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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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Krahbergzinken view
Austria – day 6 – tour to Krahbergzinken (2134 m). Directly from Schladming, you can take a cable car up to the Planai area, where you can either take quite an easy walk around, including visiting the peak Planai (1906 m), or you can choose a bit more challenging tour reaching the peak Krahbergzinken (2134 m). Notice the cheerful hare character watching you from the cable car windows? It refers to “Hopsiland” attractions for kids and I found myself smiling back at that funny-looking cute face whenever we encountered it in the Schladming area. Not far from the upper cable car station, three majestic peaks stand side by side, gracefully adorning the…
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Three-peak hike
Austria – day 5 – three-peak hike to Gasselhöhe (2001 m), Rippetegg (2126 m) and Schober (2133 m). From all the hiking and walking we did in the Schladming area, this hike to three peaks was and remains my absolute favourite. The combination of breathtaking vistas and just the right amount of physical challenge made the day truly special. Let me take you through the journey. After getting off the Reiteralm cable car, our first destination was the Gasselhöhe peak. You can reach it either by climbing a shorter but steeper track with rewarding backward views or by following a slightly longer though gentler path. When you finally reach the ridge, the…
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Tour of three lakes
Austria – day 4 – tour of Styrian Bodensee, Hüttensee and Obersee. Not far from Schladming, there is another popular destination, a lake in the woods called Styrian Bodensee, from which you can continue up to the lake Hüttensee and even further up to the lake Obersee. The Bodensee is a place where you can stay and relax, eat in the restaurant, stroll around the lake, paddle on a boat… Or you can climb up the hills and visit the other lake(s), which is challenging but definitely worth the effort. The only drawback is that you may have to go the same way back, and I never like that. We arrived…
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Up to Dachstein massif
Austria – day 3 – Dachstein massif adventure. Who would not want to see the world from the bird’s perspective? And if you can let a cable car take you as high as possible in the Dachstein massif so that you can see its awesome views from above, you may even experience that perspective for a while. Well, let me pause here… as to get up there is just a part of the success. The other one is having luck regarding weather because on a cloudy and misty day, you cannot see much, and unfortunately that was our case. The trip was planned, the tickets were reserved and that gave…
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On trail round Rittisberg
Austria – day 2 – late afternoon. When we were coming back from Silberkarklamm to Schladming, there was still enough time to make one more stop along the way. Thus we found ourselves on the Rittisberg mountain, which we reached by a cable car from Ramsau am Dachstein. From the upper station, we just followed quite an easy scenic trail around the mountain, with a game for children to make them enjoy the walk, some nice views for adults… …and several environmental art-in-nature exhibits, such as these: You can find more info about the exhibits and their creators on the Landart Rittisberg website. The thoughts on the exhibits – what…
