Madeira: “Levadas”

“Levadas” are aqueducts in Madeira Island built in order to bring water from the North of the Island where it is abundant to the South where the main colonization of the Island has always taken place. Besides carrying water the Levadas also create walk trails in the landmass of Madeira that are the best ways to explore the natural wealth of this island. You’ll be able to see the laurisilva endemic forest (UNESCO World Heritage, 1999) with trees like Ocotea foetens, Laurus azorica or Persea indica and also birds like the Trocaz Pigeon or the Pterodroma madeira and others.

There are many trails with different difficulty ratings, I don’t know yet if I’m going to post specifically about different levadas later but it is easy to find the information on any of the hotels or tourism centers in the island.

Most of these trails will take several hours to complete and go across remote parts of the island so you shouldn’t go alone in case you get hurt or need medical assistance for some reason.

Lagoa do Vento 01

Lagoa do Vento 02

Lagoa do Vento 03

Caldeirão Verde 01

Caldeirão Verde 02

Caldeirão Verde 03

Special thanks to Carolina for the photos.

“Caldeirão Verde” means Green Cauldron; “Lagoa do Vento” means Wind Lagoon

There aren’t snakes or any other dangerous animals in the Island.

Helpful Links: MadeiraNature.com

Other interesting links: MadeiraIsland.travel; Youtube (levada video); Madeira 1st post

Madeira: more photos (2)

Please click the photos for aditional information and higher resolution images.

Madeira Liquors

Funchal (Cable Car)

Agriculture on a wall

Roads across the mountains

Waterfall

Another road in the mountains

Flowers for sale

Note: For more information about Madeira Island please check my first post about Madeira: HERE

Melgaço: Matriz Church

Note: Religious content – This following post shows the inside of a Roman Catholic Church in Melgaço, if you don’t want to see the photos please skip it.  Sorry for the inconvinience.

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“Igreja Matriz” was also known as “Igreja de Santa Maria da Porta” which means Saint Mary of the Door because it was located near the Eastern Door of the town walls (nowadays inexistent) in the medieval ages. According to the date in the smaller door of the Temple, the church was built in 1262; however the monument was improved and restored during the centuries.

The main door has a more recent style, almost gothic, probably from the last quarter of the XIII century.

Matriz Church main door

In the interior altars are made of wood with gilded details. view photo 1; view photo 2; view photo 3; view photo 4

On the left chapel there are oil paintings from the XVI century. view photo

Melgaço: Memory and Frontier

Museum “Espaço Memória e Fronteira”

ticket: 1€

Melgaço’s extensive border with Spain (either by land or across the Minho River) made this municipality a possible way of leaving and entering Portugal unnoticed, especially before the opening of the borders when Portugal joined the European Union in 1986.

Memory and Frontier building

The museum “Memory and Frontier” is dedicated to the contraband history that used to be a part of the municipality and also to the illegal emigrants who left Portugal during the dictatorial regime years, searching abroad for a better life and job opportunities in order to be able to send money back to their families.

Contraband was most common during the decade of 1940. The ground floor of the museum features some original objects in exhibition like a small boat, a coffee toaster and a republican guard uniform. Any product with an interesting price difference between Portugal and Spain would be smuggled: coffee, soap, rice, almonds, and chocolate for example.

The emigration part starts with a ramp towards the second floor symbolizing the search of a new life. The second floor shows the visitors the causes of the emigration, the preparations to the journey, passports and suitcases. Once you reach the second floor the documents are dedicated to the arrival and adaptation to the destination countries. Melgaço was a way towards France, Luxembourg, Belgium and Switzerland but many Portuguese also emigrated to USA, Brazil and Venezuela during this period.

The museum is linked to the center of the town (Vila – Melgaço) by a pedestrian bridge over the small river “Rio do Porto”.

Note 1: I actually liked visiting the museum: it displays interesting objects, it is well organised and it is quite interactive with motion detectors locating the visitor and adapting the soundtrack. Unfortunately the sound and texts in the museum are in Portuguese only.

The bridge (2)

The museum bridge

My only photo inside

Memory and Frontier building

Note 2: unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take photos inside the museum. Here you have a couple of photos I found in the municipality webpage (site in portuguese)

• View Photo 1
• View Photo 2

Melgaço: Cinema Museum

Museu de Cinema de Melgaço – ticket: 1€

More than thirty years ago a French cinephile met a Portuguese couple and accepted their proposition to spend holidays in Melgaço. His name was Jean-Loup Passek, he was responsible for the International Festival of La Rochelle, a cinema counselor at the Georges Pompidou Centre, wrote a Cinema Dictionary (“Dictionnaire du Cinema” edited by Larousse) and coordinated the “Camera d’Or” award in the Cannes Festival. It seems he was so much charmed by the town that some say he mentioned the ideia of creating a museum dedicated to the 7^th art in his first visit.

The Cinema Museum of Melgaço contains all the donated private collection of Jean-Loup Passek. I was told that the first room is permanent and the rest keeps rotating every week or two.

First Room

 In the first room you’ll find XIX century objects, previous to the invention of the cinematograph by the Lumière brothers, like magic lanterns and others with strange names like “Zoetrope”, “Praxinoscope”, “Phenakistoscope“ or “Phantascope”. Not only are these old inventions of technique and science but also the testimony of the search of new ways of entertainment and of manipulating perception by Mankind.

La Dolce Vita poster

After the first room, when I visited the museum, the rest of the exposition was dedicated to the Italian director Federico Fellini (1920 – 1993), with film posters, photos and even a letter from the director to Jean-Loup Passek. As said before, this section changes periodically.

The museum also features a small “viewing room” with chairs facing a screen hanging in front of the exposed Castle wall. The screen displays short films of Charlie Chaplin and of Buster Keaton, among others.

The museum is located in Old Town – Vila – Melgaço. For more info check other posts under the “Melgaço” category like THIS ONE.

Federico Fellini

La Dolce Vita photo

Amarcord poster

Short Films Room

Phenakistoscope, Zoetrope

First Room

First Room

La Dolce Vita poster

First Room

Melgaço: more photos

More photos taken in Vila – Melgaço. Please check the map i’ve created in Google for orientation: HERE.

Rio do Porto path

Praça da Republica

Largo Hermenegildo Solheiro

One of the entrances to Old Town

Post Office (Correios)

Matriz Church

Dr. Afonso Costa Street

You’ll find multiple vases

Melgaço: Exploring the town

Although the municipality of Melgaço covers a wide area (238,1km² or 91, 9 square miles approximately) the main town – “Vila” is a small place.

Walking is the best way to explore Vila and I think I don’t need to recommend you a specific path. You’ll find multiple services like the Post Office, cafes and stores as you would expect from any small town. It’s also safe so if you want to go out for your explorations at 4a.m you won’t have any problem. Please check the map i’ve created in Google for orientation: HERE.

Some tips to guide your walk:

There are two squares in Vila: “Largo Hermenegildo Solheiro” where the TownHall is located and near the Firefighter’s HQ; “Praça da Republica” where you can visit small underground ruins and there’s also a free Internet Center.

Largo Hermenegildo Solheiro

You should also walk along the “Rio do Porto” Urban Park (blue line) along a small river to find a playground for kids, a small half-pipe (and an area for skaters to master their tricks) and a bar (called Rio’s) behind the City Hall.

In the Old Town zone, streets are smaller and maybe more confusing. If you follow “Rua Direita” which pretty much is the main-broader-street there you should have no problem finding the entrance to the Castle, “Solar do Alvarinho” (– the building dedicated to the Alvarinho Wine), the “Matriz” Church and the Cinema Museum. The Castle Gardens are also nearby of course.

Rua Direta – Old Town

Largo da Calçada

Republica Sq, Castle in the background

Towards “Largo da Calçada”

walking along “Rio do Porto” path

Dr. Antonio Durães Street

Praça da Republica

Largo Hermenegildo Solheiro

Inside Carmo and Carmelitas churches

Note: Religious content – This following post shows the inside of Roman Catholic Churches in Oporto, if you don’t want to see the photos please skip it.  Sorry for the inconvinience.

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For more information on the location of this churches please check the “Praça de Gomes Teixeira” post.

Carmo

Carmo Church

Carmo Church or “Church of the Third order of Carmo” was built in the second half of the XVIII century in Rococo style, following the project by José Seixas. In 1912 the outside wall was covered by a huge “Azulejo” designed by Silvestre Silvestri.

In the interior, golden chapels have a very detailed ornamentation. view photo 1 ; view photo 2 ; view photo 3

There is a painting on the ceiling of the main chapel. view photo 4

Carmelitas

Carmelitas Church

The monastery of the Carmelitas barefoot friars and its Church were built in the first half of the XVII century. The church is designed in style with Classical and Baroque influences. In the XVIII century the interior was enriched with gilded chapels and pulpits. The monastery part of the building was converted into military quarters after the extinction of the religious orders in the XIX century.

The backgrounds of the chapels look simpler than Carmo Church. view photo 1 ; view photo 2

There is a chapel on the entrance dedicated to the Virgin Mary apparitions in Fatima. view photo

 There is a Pipe Organ upstairs in the choir area. view photo

Oporto: Using the Metro

Metro vehicle

“Metro do Porto”  is a light-rail network that currently provides transport services to 68 stations in the metropolitan area of Oporto. The network is relatively new so it will look small and inappropriate for the city needs but new lines are already planned or being built.

I’ve been asked for help by tourists using the Metro in Oporto since it can be a bit confusing at first. Hope this helps you master it from the arrival.

Getting your first title:

 As an example we’ll imagine you are at the Airport and you want to go to Trindade in the center of Oporto.

This is a ticket vending machine:

Metro Ticket Machine

1-      Check the list of destinations to know what kind of title (“título”) you need – in this case z4.

2-      Use this button to change the language to English

3-      Follow the onscreen instructions and this buttons to buy a new “Andante” card with one z4 title in it

4-      Pay your Andante + title (1,95€ in the example).

Note: If the machine you’re using doesn’t accept banknotes try the other one in the same station.

5-      Collect your Andante card

6-      Validate your ticket (*)

Now that you have an Andante card check the indicators above the tracks that indicate the direction of the next vehicle and estimated time to arrival to that station.

(*)You must always validate you andante by “showing” it in front on one of this sensor machines before getting in the vehicle:

Validating machine

You’ll get a green light and an indication in the display of how many titles there are left in your Andante card.

The title you used is valid for 1hour (on the metro, bus and some trains) so you can change line or even to get into a bus during that hour with that very same title but please always re-validate the card in the sensor machines you encounter.               

After using your title in the Andante Card you should keep it, it is reusable -it will allow you to change the kind of title or to recharge titles in the same Andante machines. 

Helpful Links: Metro do Porto official site ;       Full Metro Map

 

ticket + validating

Madeira: More Photos (1)

Looking at the Blog Stats during October it seems that the photos of Cabo Girão and Santana - Madeira were everyone’s favourites. Here you have more photos of the funny traditional houses and more breathtaking landscape views of Madeira Island. Enjoy.

For more info please re-visit the previous Madeira post.

Another strange flower at Santana

Land meets Ocean - Cape and Cliff

Eira do Serrado

“Eira do Serrado” or “Pico do Serrado” is another precipice like “Cabo Girão” however this time there’s no sea but land at the bottom. And there’s a town down there called “Curral das Freiras“, it was the most remote town in the island until the relatively recent opening of a tunnel.

Porto Moniz from above

Thanks everyone for your visits.