Schengen Again and Again

Organisation Has Left the Building

So. Attempt number 2.

Off we go. This time we will definitely get to the Azores. For sure. Without a shadow of doubt. The weather forecast suggests that there may be a clearing of the fog mid-afternoon.

Well. You would have thought that airlines have a keen interest in weather and would get top of the forecasts.

Seems not. We get to the Azores for the second time and there is still no visibility for landing.

During the course of this experience, we have become minor experts in matters of aviation and weather related issues. Apparently landing in thick fog is not a problem at modern airports such as Heathrow, but Ponta Delgada does not have the relevant tech and has to rely on good old fashioned eyeballs.

We circle the island for quite a while, hoping for a clearing. There are a number of Azoreans on the flight and they assure us that this is quite normal - circling until the weather suddenly changes, or landing on another island and waiting for a clearing. Solid fog for several days is not the norm.

Annoyingly, it is nice and clear over most of Sao Miguel island…

apart from over Ponta Delgada and the airport

So yeah, we will not be landing again. We wait with baited breath to see whether BA have a new, cunning plan. Indeed they do. We will fly to Porto to refuel and then figure it out from there.

Now I have been wanting to visit Porto, but these were not the circumstances under which I thought that would happen.

We land in Porto, and the view is that we will stay here tonight and then make another attempt the next day.

To be fair, BA have generally been quite good throughout all of this. They have put us up in hotels, arranged transport, paid any reasonable expenses etc. But on dropping us in Porto, they seem to have some sort of institutional brain fart which stops them from being able to communicate clearly.

Most of us get to hotels - largely because coach drivers came and grabbed us while we were milling around the terminal and they needed to get us somewhere before they could go home. No one from BA in sight.

What we do discover is that the transport correspondent from the Telegraph is on holiday and part of our group. He may regret revealing that but I think he felt honour bound to report on the experience, so I shall watch out for that report!

All of this forces the group to trauma-bond and a WhatsApp group appears. “BA Kerfuffle” quickly becomes the main source of information sharing and support and is invaluable for getting us all through this. I am just pleased that whoever set the group up would use a word like Kerfuffle. Some words just don’t get out enough.

Anyway, seems we have an evening in Porto which, under other circumstances would probably be delightful. But its late and we are tired and hungry. A number of us head out in search of food and so get a little taste of Porto

I also have a little taste of several ice cold flagons of beer which puts a different slant on the evening, and also means that I may actually get some sleep. I also seem to make a new best friend in the bar. I’m not sure whether it is just because I spoke to / acknowledged him. Its possible that I may have accidentally bought him a drink through some linguistic confusion. He speaks less English than I speak Portuguese, and that is a low bar!

Whatever, he comes out out to where we are sitting and beams and shakes my hand. I’m always happy to make new friends. He had a fantastic Dali-esque moustache too. I would have bought him a drink just for that.

Meanwhile, back at the journey. We have a rough idea of when our replacement flight will be but there is no clarity on getting back to the airport. We had all decided to share taxis and many had left before I went to reception to order one, only to be told that that our bus driver was in reception and had been for about an hour. If only anyone had thought to tell us whilst we were all sat around having breakfast. Madness.

When we get to the airport. there is much confusion about which gate our flight will go from. Clarity seems to coalesce and we all head to the allotted gate. Only to find that this is not the gate. After a number of our group press the airport staff, they decide to bus us a few yards around the outside of the terminal. I had thought that this would put us at our gate. Pipe dream.

The gate we had all gone through had taken us though passport control and so we had de-schengened. This was a mistake as Portugal to the Azores is an internal flight. Rules is rules though and so we had to re-schengen and go through security again before we could proceed to the gate. This took a considerable time as you can imagine. A major triumph for bureaucracy.

Ah well, we finally get on the plane and it is clear that BA have no idea who or how many people should be on the flight. They “think “ there are still people in the terminal, but no one is sure and nobody in the airport is responding to the haila. We seem to acquire some extra people who thought they were going to Gatwick. I’m not even sure how they got onto the plane, but they had to get off before we could leave. That still left the “missing” folk. To the credit of the flight crew, I think they understood that a riot could ensue and decided to just leave, having given the stragglers every opportunity to join.

And so, off to the Azores we go. Again. Third time’s a charm.

And so it turns out ( at least for those of us who haven’t fallen by the wayside through stress, given up and gone home, lost their luggage etc.). The BA Kerfufflers finally make it to Ponta Delgada and a few of the intrepid travellers pose for a group photo

The relief is short-lived as I am the faced with a queue for the hire car

The several days of closure has clearly caused mayhem here!

I finally get the car and make my way to my apartment. the group chat is full of people who have ventured straight out to the more interesting parts of the island. Bunch of bastards just rubbing it in! They are dead to me now, lol.

I manage a bit of a wander around Ponta Delgada

before retreating to the apartment to chill out after a rough few days

Tomorrow Azores exploration starts in earnest..

And the journey? From Nottingham to Ponta Delgada - about 75 hours and a mere 7480 miles.