Madeira

We arrived on Madeira last evening, the sun was shining , nice and warm 19c, what a lovely greeting.

 

A couple of shots of the pool complex at the Royal Savoy Resort where we will be spending the next four weeks.

From the top floor you can just

 see the harbour,  two cruise ships in dock today.

The lobby, still with Christmas decorations.

This morning we decided to visit the market in Funchal about a half hour stroll along the harbour front. Walked into the lobby and they are taking down the decorations.

This shot taken from the vegetable part looking down on the fish market. It was after 11am when we arrived, a little late most of the buying and selling  had been done and the fish merchants were starting to tidy away.

The fish above are called Espada and are only found here off Madeira and some of the Japanese Islands, they live about a 1000 metres down in the ocean, the ones on the left are as they come out of the sea, the ones on the right after their black skins are scraped off.

 One of the Market workers taking the black skin off.

More fish, we really must get ourselves together and get down here early to experience this when its really busy.

Back up the stairs to the fruit and veg.  This is exotic fruit, nuts, herbs and dried peppers.

 

The flower section, all these flowers grow on the island, as does all the vegetables and fruit.

They don't get very high temperatures on Madeira, in summer in very rarely goes above the high 20s, at the moment the range is highs of 20/22 lows of 16/18 they grow everything from bananas to sugar cane to potatoes.

In and around Sintra.

We have spent the last couple of days wandering around Sintra, looking at all the wonderful buildings, just enjoying this place and the wonderful weather we are experiencing at the moment. The building above is real, it's the Palacio National da Pena, perhaps the most beutiful of all the Royal Palaces. The inside of the palace is exactly as it was in 1910 when the royals abdicated, it's quite amazing, as if they had just gone out for a walk.

I was sitting on a wall taking pics of the palace when this tour bus went by, nearly taking my legs off at the knees.

The Moorish Castle next to the Palace.

Looking down the valley towards Lisbon in the distance.

The Moorish castle walls up close. The moors were expelled in 1147 after nearly 300 years of occupation, lots of excavating going on here, they are finding evidence that people have lived on this hill for over 500 years.  All this will result in making this place evan more interesting in the future I'm sure.

Back in Sintra in time for a late lunch, will leave you with some more photos of the outside art exhibition

This one I like the best, from a different angle than yesterday's shot.

Tomorrow we leave Sintra and fly to the island of Madeira.  For those not in the know, it's a big rock sticking up in the middle of the Atlantic with a semitropical rain forest perched precariously to its sides.

With lots to see and some amazing fish and fruit to eat - and they do eat the two together.

Coimbra to the Roman ruins at Conimbriga & then on to Sintra.

We spent New Years Day wandering around the old part of Coimbra and its university.   The building above is the Cathedral, it's a fortified building and dosn't resemble a church very much.

The main university building with the Biblioteca Joanina to the right, with over 300,000 ancient leather bound books

The Laboratory Building.

The ancient Aquaducto which supplied

Coimbra with its water.

The entrance to the botanical gardens, unfortuently the gardens were closed for the day.

The  Seminary.

Friday morning we left Coimbra and drove the 16 klm to the Roman Ruins of Conimbriga.

The main roman road leading into the site, this road is exactly 4 meters wide and runs from Lisbon to Braga and then on into northern Spain and south west France, 4m which allowed 2 chariots to pass by each other. The more you see of Roman Ruins the more impressed you become with their achievements.

The remains of a villa, the bit in the centre under the glass would have been outside 2000 years ago, the columns supported a covered walkway round the garden.

This was the citern at the end of an Aquaduct which brought the water 3klm from the source. They hold out door concerts there now.

The ruins are immense, the rock pile behind is what remains of the city walls.

SINTRA the pearl of Portugal, been here four times now and never tire of this place. The Palacio National de Sintra. With moorish origins and much changed over the centuries.

The town Hall.

At the moment in Sintra they are having an outdoor art exhibition, this is one of the exhibits. Just love this exhibit.

More on Sintra tomorrow.

A drive to the Atlantic

We are now in Coimbra a old city in the centre of Portugal.

Today we decided to give viewing ancient buildings a miss and and just have a drive out to the seaside. On our way to Figuira da Foz, we passed this castle on a hill, this we had to visit.

Montemor-o-Velho, on a hill rising from the marshy plain is simply a beautiful well looked after castle, not much there except for a little church and well kept pathways and grounds.

We really enjoyed just walking around the grounds.

The church and inside- very simple.

More views of the church and grounds.

The northern part of Figuera da Foz beach.

Looking south to Figueira da Foz.

A really enjoyable drive through the countryside around the city of Coimbra