Travel Day - Malaga to Terceira

We had an 11:15 flight to the Azores and were up early enough to walk the 20 minutes to the train station, despite the frequent “there’s a taxi!” from the person trailing behind me. The train takes you directly to the main entrance of the Malaga Airport, the 3rd largest in Spain. All this for about $3.50 each. When we were in the check-in line I struck up a conversation with the couple behind us and learned that they were from Brandon. They were also flying to Lisbon and then on to Toronto and Winnipeg, expecting a 25 hour travel day! They were about our age and had spent a month near Malaga, unfortunately being sick with some GI illness for most of the holiday. When we got to Lisbon we visited for awhile and then parted ways to head for the lounge where we could use our free passes. We had a 5 hour layover so it was a nice way to relax, eat and drink.

Our 2.5 hour flight was full and John had the dreaded middle seat. We arrived safely around 7:30 and that’s all that really matters. The house I rented was a referral from my friend Gailene, as someone in her quilting group owned a home in Terceira. The owner, Margarida, made arrangements for her brother to pick us up at the airport at less cost than a taxi. On arrival, there was the smiling 70ish couple who greeted us with the customary two-cheek kiss. Our luggage was thrown into the open back of Lucinda and Mateus’s 19 year old Nissan truck and off we went.

The small home is on a main road about 1 km from the nearest town, Cabo do Praia. It was very clean but the first thing we noticed was the high humidity, coolness and musty odour. Lucinda explained that she had washed all the pots and towels because they tend to get moldy. She left us some traditional cookies that she had baked in a type of wood-burning oven so that they have a smoked flavour (not my favourite cookie!). She also bought us some pastries, bread, margarine, milk and tea & coffee. What a wonderful welcome to Terceira!Read more