As usual the concentration took place at the club-house, in Ponta Delgada city (the island’s capital). At 10:30 AM my 43 friends in 30 bikes were on road to the island’s West side. Our first stop was at Ponta da Ferraria. Some 20 minutes after we were back on the road, climbing the moutain road to Sete Cidades lagoon, where we stopped for the second time to regroup the bikers.

After regrouping everyone we went to Ribeira Grande city, in the islnad’s North shore, where we had lunch.

In the afternoon our first stop was at Gorreana, a very old tea factory established in 1883. The tea was brought from China in 1878 by two Chinese that came to São Miguel to teach the islanders the complex tasks involved in its preparation. As far as I know it is the only tea plantation and production in all Europe. The factory’s owner (one of the rider's father) was very kind and offered tea to all of us. It was not tea time yet but it was very nice from him.

We crossed the island again back to the South shore passing by a beautiful mountain road named “Castelo Branco”, with fantastic sights to Furnas Lagoon.

Finally at 5:00 PM we stopped at "Rainha" wine cellar, in Vila Franca village,. There we tasted this year’s red wine, including an excellent and very fresh sweet wine (made the day before). Everybody was happy and we had an excellent time there. After all it was the reason of our ride ! Fortunately everybody respected the principle "don’t drink (too much) if you’re driving"

We returned back to Ponta Delgada city after a wonderful and incident free 178 Km tour. Believe it or not but it is a quite long tour for a 759 square kilometer island.

At 7:00 PM everybody returned home very happy and wondering already with next year "Vintage Tour"

At Gorreana Tea Factory

At "Raínha", in Vila Franca

Tasting "Raínha's" wine

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