The beautiful conclusion: Madeira

The last two destinations of my world trip were the Canary Islands with the Spanish Tenerife and the Portuguese Madeira. Both islands are quite close together, but they are very different and my heart clearly favored Madeira after my two visits.

Tenerife is a popular holiday island with over 5 million tourists per year, which naturally influences the island's development and design. The ship docked in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the capital of Tenerife, with modern buildings, such as the concert and convention center opened in 2003, which resembles the Sydney Opera House and has also become a landmark of the city near the port. The weather was warm and as we entered the harbor, we could see the Teide volcano with its white peak. I spent most of the day in Puerto de la Cruz, where I had been before and noticed that it hadn't changed much, except that it had gained even more high-rise buildings and shops. Puerto is a pure tourist resort, there is no beach, only a small black lava sand beach and a seawater pool complex. Everything is nicely laid out, but very densely built. Since I was there on a public holiday, which all places with the word "Cruz" for cross in their name celebrated, I could admire the beautifully decorated crosses on the house walls and see a procession through the city. In the end, a day fireworks display was fired, which I had never seen before. Fireworks were shot into the blue sky, their explosion was visible and they created small white clouds, which looked quite beautiful. In any case, it made a lot of noise and thrilled the people.

Madeira the next day revealed itself as more than just an elegant beauty. When the ship entered the harbor, it passed the mountainsides with many beautiful, but not so tall houses. The capital Funchal with its harbor is surrounded by mountains up to 1200m high and slopes, and it looks like an amphitheater. By the way, the name Funchal comes from the Portuguese word "funcho" for fennel, which the Portuguese explorers found abundantly there and named the city after it.

The whole island is beautiful, wherever you look and drive, especially with its blooming in the most splendid colors, Madeira lives up to its name as the "Island of Flowers." The annual flower festival had just begun, and real carpets were made out of flowers and blossoms on the streets in Funchal. It was a lot of fun to watch the design process. The festival lasted for 2 weeks, and on the weekend, the big flower parade takes place, for which grandstands were already set up. It's a shame that I couldn't experience it live. But just from what I could see of the flower arrangements and decorations, I was already thrilled. Participating in the entire festival must be very special, and I will keep that in mind for my future travel planning. In addition to flowers, Madeira is also known for its dessert wine. Therefore, we went to a nice wine bar where we tasted the different varieties.

But Madeira must definitely be seen from above, which the very modern cable car allows for quickly and easily. In the village of Monte, we enjoyed the magnificent view of Funchal and the port and, of course, on our ship. In Monte itself, there is a beautiful church (Nossa Senhora do Monte) and a tropical garden with wonderful flowers and plants. This is also in competition with the Botanical Garden and Blandy's Garden.

The funniest and fastest experience was the ride down to the valley with the famous wicker toboggans, the Toboggan, which run on runners and are steered downhill by two men wearing straw hats and blue and white clothes. Sometimes it looked dangerously close because cars were parked at the edge, but by turning the sled sideways, speed was reduced, and we all arrived unharmed at the bottom of the valley after a 2 km ride. I can only recommend this mode of transportation, it's really fun and used to be a necessity or the only way to transport things from the top to the valley. So plenty of inventiveness 100 years ago now provides visitors with a lot of fun.

Every viewpoint on the island always offered new perspectives, and it really seems to be very beautiful everywhere. Funchal is modern but still atmospherically laid-back and beautiful with inviting restaurants, generously laid-out parks, and many water features.

Thus, the visit was a nice conclusion to the many excursions during my world trip and could not have been better chosen. I felt like I was back in Europe again, but it was still charming and interesting. Overall, I visited 40 different ports during this trip on the "Queen Elizabeth" from where I experienced many different and also very interesting cities and encounters. So, I regret that the time is almost over. Theoretically, I would like to continue.

Now the captain's farewell party is taking place, and a day later, the farewell lunch with my international group, because for most people, the journey ends on May 8, 2017, in Southampton. I still have 2 more days until I return to Hamburg.

Now I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all of you who always read my blog posts with great interest and kept me up to date by email. Of course, I am also very much looking forward to seeing all of you again soon.

Until we meet again, I wish you all the best, stay healthy, and "take care" and: "A BIG THANK YOU!"

Eva