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Monte Palace Tropical Garden
To visit the Monte Palace tropical garden, we took the cable car up from Funchal to Monte and walked the rest of the way. The entrance to the garden looks humble from the outside road, so I was not quite expecting what we discovered. Inside was dense vegetation, both local and brought from many corners of the world, vibrant flowers, sculptures, portals and tile panels, all radiating history and life, in an atmosphere both peaceful and energising. We spent about three hours strolling from one themed part to another. Exotic-looking strelitzias, prominent agapanthus flowers and abundantly blooming hydrangeas decorated stretches of the paths, and walking along them was a treat for somebody…
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Funchal paving
While getting to know Funchal, we kept noticing the eye-catching paving in streets and squares. I started expecting it around every corner and enjoyed spotting each new one. Later I learned that this is traditional Portuguese mosaic paving, called calçada portuguesa. It is made of small, more or less regular pieces of stone arranged in black-and-light-brown patterns of various shapes, such as waves, fans, crescent moons, squares or spirals. Some patterns even include an image, such as a ship, compass rose, or flowery design. These looked especially impressive, and I admired the skill it took to put them together. Some paving on smaller paths is made only of black pebbles…
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Funchal mosaics and tiles
In Funchal, I was also struck by mosaics pieced together from tiles, some of them telling traditional stories of how people lived in Madeira. For example, one of them shows the toboggans made of wicker and wood, which in the 19th century carried people quickly from the hillside village of Monte down to the centre of Funchal, and which are now a popular tourist attraction. Another such mosaic depicts traditional thatched roofs. The large market mosaic on the front wall of the market itself, under which we saw a woman in folk costume selling flowers, connects the past and presence beautifully. The blue and white colouring of the tiles gave…
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Getting around Funchal and Madeira
When talking about transport in Madeira, I have to start with airplanes, and let me stop here for a while. Our flight to Madeira was our first flight after literally decades and when our tour guide heard that, she laughed, telling us that we chose a great flight to start with. As we understood and later experienced, the landing is not easy on the island as the planes have to manage a sharp turn at low altitude just before landing and then they face quite unpredictable windy conditions. One day we were watching the planes and we saw one of the planes bump quite significantly before fully landing. We also…
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Artistic Funchal
In the center of Funchal, not far from the city market, we came across an alley lined with artistically painted doors. Some paintings were realistic, others pure fantasy, and together they gave the street the feel of an open-air gallery. I didn’t photograph every single door — now I rather wish I had, if only to remember each scene more clearly. Later we found more painted doors scattered through other streets, but that first alley impressed me most. I have a soft spot for metal statues, and the ones we found here didn’t disappoint. Their green colouring added to the visual effect. Towns tend to put up statues of people…
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Funchal flowers and trees
The plant that I found most impressive in Madeira was a Plumeria tree with its abundant clusters of waxy looking pink and yellow flowers. The pink decorated the edges of the petals while the yellow spread from the middle of each flower, leaving the rest of the petals soft white. I guess we were lucky to be there at the right time to witness the vibrancy and freshness of the trees. I’m still enchanted by them and wish they could grow in our garden. Hydrangeas are undoubtedly my favourite bushes. Every year I buy one or two plants in a pot to decorate our terrace. I also tried to grow…
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Market in Funchal
Markets tend to be attractive sites as you can usually see a variety of goods and colours there, as well as people, whether they are sellers, buyers or just curious tourists. The city market in Funchal is no exception and if we were staying longer in the city, I’d have visited it many more times than just once. I was mainly impressed by the central part on the ground floor, which is filled with fruits and vegetables of many kinds. They looked fresh and to my Czech eyes often exotic. As I always prefer choosing the pieces I would like to buy, I appreciated that you could have a closer…
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Enchanted by Funchal
When my husband and I were looking for a holiday destination last year, Madeira — the Portuguese group of islands — captured our attention. It was pricier than we expected, but we decided to go anyway. Or rather to fly, as travelling by plane is the usual way to reach the main island. And we never regretted it — even after a year, I am still full of nice memories. I would like to share some of them here, with my photos and words, but do not expect a guide or recommendations of any kind. It’s rather a story of me falling in love with this interesting place that somehow…
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Strolling through Kutná Hora
In my previous post, where I was talking about our visit to St. Barbara’s Cathedral in Kutná Hora, I promised to share some photos from the town itself, and here they are. But before you scroll to them, I’d like to share a few comments. When looking up which places are worth visiting, I found the expected. The cathedral, the ossuary, churches and museums including an old silver mine and mint. But advice was also given simply to stroll through the historic centre, enjoy the atmosphere of the old buildings, and — importantly — come back another time and experience the town under different conditions. I can tell you, this is…
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St. Barbara’s Cathedral in Kutná Hora
I’d been longing to visit Kutná Hora and its St. Barbara’s Cathedral for ages, and finally, during the Easter weekend just gone, my wish came true when my husband suggested we could make it happen. And I can tell you — despite far-from-perfect weather bringing rain and an overcast sky — we had a wonderful time strolling through the town centre and visiting the cathedral. In 1995, the Gothic St. Barbara’s Cathedral, along with the historic centre of Kutná Hora, was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. It richly deserves the recognition, and I imagine the listing also helps secure funding for further maintenance. There are many fascinating historic buildings in…
