Tag: Europe

The Pico Ruivo is with 1861m the highest mountain on Madeira. A well-developed hiking trail leads from the car park to the top of the mountain. The way was quite exhausting, especially the last 500 meters. After 2500 meters you reach the above shown house, approx. 500 meters before the summit (where it gets quite […]

The so-called “Valley of the Nuns” Curral das Freiras was also on our list. However, it was not quite the expected highlight. Especially at the Miradouro do Curral das Freiras there are many tourists, who are driven up by busses during a day trip.

At first we didn’t really have this place on our list. Here the visitor also has the rough lava coast, as in Porto Moniz. Would be interesting how this place is when winds are higher.. In the picture above the view goes towards Sao Vicente. Through the cut between east and west part of the […]

We were several times in Porto Moniz, also on the round tour, in one go completely around the island. Right behind Porto Moniz there is Achadas da Cruz. The easiest way to reach the village is via a cable car (thanks, no, I’d rather not :-)).

Here is another sequence of 4 pictures. All were taken within 50 seconds. There you can see how fast the clouds move through the area.

On our north-east tour we also visited the tourist magnet Santana. In the late morning all regular parking places were already occupied. A little further up the road was a restaurant/hotel with sufficient parking. On request we could leave the car there. Shortly before we left, the first bus arrived… At the hotel there was […]

One can spend so much time at the two lava rocks Ilheus da Rib and Ilheus da Janela in Ribeira da Janela without true success. We went there five times, but the light was never right. At sunrise an ideal shot, as the sun rises behind the rocks, it was almost completely cloudy, or around noon […]

The cloud forest Fanal is an extraordinary location. At about 1100m altitude there is first a clear view, then clouds rush through and everything is enveloped, shortly after, the clouds are gone again. This is very impressive. If the cloud phase lasts a little longer, you can easily get lost there…

Only a few satisfying sunsets were granted to us. Most of the time all high clouds disappeared in the evening and the sky was completely clear. In the evening after the Levada hike we drove to the peninsula São Lourenço and looked which side it should be at sunset. First we went to Ponta do […]

On Wednesday of the first week we went on the way to our levada hike. On the way there a short stop at a viewpoint on the ER110. Shortly after the intermediate stop we reached the parking lot to the Levada trail. First you have to walk on an asphalted road to the “Casa do […]