Sunday ; Mostly cloudy, mild, windy.
We went out for our early exercise walk around noon. From the seawall we watched a surfer for awhile, then went ambling along the seawall. As I approached an area where the sidewalk and part of the roadway were wet I realized that again today the waves were crashing so hard onto the rocks beneath the seawall that sometimes the spray would come right over the wall. So … I stepped off the sidewalk and moved towards the centre of the roadway to reduce the risk of getting wet. I looked over my shoulder to ensure that Joanne, who was a few steps behind me, had done the same. She hadn’t !
SPLOOSH !
Uh-oh ! My little wifey was drenched in icy cold salty ocean spray. <trying not to snicker>
Around 2:30 PM we walked over to Preça Velha to see the dog adoption event that was scheduled to take place. <shrug> It didn’t ! Don’t know why. Joanne waited for me while I went on my daily up and down hills cardiac rehab humpity hike.
Monday ; Angra do Heroisma to Biscoitos & return
Mostly cloudy, mild, a few minutes of heavy rain about 1 PM while we were waiting for the bus to Biscoitos.
We left our room around 12:30 PM, walked to “pink church”, dumped our recyclables in the recycling bins behind the cathedral, then walked over to Preça Alta das Cavos where we caught bus no. 1 to Biscoitos, a town on the northern coast of the island. The bus followed the southern coast, then the western coast, and finally the northern coast for an hour and a quarter to Biscoitos, arriving about 2:30 PM.
We went for a late lunch to Botequim O Bagulho, a small restaurant owned and operated as a “side hustle” by a man whose primary occupation is as a fireman at the Terceira Airport. He spoke English well. When we arrived there was one other couple already in the restaurant, a young woman and her middle aged mother, both from Lisbon. The young woman spoke English extremely well, and began to speak to us as soon as she heard us talking to the restaurant owner. Her mother did not speak English.
While we had lunch we chatted with the young woman. She and her mother were on a short vacation to Terceira Island. Don’t know which is “chicken” and which is “egg”, but … the young woman’s excellent English was either due to or resulted in her employment as a flight attendant on a private jet charter airline. And as a result of that employment, she has had the opportunity to visit Toronto, Montreal, and Yellowknife in Canada. HMPH … clients rich enough to charter a private jet to fly from Lisbon, Portugal to Yellowknife, NWT primarily to view Aurora Borealis/Northern Lights.
The airport fireman/restaurant owner/operator was the sole employee of the small restaurant. For lunch Joanne chose sauteed pork chunks with fries. I had cornmeal coated, deep fried, tiny mackerel fish with potato, sweet potato, pickled fava beans and onions, and cornbread. It wasn’t great, but it was an opportunity to try another traditional Portuguese dish.
After lunch we wandered around the village for awhile, including wandering through a “farming” area. Although … what constitutes “farming” on Terceira Island is not similar to what constitutes farming at home in Manitoba, Canada. We went into a little bakery in town and bought a pastry for breakfast and a couple of buns to make sandwiches for lunch tomorrow.
At 5 PM we caught the last bus for the day headed back to Angra do Heroisma. We arrived back in Angra at 6:15 PM. On the walk back to our guesthouse we stopped at both MEU Super and Aki Perto to replenish a few items.
Tuesday ; Sunny and warm, a lovely day.
Today was our final day in Angra do Heroisma. Tomorrow we fly to Lisbon on Portugal’s mainland. Based on the flight time, it seems to be a distance about equal to Winnipeg to Toronto.
I am typing this at 5:30 PM. Our landlord, José, has just knocked on our door and presented us with a farewell gift, a papaya cut in half and cleaned, a small round of soft cheese, and two freshly baked pastel de nata (tarts), a culinary specialty of Terceira Island, all presented on a silver platter. WOW … what a sweet fellow he has been. I’m not sure whether we should have that as dessert tonight, or breakfast tomorrow ?
At noon we headed out for our early exercise walk. On our way to Praça Velha, taking a new route, we found a restaurant we hadn’t seen before. DARN, their menu was interesting, we would have liked to try them. Joanne waited for me at Praça Velha while I went on my usual humpity cardiac rehab brisk walk up and down steep hills. When I returned we sat for awhile on a park bench enjoying the fine weather and reminiscing about how much we’ve enjoyed our time here.
This afternoon Joanne prepared us for departure tomorrow, repacking our suitcases, etc. I checked us in online for our flights tomorrow, then spent an unreasonable amount of time trying to download our boarding passes to our i-Phone. Eventually I succeeded, but it took many attempts and iterations. Before having supper we went for another exercise walk, including dumping our last bag full of recyclables in the recycling bins behind “pink church”.
Wednesday ; Angra do Heroisma, Tercira Island, Azores to Lisbon, Portugal
Angra in AM ; mostly sunny and mild, some light rain during our taxi ride to the airport.
Lisbon in PM ; cloudy, mild, intermittent light rain.
We have thoroughly enjoyed our 29 days on Terceira Island. We’re excited about our upcoming week in Lisbon.
We got up at 8 AM, a bit earlier than usual for us, to be ready for departure to the airport at 10:15 AM. Our pre-arranged taxi was waiting for us outside our door promptly at 10:15 AM. We drove south to north across Terceira Island, alongside a lovely rainbow for much of the journey, arriving at Lajes Airport right on schedule at 10:35 AM.
Check-in at the TAP Air counter was quick and efficient. Are you listening, Westjet ? ! ? Getting through security was quick and efficient. We were at our boarding gate at 11 AM. We boarded the flight at 11:30 AM and took off right on schedule at 11:50 AM, arriving in Lisbon 20 minutes early at 2:50 PM.
Then … we sat in the aircraft for 20 minutes waiting for the buses that transport passengers from aircrafts to terminals. The buses (two of them for our aircraft) drove us a looooong way to terminal 1, then … we all walked a looooong way across terminal 1 into and across terminal 2 to the baggage area. Why didn’t the bus just drop us off at terminal 2 ? ! ?
We retrieved our baggage then went to the “meeting area” to meet our pre-arranged car and driver to our guesthouse. I had read horror stories about the taxis at Lisbon airport and decided to use a pre-arranged car & driver service. I think that was good decision. The car service company had an attendant at the meeting area who greeted us then walked us outside to where our car (large van) and driver were waiting. The drive to our hotel, during rush hour, was easy and pleasant, without worries about taxi “rip-offs”. We arrived at our guesthouse about 5 PM.
We got checked in to our guesthouse … (what a dump !) … then went off in search of a grocery store to buy a bottle of water and a soft drink and SOMEBODY’S essential bedtime chocolate milk. Across the street from the little grocery/convenience store that we found was … wait for it … a paderia/bakery. Well … how convenient was that ? ! ? HA HA HA !
Something for breakfast ? Check !
We returned to our guesthouse, put our beverages and pastry in our room fridge, then set off looking for supper. We had not eaten since breakfast. I was eager to head to Time Out Market, about 1 km. away. It’s an extremely large “food court” featuring a large number of specialty and gourmet food services.
We wandered slowly around the large hall, browsing the many food outlets as the market became more and more crowded and rowdy, until we realized that the place was jam packed elbow to elbow with beer guzzling soccer fans, eager to watch the World Cup soccer semi-finals on large TV screens throughout the market hall. We tried to place orders at two different outlets, but both outlets said “sorry … we’re not serving our full menu offerings tonight”. So … we left. The prices were high, the place was packed with rowdy, beer guzzling soccer fans, and the food selections were limited. Goodbye !
We walked back toward our guesthouse, stopping for supper at a restaurant that had caught our eye on the way to Time Out Market. We had a very pleasing supper at Palacio de Kebab, filled with Moroccans eating kebabs and donairs while cheering on their soccer team, watching the game on a TV on the wall. We sat at a table under the TV … HA HA HA … everybody else wanted to sit across the restaurant, facing the TV.
Thursday ; Lisbon, Portugal
Mostly sunny and mild. Our first full day in Lisbon was challenging, but successful.
We left our guesthouse room about 11:30 AM this morning and returned six hours later at 5:30 PM. It seemed like a much longer day outing than six hours, but … the stress of it made it seem long, I suppose.
From our guesthouse we set off for Time Out Market. We checked many restaurants’ posted menus on our long walk to Time Out Market. Once at the market, before having lunch at the “food market” we wandered around the “Traditional Market” or farmers’ / produce market. Beautiful and varied displays of “regular” and exotic (to us) fruits and vegetables in excellent states of ripeness/readiness. We will return another time to buy some produce.
At the food market we had lunch at Croqueteria, a specialty restaurant featuring … DUH … croquetes ! We shared a bowl of cream of carrot soup, we shared a quinoa, beans, and many varieties of lettuce salad, Joanne had a “traditional” (in Portugal) beef and pork croquette, I had a duck croquette.
After lunch we walked a short distance to Cais do Sodre, a large city bus, city train, city subway station and … ship (?) terminal. We tried but failed to get information on inter-city trains and buses. We got information on how to get to Lisbon Sete Rios (inter-city) bus station by subway, bought subway tickets to get there and back, took deep breaths, and … jumped into the deep end.
It has been at least 19 years (Paris, France), maybe 29 years (Rome, Italy) sine we last were on a foreign city’s subway system, unable to understand local language and signage. We did okay ! Good thing I have a high fear/intimidation/anxiety tolerance !
We travelled one stop on the verde (green) subway line then transferred to the azul (blue) subway line, getting off at Jardim Zoologico station, ascending to street level, and finding our way by foot to Sete Rios bus station. With considerable difficulty (due to language) we managed to purchase bus tickets on the right bus line, on the right day, at the right time, to our next destination, Portimão on the Algarve south coast, in a week. WHEW … mission accomplished !
I tried repeatedly to purchase these bus tickets online, over the last two weeks, trying a variety of travel search engines and bus company websites. In every case I was stymied by an inability to pay online using a Canadian issued credit card. And … Apple Pay did not work, Google Pay did not work, PayPal did not work ! So … I was becoming somewhat anxious about getting these tickets purchased and paid for.
The cost of the tickets today, while very reasonable, was much more than the cost of purchasing them online, more than two weeks or more than one week before travel date. I’m becoming more and more skeptical and suspicious about the legitimacy of some of these travel search engines.
We retraced our steps and made it safely back to Cais do Sodre subway/bus/train/ship station. Earlier we had discovered a great supermarket underneath the station. We purchased a variety of groceries to last most of the following week, then made the long walk “home” from Cais do Sodre.
In the WC (water closet/bathroom) at Cais do Sodre station (half a Euro/70 cents Canadian to enter the WC), standing at the urinal, I experienced a (fortunately unsuccesful) pick pocket attempt ! And I believe that the black female WC entry attendant was somehow (cell phone text message ?) complicit.
(INCOMING FOREIGN TOURIST WEARING ROLEX WATCH !)
Friday ; Sunny and mild.
We were quite tired out by yesterday’s adventures. So we had a somewhat slow day. This morning I loaded a new Vodafone SIM card into our i-Phone. And so began a few hours of phone drama. <sigh> Memories of our annual entry into the United States.
When I purchased our first Vodafone (30 day) SIM card and cell phone service I had the SIM card installed and the phone configured and the service activated at the Vodafone office in Angra do Heroisma. Today I did all that by myself. Including setting up a Vodafone online account which I had not yet done, but needed to do today to get through the process. And it did not go particularly well. Big learning curve for a techno-impaired old man.
Around noon we wandered around the neighbourhood for awhile, until we found another neighbourhood convenience store where we bought a large bottle of water and two types of Portuguese cheese. We brought our groceries back to our guesthouse room then continued wandering around the neighbourhood. When we were ready for lunch we went to a restaurant that caught our eye yesterday, A Merendeira. (www.amerendeira.com)
Their “shtick” is to bake Portuguese choriço sausage (like pepperoni) into thick Portuguese buns, served with a bowl of piping hot traditional Portuguese Caldo Verde soup and a little clay bowl of rice pudding. Limited offerings, but all done exceptionally well. Of course I can’t eat the choriço (pork) sausage so I had the vegetable stuffed bun option and the vegetable soup option (there was also choriço in the Sopa Caldo Verde). It was all so good that we decided we will buy a couple of their stuffed buns to take as our lunch on the bus to Portimão next Wednesday.
After lunch we wandered around a bit more then returned to our room where I continued working on solving the i-Phone SIM card drama for a couple of hours, including an ordeal with Vodafone’s tech support line where I waited on hold for a long time, then got a non-English speaking agent who put me back on hold for another long time until an English speaking agent became available … <sigh>. While this was going on, Joanne fell asleep. She rarely naps, but when she does … WHEW … it goes on and on. HA HA HA ! Eventually I joined her.
We had a late, simple, light supper, prepared in our guesthouse’s communal kitchen. In the evening we planned some outings for our remaining five days in Lisbon.
Saturday ; Sunny and mild, a nice day.
This morning we left our guesthouse about 11:30 AM and wandered around the neighbourhood exploring for about an hour. Our planned destination was the nearby Museu da Marioneta / Puppetry Museum, but when we arrived and saw the admission cost we decided it wasn’t worth it. We stopped at a farmácia and replenished some toiletries, and a mercado / local small grocery store to buy a few grocery items before returning home to have lunch. Rather than having “supermarkets” or even “small” grocery stores like MEU Super or Aki Perto in Angra do Heroisma, our Lisbon “old” neighbourhood has a “convenience store” type mercado about every two blocks.
We prepared our lunch in the guesthouse’s communal kitchen and ate lunch outdoors on the guesthouse’s lovely courtyard / patio. After lunch I napped briefly. At 3:00 PM we set off for three hours of more exploring, walking about 7 ¼ km., half that distance west, then returning east on a different route. I bought a pastry at a Lebanese bakery. We arrived home just as it was becoming dusk. Joanne was worn out ! But … she wasn’t too tired to eat half my Lebanese pastry. HA HA HA !
We rested (and did stretching exercises) in our room until 8 PM, then prepared supper (salad first, then chicken stuffed tortellinis in bechamel sauce) in the communal kitchen, eating in the communal living room as we did yesterday.
Lisbon is interesting, but the last few days have reinforced for us that we prefer smaller towns. Lisbon after dark feels a bit unsafe. During the daylight hours, the traffic is heavy … and fast, there is graffiti everywhere, the public transportation systems are confusing and intimidating. Our guesthouse is a bit of a dump, cold, with musty smells, and some mould on the walls and ceilings, etc.
DSK
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