View from my hotel window

Well Readers, so far so far good – I’ve managed to get from East Finchley to an airport hotel at Lisbon Airport, in preparation for our flight to the Azorean island of Pico tomorrow. Points to note at Heathrow Terminal Two are:

• A couple of the security lanes now have those antsy-fancy scanners where you don’t have to take out your laptop or your liquids. It makes such a difference to the time it takes to get through! On the other hand, if you’re me you’re still wearing your walking boots (aka the most comfortable footwear in the world) so you still hold everybody up while you hop around on one leg.
• Heathrow now has little purple Roombaa-type vacuum cleaners. Every child under five seems to love following them around and then running away screaming when they change direction.
• Portugal from the air is full of onshore wind turbines, all arranged in rows along the hills. I’m very interested to see what the Azores does about renewable energy. I’d expect there to be lots of wind/solar/hydro and maybe even some geothermal, but let’s see. Islands everywhere are leading the way in the search for clean energy.
• I got confused at the airport and tried to go through the EU gates with my passport (because I still have a red one). But of course I have to go through the UK gates because I am, in fact, from the UK. Still heartbroken.

Anyhow, we met our guide at the airport – Lara is Portuguese and did a doctorate on social weaverbirds in South Africa so we’ll have a lot in common. The rest of the group seem really lovely and laidback, which is great. And the hotel is very nice – I have a splendid view of the roundabout, which features bushes which seem to have been trimmed to resemble the Devil’s Causeway.

We all piled out of the lift (once we’d worked out that you have to use your room key to make it work) and went in search of our rooms. Below is a typical door.

How in the inky-dinky are you supposed to know which room is which? Four intelligent women and one intelligent chap paraded from one end of the corridor to the other and we were all stumped. Until….

It’s easy when you know how, clearly….

So tomorrow, we are meeting at 5.30 a.m. in reception (breakfast opens at 4.00 a.m.). No whales tomorrow apparently as it’s too rough, but we should get out in the boats on Sunday. So, I’ll report back from The Actual Azores tomorrow if all goes to plan.