Funchal, Madeira, Portugal – 20th October 2013
Hello friends,
Many greetings from sunny Madeira. Yes, I am on this lovely Island again. Last year I have been here with my friend ScillyHH. This time I live in another part of Funchal. This is our holiday house.
In front of it there is this nice small palm tree.
And there are more wonderful flowers and plants in the garden.
And this is the best place of the house. Can you see the Cruise Ship behind me?
This is the Atlantic Ocean – what a nice view!
Hello friends,
Today we walked through a part of Funchal called Lido. There seems to be a lot of wind over the years. Look at this palm tree.
And I liked this big rock in the ocean.
Then we went into a nice garden with beautiful and big flowers.
This is a dragon tree – this is funny, because our holiday house is called Villa Dragoeiro – that’s the Portuguese name for it.
Hello friends,
As you can see on the photo, we visited the botanical garden of Funchal today.
What a wonderful view!
Of course I found beautiful flowers here.
This was a lake – with a waterfall!
Do you know these flowers?
Well – I already told you that I liked this view!
Maybe we should plant something like this in our garden?
Then I found a delicious fruit…
… and a big cabbage.
Maybe we should buy a bigger garden and create something like this?
I had a great time in this garden! And I have a lot of plans for our garden next year!
Hello friends,
It was time to see more from the Island – and we decided to drive to the Eastern Part of Madeira. On our way we stopped at a nice lookout and had this view.
We wanted to hike later – but just before our arrival a big rain started. These paths didn’t look great so we decided to hang around and maybe come back next week. But we were happy – many other hikers started earlier and really got soaked! I loved the small men out of stone here.
The view from the other side of the parking lot was nice, too.
Well – we started our trip back home and stopped at another great viewpoint. It was only 10 minutes after the other photo – and look at the sky!
What a wonderful place!
Hi friends,
We drove to the Western Part of the Island and passed a high plateau.
Unfortunately the weather wasn’t that good and we drove through the clouds…
Then we reached the town called Porto Moniz. The weather looked much nicer here.
This was funny – a natural swimming pool in the rocks.
The ocean looked wild here.
We went nearer to the big rock in the ocean. It was amazing.
Later we drove to the most Western Point of Madeira. There is a beautiful small lighthouse.
We had a great view over the high cliffs there.
Madeira is a wonderful place.
Look – there was the lighthouse we visited 10 minutes ago.
Our last stop was next to a small harbor.
Hello,
It was time for some sports today. I started on this ergometer.
Then I tried this machine, but it was not easy alone, so Laika helped me,
Then I trained my abdominals.
Well – I tried some weightlifting, but it was too heavy for me.
So we only posed for a group photo.
Later I trained my balance. Soeren helped me.
Then we all balanced on the big ball.
It was fun! And now there are some photos for my good friend HelmutBluepant.
This is his famous flower!
Hello friends,
I went to a nice place called Pico dos Barcelos. From there I had great views over Funchal.
What a beautiful big flower!
Somewhere there behind me is our holiday house.
Then we drove into the mountains and stopped at a point called Eira do Serrado.
What a wonderful place!
Hello,
We went to a place called Santana today. Look – what a wonderful big hydrangea.
Behind us you can see the typical houses of Santana.
What a nice place.
Back home I went through the garden and found new beautiful flowers.
This yellow bloom was so nice.
It is great to see so many blooming plants in October.
Hello Hello!
Can you see me?
Here I am – I belong to this piece of art.
I went to the Monte Palace Tropical Garden today. We saw a lot of plants, flowers and more there. Here you can see me inside a hollow trunk of a palm tree.
It was like a garden in Asia here.
This was funny – a friendly man fed the koi carps.
This is the palace of the garden.
I loved this place – a big lake with waterfalls and more.
At the end of our walk I met this friendly dragon.
Hello friends,
Let’s start with the view from our balcony – great!
We stayed in Coimbra and spent the morning in a nice park called Jardim do Portugal dos Pequenitos. Here we saw buildings from Portugal and countries related to Portugal in a smaller size. Unfortunately not in TV-size.
I liked the church.
But this castle was great, too.
I relaxed in the sunshine…
Something nice for our new garden!
Later we crossed the bridge and walked to the old city of Coimbra.
We stopped at a nice place.
Then we reached the top of the hill and saw the beautiful university.
Hello friends,
Today we visited a town called Aveiro, it looked a little like Venice, I think.
They had really beautiful houses there.
Unfortunately the weather wasn’t that nice this day, so we went to our hotel early in the afternoon and this is only a very short update.
Hello friends,
We went through Porto today and started with a wonderful church Sao Francisco.
Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos inside, but it was so beautiful. Then we went to the port – there were nice small streets.
And the view from the riverside was beautiful, too.
This bridge is famous!
We took an elevator to a higher point.
Look, I had a nice view.
This is the cathedral.
And I loved this big place.
I saw this cafe on a postcard, so it should be famous, too.
And this was the last monument we visited – a high tower.
It was a nice day in Porto.
Happy Birthday, dear Mum!
We started our day with a wonderful Birthday Song for my Mum.
Then we drove to a nice small town called Guimaraes. There we started our tour with this beautiful castle.
It was like an old fortress!
What a beautiful building!
Then we went into another nice Castle –unfortunately Mum forgot to take a photo with me outside of it – so here you can see it with me inside of it…
There were wonderful big rooms.
Some arms for knights!
I would have loved to have dinner here!
This was the church or maybe only a chapel.
At least I had a photo of the courtyard.
We left the Castle and walked through the old city.
A really nice place!
Hello friends,
After leaving Guimaraes we went to a town called Brawa. It seemed to be the town of churches…
The last stop there was a place called Bom Jesus. There was a wonderful garden with a lake…
And this is the big church there on the mountain…
…with some stairs down. But should we go down there?
Maybe this view is nice enough?
No, we walked down all the stairs – and had this great view!
Hello friends,
We visited Sintra today – and there we started with the beautiful Pena Palace.
I had a great view from the hill there.
Did I tell you that I LOVE this Castle?
There was another nice Castle on the other hill.
What a wonderful place!
Then we went to the center of Sintra, but we didn’t find many interesting things.
So we continued our trip and went to the Quinta Regaleira. It had a great garden. I started in a grotto.
Here you see the grotto from the outside.
This was interesting – a very deep well.
From this place I had a nice view over the Castle and the small Chapel.
Then we went to the most western Point of continental Europe.
What a wonderful place!
Our last stop was this Point in Cascais – called Hell’s mouth.
This was a really great day in Portugal!
Hello friends,
It was a wonderful day. We went to the Zoo today – and started with the cable car.
I had a great view over the zoo – and one of the big buildings behind me was our hotel.
We met some turtles.
And tall giraffes.
Then I saw small hippos.
We were really near to the flamingos.
Then I visited big hippos.
It was a great time in the Zoo. But now I want to show you my nice room in the hotel.
This was the place I really liked – on the big couch together with my friends.
But then we found this place – with a great view out of the window.
I showed my friends the Zoo where I spent the morning.
Hello friends,
Today we explored the city of Lisbon. I started with the Jerónimos Monastery – a beautiful building.
Behind me you can see the Monument to the Discoveries.
Next to it there was a small harbor.
I really liked the Belém Tower.
We took a trip with yellow hop-on-hop-of-buses and I had a great view from it.
This small tower with an elevator inside was really funny!
Later we spent some time on a nice place with wonderful buildings around and a nice fountain on it.
Soon we will fly back to Germany.
Love Dicker Kumpel