Every year on the first of may the city of Funchal pays homage to its Patron Saint, Saint Tiago menor. That was a good reason for us today to Funchal. What exactly the celebration should look like, When they begin and when they would end, had not been here unfortunately the Internet. Wir brachen gemütlich nach dem Frühstück auf und kamen zu spät 🙂 Zwar waren noch einige Hauptstraßen in Funchal gesperrt, the procession was probably already over and we wanted to not attend the subsequent fair.

So versteckte sich der Heiligen Tiago Menor in dieser schönen Kirche und wurde nicht gesehen 🙂 Pech gehabt, but also not bad. In the beautiful sunshine, we could finally meet Funchal. It was among the ten largest cities in Portugal. In the autumn we had spent only one night here and seen much yet.

In part, the old town in a pretty sad state is and at some points, we was really surprised, that the houses still stand. Often can be seen through the window on the first floor directly into the sky and the pigeons enjoy free housing.

But no matter in what condition were the houses, die Türen machen alles wieder wett 🙂 Hier ein paar schöne Beispiele:

Around noon, we had had enough of the city, bought us yet a thick ice and decide, yet to make a trip in the nature. There is a plateau in the western part of Madeira, We wanted to visit last October already. The access road was unfortunately locked but. But after six months, the passport should be back open.

So kurvten wir hinauf in die Berge und standen wenig später wieder vor dem gesperrten Pass 🙁 Mit Internetrecherche wäre das nicht passiert 🙂 Denn dort hätte ich gefunden, that extensive work is needed after a rock to secure the road ER110, that would take probably much longer time. The next time we will choose a different approach. It would be don't laughed, wenn wir diesen Teil der Insel nicht auch erreichen würden 🙂

While we were on the steep and winding streets, we found, that posted it on the Internet “Car rental bargains” Unfortunately a few quirks had. With the motorization of too low, Dietmar had already resigned. Sporty it's going with the car in the minority of cases, aber dieser Fiat Panda war schon besonders speziell 🙂 Am Elch-Test wäre er wahrscheinlich kläglich gescheitert, denn schon bei geringer Geschwindigkeit und schärferen Kurven quietschten die Reifen und wir kamen leicht ins Rutschen 🙂 Und diesmal lag es wohl nicht an Dietmars Fahrweise. Also the strange noise under the car, as if we have the items of in a washing machine the trunk of, were not very confidence. Since it but during the entire tour were not worse, We made up the radio sometime, wahrscheinlich die portugiesische Lösung des Problems 🙂

On the way back, we chose a small country road on the north side of the island and enjoyed the beautiful views and the beautiful weather.

We were today but not alone, all Madeira seemed to be. Also in Portugal is most 1. May the “Labor Day” as official holiday and this year resulted in even a long weekend. So you put kith and kin, A tent and picnic table, and yet surprisingly many other things and drives in the nature. Almost everywhere, where more than three trees were idyllic together, stand jetzt auch ein Tisch darunter 🙂 und es wurde gegrillt und gefeiert 🙂 Auch die Aussichtspunkte, Restaurants and Cafés, ja sogar die Parkplätze waren überall mehr als gut besucht 🙂

We had them but not scare us, schließlich war genug Platz für alle da 🙂 Direkt in der Nähe der Marina entdeckt wir noch einen Aussichtspunkt an der Vulkanküste mit einem Leuchtturm – a nice conclusion of our day tour.

But not enough of the good: Back at the port we arranged the SY MERRY MARY Harbour restaurant us with the crew. Seriously Dietmar knew already from the Marina San Miguel Tenerife. He is with his daughter Kiran and two friends on the way back to Cuxhaven. In the next few days to proceed to the Azores. Quite late the entertaining round broke up, but tomorrow, it would certainly give a repeat. Es gab ja noch so viel zu erzählen 🙂