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Islands.12

I’ve shown you one image from this far-western edge of the island in a prior post, but this time we’ll show you the lighhouse and the spectacular, vertiginously steep, and remarkably lonely coastal views on both sides: because the lighthouse is a few kilometers downhill from the already-remote and small village of Ponta do Pargo, it’s impossible to avoid the clear sense that the ocean really does stretch for thousands of kilometers to the west before one will see any inhabited land again. My holiday wish for us all is that we may enjoy quality time with loved ones, and may some form of light always guide our steps at this end of year holiday season. Merry Christmas 😊

City Lights.12

This year’s installation for the Amsterdam Light Festival in a little park near my office. You can see last year’s here. The whole festival is installed in and around canals on my office’s side of town, so I’ve seen some of them biking to and from work already, but do plan a boat tour some evening soon (not locked down this year, so I can do it a bit more warmly than last year!), and hopefully share some photos with you in future posts.

City Lights.11

Funchal really does Christmas lights in a big, big way. Notice the lighter blue lights in the peaked roofs on this waterfront cafe, just above? Those are volcanoes erupting, and though I tried, I couldn’t get the video to upload well nor did it really show the eruptions well enough to bother… Last holiday-lights show from Funchal here, and then some from Amsterdam next, which as you may recall from many posts last year does its own winter lights quite nicely :-).

Islands.11

Swirling low-hanging clouds e.g. mist at Boca de Encumeada, the pass and peak at the top of the giant valley which cuts north to south, from which you’ve seen many photos in various past posts :-).
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Urban Garden.131

Village Views.31

Sao Vicente, on the north coast, looking inland or south around sunset time.

Coasting.41

Coasting.40

Urban Canals.120

At least, if the sun had to be setting at 16:20, it was kind enough to be a clear (and cold!) day as the plane lined up for its landing at Schiphol last Wednesday :-).

City Views.160

Sunset looking both at (above) and from (below) Funchal’s Forte de São Tiago, which I called “the older fort” in a prior post. The “newer” fort will feature in a future post.

Small Wonders.160

Birds of Paradise were blooming beautifully just about everywhere we went on Madeira – in fact the guidebooks say that December is their month on the island 🙂

Urban Entrances.60

Both from Monte, uphill from the Gardens, and definitely officially part of the city of Funchal, so however rural these may look, they’re urban, gosh darn it 🙂

City Lights.10

The Funchal Cathedral by night (above); the older fort & a departing cruise ship (below).
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Islands.10

Village Views.30

More from the middle of the island, looking north towards Sao Vicente where you see the ocean.