I am very happy with my second trip to the Azores this year and must unfortunately leave Lajes (a town on the Azores Pico Island) again for Lisbon. I must say goodbye to the Espaço Talassa team again – as well as to my friend and guide João Quaresma. Without his skill as skipper I would never have been able to take the photographs I did in this form. João is himself a successful photographer.

At the airport in Horta (Azores island of Faial) I was interviewed by a student about the biological diversity on the Azores, for a study in the Marbef project. Marbef is supported by the European Union.

Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning EU Network of Excellence

Flights from Lisbon to the Azores and back have never gone off without problems for me in the past (late luggage, late or cancelled flights, no e-ticket possible etc.). As always, I sat on seat A1, and after landing in Lisbon the flight captain left the cockpit briskly. He rushed out of the plane and checked something underneath it. Why? The answer became clear at the baggage collection carousel, where the Business Class passengers had only received one piece of luggage by the time all the other passengers had left with their luggage. The captain stood with me and a couple of other Business Class passengers and waited with us. I mentioned to one of the waiting passengers that her father looked like the dead pop star Robert Palmer. She answered rather curtly : "He is my boyfriend" and "Who is Robert Palmer?". I go to know Robert Palmer personally at a short gig in Mainz in 1988.

I soon gave up, but the captain told me that he had checked personally that his luggage, and that of the Business Class, were unloaded!! He spent 3 hours discussing with the airport staff until we got our luggage ;-))) Unbelievable !

My guide for Lisbon picked me up at my hotel, the Heritage, the following morning and showed me Lisbon.

The restaurants Rest Verdemar and Pinocchio, not far from my hotel, the Heritage, are to be recommended.

At lunchtime I had a break on the terrace of the Bairro Alto Hotel.

I liked the Bairro Alto so much that I want to spend the night there in May next year.

Late in the evening I then flew back to Germany.

Written on 26.09.2007 at 11:33, Category: Images, Knowledge, Photography, Travel, Various.
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