It was 13th of July, time to move on…. Extremely early breakfast in the garden, then by 8 we were on the go. M. picked a BMW X5 to take us back to Lisbon, so it was a much more comfortable ride this time.

The reason we left so early, even though that our flight from Lisbon to Funchal was at 16.40. is to stop by Cascais to see if we like it.

Had quite a few people saying really nice things about it, what a charming little town with nice old buildings, very elegant, etc…, so figured there is no harm done in checking it out. If it ticks all the right marks, then it might just be the right place to buy a property instead of the one we decided against in Spain.

Cascais is a coastal town, pretty close to Lisbon, the capital. It can be reached easily on the highway, or by train. That was one of the reasons why it got on our list of possible locations. It has quite a history, dates back all the way to the late Palaeolithic.

Much much later it became a safe haven for many of the exiled European royal families since during the II. World War Portugal remained neutral.
Cascais was a charming, elegant town and still has that magical feel. Tree lined streets, gorgeous villas hidden behind lush vegetation, long beaches.

It is a very popular tourist destination these days. While before people stayed in Lisbon and came to visit it for a day, now it might be better to do the opposite.

My first impression was great.
Boca do Inferno. Quickly got out of the car, while our driver was searching for the location of the St. Julian School.

This part I liked. Took pics of the rugged shoreline, and admired the shells on sale.
Turned out, the school is not even in Cascais, but it wasn’t very far. Undergoing reconstruction and not having an appointment, we could not go in. M didn’t like it. I didn’t like it. I started to not like the place.
Extremely crowded beaches, very busy streets and that Cascais shopping mall???

Where is the style, the elegance they were talking about???
Did visit the marina, lots of boats, yachts, but nothing like Funchal Marina.
Drove past the Casino in Estoril, now that got A’s attention a bit.

An hour and half to spare. What to do, what to do?

Sintra. The place with the magical forests. Seen so many pictures on the net, similar to the ones I take.
It wasn’t meant to be. So crowded, that halfway to the top we had to turn back. Did not want to miss our plane.

Must go back there. On the way to the airport A kept saying that there must be more to Cascais then what we have seen. He might go back later on on his own.

Lisbon airport. Check in counter. Lady seems baffled as she is looking for our reservations. In the end she hands us our boarding passes. On the 16.20 flight. Our flight is at 16.40. Later on I did think it was a bad omen. Were we meant to be on the earlier flight? Was this our destiny?
Too late to go back, luggage is on it anyways, so we wait in the lounge .

Smooth flight, and comes the landing.

Now we all know how dangerous is the Madeira Airport, wrote about it a year ago or so. The runway is quite short, but what is dangerous is how the direction of the wind can change suddenly. Having cross winds makes it almost impossible to land.

Popped a chewing gum into my mouth to prevent blocked ears…and waiting. After a while I feel the plane shaking, we can see that it is unable to turn…even my son comments that we should have turned by now, the runway is the other way. Having been here a dozen times or so we do know how the landing goes.
When you are about the freak out, the plane starts ascending at full speed. Have you ever heard that sound? It is scary. It is “struggling” to gain height as fast as possible.

Pilot comes on, tells us that due to the cross winds he was unable to land the plane, we will be on hold, and when the weather gets better , he will try it again…No worries, we have enough fuel.

Getting nervous. This has never happened to me. We did turn back once, and flew back to Lisbon , but back then the pilot did not even attempt landing.

Second try…This time more steeper descend, I could almost feel the waves lapping at our plane ( only an illusion, I know), more shaking, struggling and back up to the sky again.

By now I am really freaked, my son is telling me how much we are more likely to die in a car crash then in a plane crash, me telling him to stop and asking his Dad ( who was sitting behind us) to come and sit next to us. He happens to sit next to a pilot, who starts talking to us.

Pilot announces that he will give it another try.
What??? Don’t. Don’t give it another try for God’s sake, just turn back. Take us back to Lisbon, where we can spend the night in a nice hotel and wait till the weather gets better.

The pilot next to us ( the calm guy) tells us, that after the 3rd try he will not attempt it, and will land in Porto Santo.

Here we go again…this time it happens even faster…quick glance at the air hostess with the brown hair, she is holding on to her skirt, her knuckles are getting white ( shit, she is scared )…take my son’s hand on the right (he is mad, because he cannot play on my iPhone with one hand), A’s hand in my left hand and close my eyes…

I am so not ready to die.

I hear clapping as our plane hits the ground. Oh, you guys are so stupid, don’t clap yet, we haven’t even stopped. Don’t you know how short is the runway and how fast we are still going?

But we did. I carefully open my eyes, to find the air hostesses smiling. We landed.

Definitely not flying to the Azores this time.
P.S.: The 16.40. flight landed without a problem.