Getting to Faial, Azores
Ah, the joy of modern airlines. We sit and chuckle, before having a mental breakdown and wonder if there can't be a better way. There must be a better way... There must ...
Well until the StarTrek Transporter actually wends it's way into the reality we currently enjoy, unfortunately, we have to put up with the deep masochistic pleasure of being crammed like sardines into a metal tube along with a couple of hundred other souls. Knees bent like crippled lobsters, elbows tucked in, and breathing deeply upon the fumes of god knows what viruses, bacteria and random farts.
But isn't it exciting?
Now the practicalities of getting to the Azores (Faial) from the UK:
Flights are available to all nine of the Azores Isles. This is quite a recent addition to the routes available... even the tiny little island of Corvo has a landing strip, although nerves of steel and a tight sphincter would be desirable qualities before taking a flight there, or so I've been told.
Flights are unfortunately split into two legs: London to Lisbon and then Lisbon to the island of your choice. I do believe there is a direct flight during summer months to Sao Miguel (the largest and most 'commercial' island). I think it flies from Stanstead with EasyJet.
But my only experience has been from Heathrow to Faial via Lisbon with SATA / TAP
I will try to keep this brief, for sanity's sake....
My friend Cher, being a total star, picked me up at my place in Nottinghamshire and drove us down to Heathrow. Needless to say, her sat-nav had a melt-down, as they are constantly changing the road layouts around the airport... The hotel was just around the corner from terminal 3. But could we find our way into the car park? Fast forward three quarters of an hour and we eventually drove around the block a couple of times and found our destination.
After reasonable refreshment and an evenings sleep we had to get to the airport by shuttle bus for two hours before check in, so I got up and had breakfast at 7am (Cher had extra time in bed!) and then we left at about 9:00 am for the terminal.
We left Heathrow more or less on time and arrived in Lisbon OK... then we had about an hour to find the flight to Horta on Faial. Sounds easy? Na. Of course all the security checks and then the non-working passport readers left little time to find the connecting flight. Then we got lost.... duh. Cher of course, would say that * I * got lost :)
Despite having lost our way, we arrived at the connecting flight with minutes to spare. Beware of flights that only have an hour stop-over: Lesson learned - 1 hour is only just sufficient.... if you know where to go. We didn't.
All good, we boarded the flight to Faial. Happy Bunnies. Our arrival time was scheduled for about 4:00pm.
You know how good it is when you can smell your holiday stretching out in front of you? Deep Joy.... just look at the photo below and you know that feeling..... Porto Pim, Faial, Azores.
The sun is sparkling off the water, the wine is crisp and cold, the food is good, the ocean breeze kisses your skin and all your worries are a million miles away.
Our first attempt at landing on Faial didn't work. Too much cross-wind... wheels went down "thump", then big thrust, big jump sideways and we where up in the air again. This was repeated a few more times, each time getting more desperate. More thrust, more thump, more bump and then eventually much much more angle, engines screaming and pushing us all backwards into our seats as we climbed very steeply, the hell out of there.
Meanwhile, Cher was crossing herself, saying prayers and panicking every onlooking passenger :)
Nice. I had words.
We set down on Terceira (at the huge US runway) at around 5:00pm. Oh dear.
Next Up: Getting to Faial, Azores Part Two
