LAST STOP LAGOS

Many thanks to everyone who chimed in with “get well soon/safe travels” messages…….things are looking up, and at this point I am really just looking forward to being home in a few days. But first things first…….

I am not sure how to approach my “catch up” posts, but in my usual disorganized fashion, I will go from last to first, and maybe jump around a little in between. Not sure if that makes sense, but after my FB post a couple of days ago about our flight from Lisbon to Azores, I am sure you are just sitting on the edge of your seats, wondering if we are home safely in Collingwood, or floating on a life raft in the middle of the Atlantic. If it were the latter, I would be writing to Disney instead of doing this, selling the movie rights, but alas, we are home safely and sitting here watching the lovely snowflakes fall, and freezing our asses off.

The mainland portion of our trip was basically broken down into three day stints in different locations around the country, with the last being in Lagos (Lagosh) in the southwestern corner of the Algarve region. This is not a huge town, but it is a very popular tourist destination. The 22,000 population easily triples in high season, and tourism is for sure the number one industry in the area. Tons of restaurants, beaches, great hikes, and the remnants of old castles and buildings all over town. We are staying at the small but trendy Avenida Hotel, directly across from the marina with great views, close to everything, and whose in-house restaurant has received a Michelin writeup……Bib Gourmand????….…not a STAR mind you, but the ladies tell me this is still an honour and gives fair warning that we might be in for some culinary delights this evening, and for the next couple of days.

The mountain goats are off…….the 18 holes they played this morning at Monte Rei not nearly satisfying their daily mileage quota……..hoping to explore the old town just down the street, and recon the beach/boardwalk trails along the shore. If I fail to mention what I was doing at any point in these blogs, I was probably having a nap, and such is the case now. The debrief on their return was full of information, and as you can see from the pictures quite beautiful and interesting.

Avenida Restaurante………we are greeted for dinner by a lovely young German lady with a pencil thin figure, wearing the miniest of mini skirts, so we were off to a good start as far as I was concerned. Jutta mentioned she might like to get a skirt like that, and she gets two thumbs up from this guy. Chef Roeland Klein (Dutch I believe) offers an amazing full menu + a few 6 course tasting menus if you like, but because we can’t decide on which one to order for the table, the choice is to go with a whole sea bass off the a la carte menu big enough for the three of us…….cooked in a salt crust…….whaaaat?…….we have been telling every server at every restaurant, “NO extra salt”, but we are assured this will not taste salty……..must be magic. It was magic! No question some of the best food of the trip so far, and thankful this is not a Michelin Star restaurant where in the past I have been served a large plate with a dob of green goo in the middle as one of the courses…….oh excellent…….fantastic presentation……the flavour is incredible………such crap. Breakfasts in the restaurant are a treat also……my favourite, the Avenida Benedict…..poached egg over brioche, w/shrimp, spinach, black truffle paste, and Hollandaise Sauce……….are you kidding me. There is no need for lunch after eating breakfast in this place.

We have booked a couple of rounds of golf during our stay, with the first being at Big Al + Sweet Lou’s winter playground, the 36 hole Amendoeira Golf Resort, and will be playing the Faldo Course. This is a big golf community, anchored by a well appointed clubhouse and spa facility……..nice course, and I asked for Blue Flag, or Marshal privileges with my golf cart as I am still limping around like a crippled chicken. It is a good thing I have attended the Gord Levoy School of Golf Cart Driving (Advanced Course), so once the caddie master heard this, the blue flag was a lock. Probably couldn’t have played without it. I was working on an improved opinion of Faldo’s golf course design on the front nine, but once we reached the back, that went right out the window. What is this guy thinking? Definitely one that you have to play a few times to get the hang of it, and quite a challenge. We stopped in Carvoeiro on the way home to see the wintering grounds for so many of you from Oslerbrook……….super cute town with some beautiful properties……..pretty touristy down by the beach in town, but that didn’t affect the temperature of the beer in the slightest. The goats spotted a steep stairway leading up the cliff from the beach and they were off…..discovered a boardwalk up top and had a short hike before returning to pick up gimpy.

Our second round was much closer to home……just 8 minutes from the hotel…….Boavista. Again a very nice course with more of a neighbourhood feel too it…….plenty of local guys out for their morning rounds. Again I was able to get the Blue Flag treatment, but ran into a marshal on the fifth hole that didn’t like my driving style………..twenty feet from the green in the rough was too close for him………I was killing the grass……..just like the lawn mowers I said………of course I asked if he had ever heard of the GLSGCD, and with a negative response I knew I would have to suck it up and follow his rules…….at least for the next couple of holes till he screwed off! With our early tee time we were finished by noon, with plans to tour west down the coast.

The target following golf was Sagres, a small town on the western tip of the Algarve, known for its beautiful beaches, framed by towering cliffs, the Fortaleza de Sagres, a huge fort up on top of the cliffs, and of course a reliable supply of surfing waves………yeh dudes, surfs up. This is clearly a surfing town with great relaxed vibes, and quite removed from the hustle and bustle of the tourist towns up the coast. The beer was cold, and the chili sauce for the shrimp was great……definitely worth the visit.

We ate out only once in Lagos, at Restaurant dos Artistas in the old town, and although it was pretty good, just didn’t measure up to our home restaurant at the Avenida. Before going out, we actually stopped in there for some oysters we had seen the night before……now called G&T Oysters…….served raw with pickled cucumber, cardamon, and GIN foam on top………not an oyster guy, but these were awesome, and will be recreated at some point in Collingwood. You are all invited. I think I’ve turned into a Gin Junkie on this trip. We also bailed out on dessert at Artistas as the ladies were craving just one more serving of the white chocolate basil sorbet back at the hotel to properly put a wrap our last meal in Portugal.

With Lagos now covered, we are up early, packing the golf travel bags, and loada the Skoda for our run to the airport. A pretty quick and uneventful ride that got us to the airport way ahead of schedule. Thinking we could just check our bags and hang in the lounge for a few hours was a mistake. Azores Air will only check bags for a flight two hours in advance of the departure time, so we had some time to kill hanging around the departure area…….how much fun was that, but eventually we are checked in and headed off to the lounge. We start hearing some rumblings about weather in the Azores…….clearly it is raining outside, sometimes heavy, and checking the radar does show some strong storm activity over the Atlantic. Our fight is delayed a couple of times before we finally board the plane and get underway……..full flight……not one seat available. There are pockets of turbulence along the way, but things really got interesting when we started to descend into Sao Miguel and Punta Degaga airport.

The plane was a rockin and a rollin pretty good the closer we got to the ground…..everyone was quite uneasy……ok scared shitless…….and then suddenly the plane must have been hit by a huge gust that tipped its wings probably 45 degrees……..I’m not sure how accurate that is, but you know I never exaggerate. The pilot straightened her out, immediately gunned the throttles, landing gear up, and we pulled out of there. He did come on to explain that we would not be attempting another landing as conditions were pretty bad, and would be heading to the Island of Terceira a short distance away and planned on landing there. OK, here is what I’m thinking……Terceira is a smaller island and airport, probably smaller runway……..it isn’t too far away, so how could the weather there be that much different than in Sao Miguel……..if we can’t land in Terceira there is no other airport in the Azores that can handle this jet we are on……..just how much fuel did he take on in Lisbon before we left…….enough for a return trip?

Our first landing attempt in Terceira did not go well……..pulled up like last time and went around. On attempt number two, we could tell we were coming in faster, still bouncing around like crazy, and hit the ground with such a bang I thought the landing gear would come through the floor, but we were on the ground and safe. It would have been a standing ovation if the seatbelt sign was off. The passengers were offered the option of getting off the plane here, or staying on for a return trip to Lisbon. We were unsure which way to go, but when a stewardess explained we would have a lot more options to get home from Lisbon tomorrow than we would on Terceira, we decided to stay on board. We landed in Terceira at 9pm, and it took three hours to get the 40 or so people off the plane with their luggage from the cargo hold, before we could leave for Lisbon……..we did fuel up before leaving which makes me think there wasn’t enough gas on board for the return trip in the first place.

So that was our excitement, and the rest of the travel story is just a big boring, hours long, hang-out at the airport waiting for our flight back to Toronto with a scheduled stop in Azores. Having to get off the plane in Azores wasn’t all that bad, because we picked up some duty free Baleia Gin from the Gin Library, and some bolos levodos from the bakery in Furnas. We had an uneventful flight with a nice meal and managed a well deserved snooze also………arrived on schedule and outside of Sibylles suitcase being left behind in Azores, all was perfect……….man is it good to be home.