Mindelo on Sao Vicente, Cape Verde

On the Amazon cruise, the next stop after Funchal in Madeira was Cape Verde. I've been here once before, when I spent a week on Sal in 2016. This time we stopped at Mindelo on Sao Vicente.

Cape Verde is one of the smallest and poorest of the African nations, lying 643 km off the coast of
Senegal. 9 of the 10 volcanic islands are inhabited. Sao Vicente is in the northwest group.

The Barlavento islands are the windward islands, which means they are subject to the prevailing winds.

The island was discovered by the Portuguese in 1462 on St Vincent's Day (January 22), hence the name. Due to lack of water it was only used for grazing cattle.

Mindelo is a port city in the northern part of Sao Vicente. It is home to 93% of the island’s population. A settlement was founded by the Portuguese in 1793 and it became a coal deposit for ships of the British East India Company. In 1884 a submarine communications cable was laid between Europe, Africa, India and North America, making Mindelo an important communications centre for the British Empire. Mindelo is situated at the Porto Grande Bay, a large natural harbour. The town is surrounded by low mountains and is crossed by a river (dry in Jan). It is now known for its carnivals.

I did a tour of the island by share taxi. Compared to Sal it is very hilly, the highest peak is 725 m. It was also very windy and rather hazy on the day we visited. Firstly we went up the big mountain behind the town. Our ship in the centre of the photo.

We went in Monte Verde national park. The landscape was volcanic rock, very little green and it was a cobbled road.

This rock looks like a monkey's head

During the summer, these terraces are full of maize. This donkey is carrying some of the dried plants.

Salamansa is a kite surfing area. It was pretty deserted in January.

The villages don't have running water. There is a communal water station in each village and the people have to collect their water in containers. This boy seems to be having a rest.

We continued along the east coast, past the villages of Norte and on to Calhau. We passed some large sand dunes

A short video of our guide doing acrobatics on the sand dune -

An agricultural area, water is obtained by wind pumps and wells

Back at Mindelo we went up to the view point by the meteorological station

After the tour, I walked around the town. Went to the fish market

This is a replica of Belem tower in Lisbon

The outdoor "African" market

The world-famous Cape Verdean singer Cesária Évora. She was born on Sao Vicente and is known as the Queen of Morna. Morna is a melancholy musical style that is often sung in Cape Verdean Creole.

Before going back to the cruise terminal I went to Laginha beach. The colour of the sea and sand were beautiful

See my blog Faces of Cape Verde.

Funchal, Madeira, Portugal

Funchal was our 3rd stop on the Amazon cruise in Jan 2020. The earlier stops were Porto and Rotterdam. Funchal is the capital of Portugal's Autonomous Region of Madeira. Madeira is situated off the west coast of Africa.

I went to Madeira in May 2019, and spent a week there. I went into Funchal a few times. I had really liked the botanic gardens and wanted to go back. I'd remembered to take my Giro bus card with me and was able to top it up just 2 fares, at €1.35. Took bus 31 up to the Botanic Gardens. Entry was €6. 2020 display -

I didn't spend too long in the park as the buses were only half hourly and I wanted to see things in town.

Back in town I went to Anadia supermarket and to Pingo Doce for an egg tart.

The river ducks were still there but hadn't any babies this time of year. However there were a lot of pigeons.

 I popped into the market and Christmas decorations were still up.

I went to the nearby Rua de Santa Maria, a small alley where most of the doors now have murals. There are many restaurants and cafes.

  

Along the water front

Funchal from the ship

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See the next blog on my Amazon cruise - Mindelo, Sao Vicente, Cape Verde.

Porto, Portugal

Porto was the next stop on my 6 week Amazon cruise, after Rotterdam.

We docked at Leixoes and I took the Metro into Porto. This is a long tram, mostly above ground.

I'd been to Porto in May 2017 (but didn't blog about it). So this time I wanted to see sights that I had missed then.

Christmas tree outside the town hall.

The naked lady statue, Juventude

I had to see the world's most beautiful McDonalds. Located in an emblematic 1930s building that formerly housed the historic Imperial Café, its name taken from the huge regal bronze eagle statue that stands protectively over the door, wings outstretched. McDonald’s has retained many of the building’s original art deco décor, features include stained glass windows and crystal chandeliers.

Porto Sao Bento station has the blue paintings.

Street scenes -

It seems gulls sit on statues everywhere!

Then down to Ribeira. I'd missed it last time as I was on the opposite bank.

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See the next blog on my Amazon cruise - Funchal, Madeira.

Rotterdam and Kinderdijk

In January 2020, I set off on a 6 week cruise to the Amazon and Caribbean. The ship left from Tilbury on the Thames and our first port of call was Rotterdam.

I've only passed through Rotterdam once before, in 1975. Rotterdam is the 2nd largest Dutch city after Amsterdam. Located in the province of South Holland at the mouth of the Nieuwe Maas channel leading into the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta at the North Sea. The Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt give waterway access into the heart of Western Europe, including the highly industrialized Ruhr.

We docked right by the Erasmus bridge.

I went to the main market, this has apartments above it, these look down into the market. Opposite are the cube houses. And a bicycle park.

The doors of St Lawrence church, The Laurenskerk -

I wanted to get out to the World Heritage site of Kinderdijk. I'd been told about water bus 202, but found that doesn’t run in the winter, but I could get water bus 20 to Alblasserdam and then walk. This runs every half hour.

The 11 km journey cost €4. From Alblasserdam I decided to walk to Kinderdijk, rather than looking for a bus. I walked fast and it took about 45 min to get to the main dyke.  I had to cross many waterways and a lot of houses had water at the end of their gardens -

There are 19 windmills and a museum forming the WH site. The mills were built around 1740. They were used to to pump excess water into a reservoir until the river level had receded and could take more water. Since 1927 a diesel pumping station does this job. The windmills were last used during the second World War, when the mechanical pumps could not be used due to fuel shortages.

10 of the 19 windmills

Going back to Rotterdam, I saw some interesting architecture along the river -

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See the next blog on my Amazon cruise - Porto, Portugal.