being renovated, so I couldn't enter the church. I also couldn't take any photos that showed military personnel, vehicles or weapons. My guide was quite good so I learned a few things about the fortress such as for example that the fortress served as an internment camp for german civilians in the First World War or that political prisoners from Portugal were imprisoned there under miserable conditions in the 1930s, but it was later used- under significantly better conditions- for opponents of the Portuguese colonial regime from Mozambique/Angola.

I also visited the Fort Sao Sebastiao, which now houses a hotel (free entrance), but you can freely wander around the area. A few times I also walked along the marina promenade to the small lighthouse or along the sea to the Club Nautico. The city beach was empty except for one or two visitors, although the temperatures were around 22-23+.

The highlight of my visit-apart from the view from the Pedro IV memorial- though was the Sao Goncalo church with its old azulejo tiles inside the convent of Sao Goncalo(open till 11.00 and then again from 14.00-16.30). You have to ring a bell at the side entrance of the convent and by paying 3 € you will be shown around the church and the convent. 

Angra do Heroismo is a wonderful city with lovely and friendly people, with a very special atmosphere, with good and cheap food in workers' bistros, excellent bakeries, few tourists in october, no beggars or other unpleasant groups of people that unfortunately exist in many Portuguese places today . Angra has a lot to offer. Two nights are the minimum to get a comprehensive impression of this fantastic city.