OMG, Madeira!

This was a wonder. Madeira is a small island in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Morocco, north of the Canary Islands and south of Cape Verde Islands. It is an an autonomous region of Portugal, the population is about 250,000 year round and it is lovely! First off, it's mountainous. Really mountainous! The whole island is vertical so one will have to deal with hills everywhere. 

I think it's Europe's Hawaii. Northern Europeans flock here for the winter months and it sounds as if the climate is similar to Hawaii's. (I've since discovered that high temps can be in the 50's in the winter, so that is un-Hawaiian.) Warm every day. But the mountains and the gardens! Everything is terraced and every home has extensive gardens. And they grow everything! Sugar cane, lots of bananas, mangoes, artichokes, avocados, passion fruit. It is never ending. And the flowers are awesome (this was written Dec 6!).

Diane on the walkway overlooking the Atlantic...

Our tour included a trip to the top of 
the second highest seaside cliff on earth. It's 2000 ft in elevation and it drops straight to the Atlantic. 

...and the view down!

Everything here is clean and new looking. The capital city of Funchal is modern and beautiful, with tiled streets and sidewalks and beautiful garden parks. This is a place that will require further investigation. I am really high on Madeira at the moment and hope to return.

Add caption

When we departed Madeira, we were leaving Europe for good. If not Europe the continent, for we departed Civitivecchia 3 days prior, at least European culture. For Madeira, in truth, lies closer to Africa then to Portugal or Spain. As we left Madeira behind it's lights and vertical inclination made a ribbon of gold bisecting a black sea and sky. It was quite beautiful and reflective for me as I watched it fade into the distance.

Terraced gardens all around

Ted rockin his hip-hop look

Can you see the cable car transporting people up and down the cliffside?

Enjoying a cappuccino

The happy couple!

View of the harbor with our ship, the Ruby Princess

Winston Churchill wintered here late in his life

Yeah, the city streets were inlaid mosiac like this. Quite beautiful!

Street musicians

Another beautiful street

There was a graduation ceremony in the local church...

Musicians relax during the ceremony..

...and then they let it rip!

Madeira is a beautiful place!

So long until next time!

Thanksgiving and the western Mediterranean

Click here for more photos of Bormes, Barcelona, Montserrat and Orvieto

We're back to Toulon France, where we spent Thanksgiving Day. We had a nice day in Toulon visiting the hillside town of Bormes-les-Mimosa. What is left to say, it's yet another charming medieval town with narrow streets and lot's of flowers. Since the season is over, everything was closed making for a nice quiet day.

In between, we spent yesterday at Barcelona and the old Benedictine Monastery complex at Montserrat. It was the end of one cruise and the beginning of the second so about half the ship's travelers left us and we picked up a new set of passengers. 

The extraordinary Gaudi designed cathedral. Scheduled for
completion in 2026

The view from Montserrat. Cable cars take visitors to the bottom

And the funicular takes travelers to the summit of the mountain

The interior of the Santa Maria de Monserrat

The monastery exterior. Montserrat has been a religious shrine since the time of the Roman settlements in Spain

The itinerary now has us backtracking from here to Livorno and Civitivecchia before moving on to our Atlantic voyage.

We had a great time visiting Orvieto from our port in Civitevecchia. It was a long drive from port but it was worth it. Orvieto is yet another beautifully preserved medieval village, but this one is a bit different. It was a Etruscan settlement Rome came into being but once the Romans conquered it, it was abandoned until medieval times. In 1300 they began construction on the cathedral, which they call the Duomo. I hadn't heard of it before, but it was breathtaking. The sculpture and fresco paintings were extraordinary. Unfortunately, no photographs were permitted inside the church but I did get some photos of the exterior. The miracle of the transfiguration happened nearby and the blood stained alter cloth is a relic displayed in the church. The frescoes are very famous and were used by Michaelangelo as a model for the Sistine Chapel. One can easily see where his motivation came from. They are vivid since they were recently cleaned and magnificent. It is amazing how much nudity is on view in this church! The murals show the story of the anti-christ and they show the results of sinful living. Risque stuff. 

The cathedral

The shops were beautiful and colorful!

The light was low at 4pm. Great time to take more photos!

San Gimignano, Pisa and Tuscany

Click on this link for more photos of Tuscany

So if yesterday's wine tasting was fun, today's was off the charts. 

Ted and Nan joined us on this all day tour and following a visit to beautiful San Gimignano, we went for a tasting at another vineyard. The owner was a piece of work and the setting was really beautiful. Good feng-shui. Anyway, I think we sampled 11 wines so between the wacky owner and the flowing wine we all really got going. The owner said that the winery has been in the family since the 1700's. 

The Tuscan countryside is magnificently beautiful with its vineyards and olive groves and hills all around. I was surprised to find that the Alps are also often visible in the distance. Quite beautiful.

Anyway, the lesson was clear: good food, fine wine, and love really makes for a rich and wonderful life. They realize here that one should work to live while we so often are guilty of living to work. I'm ready to make the commitment to live well, like the Italians! 




Here are photos of our same day visit to Pisa: