The Travels of an Old Lady

  STILL in Miami airport…..but sought refuge at the Delta Sky Lounge. Nice A/C, snacks, way to charge iPad and comfortable chairs. Pretty quiet too except for the guy sitting across from me.  A nice looking elegant older gentleman in a blue blazer top, tan pants, nice luggage and looks a lot like Steven Martin. (Is Steve Martin still alive?) Could be him?  But no mustache, could be a relative? It is very quiet here. He is focused on his cell phone…….holding it close so I know he has vision problems and refusing to wear glasses….He has a plate of salad, cheese and salami in front of him.  I can hardly keep from laughing out loud. The silence here is broken by his belching. I don’t mean once or twice, I mean about a dozen times. Not discrete little ones, loud ones that spoil his sophisticated image.  All the people around me keep looking over at him. It is suppose to be quiet in here. I already got in trouble from the Delta Sky Lounge snooty police for a cell phone call. Donna called me

ICK...YUK...ETC. Well we made it to Miami and the refuge of the air-conditioned hotel for the night.  Man it was HOT and HUMID!  I already miss the breeze off the Atlantic in Madeira.  NO kidding even with the A/C on it is so humid that after your shower you still feel like your melting. I am not a hot weather person so really appreciate the A/C. Meanwhile Donna has her sweatshirt on and is trying to not freeze to death from where I have the A/C set. When she turns blue I turn it off. Here are some parting photos for you. Donna's Birthday dinner celebration.....No Poncha's we prefer the good Portuguese wines.  Our table was in the garden patio and the food was perfect. Thanks Dan, for buying the special dinner. The view from our 5th floor of our hotel . Madeira at night. Our last night on the island.  LONGGGGGG plane ride to Miami. Donna woke me up to take selfie! I was to weak and tired to protest.. Just looked at the camera and went back to sleep. The above photo is as we fle

Remember the song "Green Door"....."Don't know what their doing but they laugh a lot behind the Green Door.  Well we found a lot of interesting doors today and it was such fun seeing them. Called the Street of Art - Open Doors in Funchal Madeira.    An amazing project painted by art students and local artists, which is a major tourist attraction. Most of these were old or abandoned doors........they have become a cultural experience. Here are some of our favorite ones. The first door was painted in 2011. Now several streets in the old town center of Funchal are revitalized with these lovely creative decorated doors. In several areas sidewalk cafes serve beverages and meals to the tourists who wander about, like us with cameras, taking lots of photos.  Look at these amazing doors! The door to a cat house? In the middle of all this there is a stream running through the old town towards the sea. A cool green pretty place. Now look along side the stream....There is a &qu

Keeping our cell phones , the iPads and the power banks fully charged requires some organizational skills. We have one outlet adapter, with a couple of places to plug in our charging cords. You can imagine if your taking 100 photos a day it will run down your cell phone quickly. We carry power banks. I have been having difficulty posting the photos I take because I messed up my cell phone in my futile efforts to fix it made it worse. So thanks to Donna, she is able to access the photos and help me post them on the blog. However keeping things charged up has been a problem....We would leave the power banks and iPads plugged in all day and sometimes they only charged up to 3%. VERY frustrating. But today we solved the mystery.....In Portugal and probably other countries, you must insert your room key into a slot by the door to get electricity. Here is photo of that "tricky" little slot. We would plug in everything that needed charged and then leave for the day......taking all t

Well, We landed at ninth most dangerous airport in the world and didn't even know it. Plus yesterday we got photos. There is a roadway that snakes around and under the elevated runways. Returning from our tour of the East Side our driver pointed out that we were traveling under the runway we previously landed on. According to him it is supported by 138 concrete pillars. He was driving to fast for us to count.  Here is the photo we took as we drove under them! The airport on Madeira is unique and technically challenging for even the most experienced pilots. Mainly because of the 150 degree right hand turn required and crosswinds. Only the most accomplished pilots are allowed to land here. If you are an aviation enthusiast there is a live WebCam and you can watch the huge international flights land and listen to airport communications. Go to webcam taxi.com. It's a kick, because in addition to welcoming the incoming flights, they give tourist directions and chat a bit. It is LIVE

  We all had such a great day today. So glad you are searching for Hobbits with us. Well sort of……..I have always wanted to see the old thatched roof houses at Santana. Santana is a small city (village) on the northern coast of Madeira. The quaint  thatched houses, with the colorful doors and A frame shape have always reminded me of a place Hobbits might inhabit.  We took a tour of the East & North coast day today.  According to our guide these houses were originally built in sets of three. The largest was used for sleeping , The middle size one was the kitchen and the smallest was the lavatory . Few of the original structures remain and even fewer have been maintained with the traditional thatched roof. Here is the photo Donna took of our favorite one. Donna did a lot of walking today and took over 100 photos.  One of her hikes was to a local shop that sold handmade ponchos from Portugal. The one she selected was just perfect for her. When we stopped the guide suggested we get Pon

  This is the lovely island of  Madeira  The time change slapped us around this morning.   I slept well listening to Donna snore from the far side of the room. She tapped me on the shoulder at 9:45 and asked if I was interested in breakfast.  I was snoring so peacefully she was reluctant to wake me. Since they stop serving the Buffett at 10:00 she set an olympic record getting there and filled a couple of plates for me. I stumbled into the shower, figured they would throw her out before I arrived. Around 11:00, when she did not return I went to see what she was doing. There she was, firmly standing her ground protecting the plates she filled for me.  So the only reason I got any breakfast this morning is because of her ability to run fast and outsmart waiters. Way to go, Donna!!! Here is where she made her  stand!  They did not dare to try and remove those plates.  Today we boarded the “Hop On - Hop Off” bus and rode it all around this side of the island. We have a 5 day ticket and