Rain in Lisbon

So, we were going to be in Lisbon, er, Lisboa to the locals, a few days early for the expressed reason of droning the coast before our meetings the following days. The trouble was the projected rain in the forecast for the mainland. We debated for days over text about where to go with screenshots of google.com/flights and various European weather reports. On the day before we left the States we booked flights from Lisbon to the Azores. We fired up the Google machine and learned all we could about San Miguel island, including where it was, where we might stay, and how to get around.

Azores Airlines has a new A321 Neo. It’s a splendid aircraft with “Breathe” emblazoned on it’s sides among a giant QR code. We failed at making the code work but not because we didn't try. Maybe you'll find out what's on the other side of that code for us? LIS to PDL is a short 2 1/2 hours of all ocean flight. Easy.

When we hit the ground in Ponta Delgada - PDL - our wonderful car rental lady noticed we had booked a “city car” and with her thumb and index fingers out stretched she suggested we pay up 20€ for the crossover. After all it’s a volcanic rock island. That proved to be a great choice. Thank you Sixt Agent at PDL. We needed the clearance.

After walking about 300 yards to the carpark we were on our way in a silver and black Renault with very little lumbar support, a fact we made no notice of at the time. We had an island to explore.

We headed straight West, immediately. We didn't check our Airbnb that we had recently nabbed. We didn’t collect $200. We just hung a left and started up the mountain. After all, the daylight was burning and we had flying cameras to get in the air.

We were very quickly greeted by cows and beauty inside 5 minutes of our drive. San Miguel turned out to be covered in rolling hills, pastures, cows and vistas. Oh my. The floral and fauna in April was super lush. Just astonishingly lush. Don't go. You won't enjoy it.