Monday, February 18, 2019

Day 7+8 - leaving the Azores and getting home

Sunday February 17

Bummer. Our coughs are getting worse. But it is an easy morning. We are being picked up for the airport at 12:45 noon. We have to check out of the hotel room at 11 am but there is plenty of lobby area with empty sofas.

So, first we admire the sunrise and then we have a leisurely breakfast.


When the driver picked us up to go to the airport he had parked on the street in front of the tunnel and a (very fast) passing car broke his driver's side mirror. The other driver actually stopped but then decided to go on. Our driver wrote down the license plate number. Yup, those streets were narrow. I always squashed against the houses not to loose my arm when a car was coming.

Checking in, going through security, nothing a big deal. Then we had plenty of time though. Time for a coffee.


Finally we are allowed to walk to the plane. Unfortunately we were not told which steps to use. So, if you don't know where the middle of the rows is, you could be "swimming against the stream". Yup, that's what plenty had to do including us. It could be so easy with a little organizing.


Luckily the plane was not full. We had an empty seat between us again and I had a window seat. Just love it when the weather is clear and I can see the world from above.





This is the area where we took the tour with the LandRover. I can see the edge of the crater which we drove around on. You have to look really close to see the "hole" in the top.


Oh my, then after a while, I could see two more Islands. The first with the tall mountain must be Pico, the other on the left Faial. Yup, don't forget to look out of the window once in a while. Ah, I just love it.




As always, in this direction the flights take longer. After 5 1/2 hours there is Boston.


And it was soooo cold. Colder then a week ago. We had to wait for the Hyatt hotel shuttle a little while. Then we got a room were the shower didn't work properly. Got a different room. After that all was good.
Soup (New England Clam Chowder) and salad downstairs. And a beer.



Light was out very early. And (surprise, surprise) I even could fall asleep. This cold has hung around now about 2 weeks and it is not getting any better. At the moment rather the opposite. 

Monday February 18

We were awake early even though we didn't really have to. The 4 hours time difference to the Azores did/do make a difference.

Surprise, surprise when I opened the drapes. I remembered having heard something on the news last night about 1 to 3 inches. They were right. About 3 inches.




We decided to get going and take the shuttle whenever it is there. What does it matter where you wait? Everything went smoothly with check-in and security. Our plane was supposed to leave at 11:34 so there was plenty of time. We found a place to have a nice cup of coffee.


Well, why not have some breakfast. The place was called Wahlburgers and the two over-easy eggs with sausage and cheese came looking like that. No cutlery and it was terribly messy. After one bite I asked whether I could have a plate and fork and knife. No problem. They were very nice and it was much easier to eat.


It wasn't that much snow but it was interesting to watch the going ons of the machinery. For a long time our flight was supposed to be "on time" but then James got messages. We had two more hours to waste. 


Finally we had boarded. The plane was totally full. The captain came out of the cockpit to thank us for being patient and that we had to be a little more patient because the plane had to go to a de-icing place. It would take about 15 minutes and then we would be on our way. Well, I would never complain about the airline taking all precautions to keep us safe. It was interesting.

VIDEO!     (0:55)



Almost home. I had a good view again but couldn't quite make out what was what.


James is sick of his cough so as soon as we were home he went to a doc-in-the-box. It was a good experience and he came home with medicine and hope.
We are just happy and grateful that the coughs didn't hamper our vacation and we had such a great time. What wonderful new memories. And my knee didn't hamper anything either. Oh, how lucky we are. Thank you, Lord!


2 comments:

Happy Room Diana said...

Chris and i both had these terrible coughs/colds for 3 weeks, seem they are everywhere. Glad you are home safe and sound

Kim S. said...

What a wonderful trip! I'm sorry that you were sick, though. I didn't even realize. I've been on the couch with the worst cold I've ever had for almost 2 weeks, so I guess something is really going around.