Sugar cane factory visit

Today we visited the local sugar cane factory museum, as we passed by it a couple of days ago and the smell from it was just heavenly. It smelt like a beautiful cake baking in an oven and we were drawn back to find out more.
A very friendly guide told us that they only harvest the sugar cane in April and May and the rest of the year they make interesting products from the juice.
There was huge machines scattered around the building, together with lots of Christmas decorations and smiling Santas.
I was pleased to see that most of the machinery was made in England in 1887 by the amazingly named Mr A W Death.
Moving on to the tasting room we paid €1.30 each for a piece of Madeira cake (obviously), a lovely ginger biscuit and a good sized slug of sugar cane rum.
Darren had the 50% proof version while I whimped out and had a 25% rum and sugar cane concoction. Mine was very tasty but Darren's was pure firewater. Top ups were 60 cents each but we wisely resisted.

Hike from Jardim de Mar

There is one local bus per day from outside our hotel and we caught it as far as Jardim de Mar. It started off very surprisingly as for the three miles or so it drove in the opposite direction to where we were going. It wound around the crazily steep hills, picking up people from the most unlikely looking places. Take a quick look at the black line in pic 3.
Eventually it stopped at the entrance to a long tunnel. We were the only people to get off and we walked into the little village of Jardim de Mar. It is half surrounded by the sea and we could see the big waves crashing onto the shore as we marched uphill following a little track.
Our path took us up about 500 vertical metres to a small picturesque town and the place where we joined a levada. The levadas are waterways that transport precious water from the top of the hills all around the island. They are very pretty things to walk alongside and it was nice to be walking somewhere flat.
Finally we decided that we needed to start heading downhill again and with Daz shouting directions from his Smartwatch, we raced down the tracks. It was so steep that it was impossible to walk so we chugged down taking thousands of tiny steps, but sounding like charging elephants.
Fairly quickly we got back down to sea level and the welcome sight of our hotel.
It is difficult to see on the map, but we walked the red route. It was about 18kms in total and a 30,000+ step day.

Happy birthday to me

Having a lovely day - well it is my birthday. Time flies by and I am not even going to mention how old I am, except to say that it is rather a lot.
Went on a great march around the island with Darren today and I can't argue with the prices here in Madeira. As it was before noon our first stop was for coffee, which arrived with a boiled sweet on the side and cost 90 cents each.
Our next stop was at a tiny local bar up on the hillside and we had the local drink called Poncha. I don't know what's in it but it included freshly squeezed lemon and honey. It almost took the roof of my mouth and was unbelievably potent. The barman then brought us out a plate of salted sweetcorn so we decided to stay for a second Poncha each.
It cost seven euros including tip and we left feeling very happy, and I am sure that we will never catch another cold in our whole lives.
Back down at the hotel I was just having a little snooze when there was a knock at the door and one of the staff brought me a chocolate cake complete with candle.
Yesterday I bought some beautiful protea flowers and fizzy wine, so it's all good this evening.
Back to normality tomorrow.

Calheta, Madeira

After all of the excitement of Israel, we have come to Madeira to relax for a couple of weeks!
We have got a great deal at a fancy hotel in a little village called Calheta. It is very quiet - we are down by the sea and the town is nearby, but it is an almost vertical climb to get to it.
We walked up the zigzag path in pic 2, with me stopping frequently and pretending to take a photo, but really to get my breath back.
We also explored the marina and I practiced star jumping. Daz said that my feet hardly left the ground, but I felt as if I jumped at least a couple of feet high. The only thing I can think is that he missed the top of my star and took the photo on my way down.
Ps, we did try a few times to get the perfect shot, but this was the best I could do.

Tel Aviv to London

It was our final morning in Israel and we stayed overnight near the sea front in Tel Aviv. We started the day doing things that we enjoyed, Darren went for a run along the boardwalk, I went for a walk by the sea and Darren's mum did a bit of shopping.
After that there was only time for one final photo shoot, but at least they were fully clothed today.
We caught an afternoon flight to London and arrived home a few minutes ago.

Masada fortress, and an amazing story

As well as visiting the Dead Sea yesterday, we went to the Masada Fortress on the way. It is in a very remote and barren area, but was built near to a spring and oasis. In ancient times it was an important security post on trade routes from Jerusalem
The fortress is situated on the flat top of a mountain and had high walls all around the cliff edges. It was built in about 35 BC King Herod, and he used it as a luxurious winter palace.
Move forward about 100 years, and it then was occupied by a group of rebels who were hiding out from the Romans.
We caught a cable car up to the top to look around. The views were tremendous and we saw the remains of huge storage rooms that would have been filled with food and provisions.
The story continues - in 73 AD Masada was the last rebel stronghold and the Roman Tenth Legion arrived and laid seige to the mountain. They built a wall all around the base of the mountain and camps for the 8,000 troops to live. Almost 2,000 years later the stone remains of both the camps and walls are still there - look closely at pic 2.
After a few months the Romans had managed to build a huge ramp and broke down the rebel defences. They decided to wait overnight and then start the final battle the next morning.
The rebels knew then that all hope was lost and decided that they would all rather die, than live as Roman slaves. There was about 960 men, women and children in the fortress and instead of preparing to fight the Romans, lots were drawn amongst the men. Ten were chosen to kill the others and everyone else laid down and waited to be stabbed to death.  The remaining ten then drew lots for one of them to kill the other nine and then the final rebel committed suicide.
They did it that way as it was against their religion to commit suicide, so only one of them would have committed that sin. Also, only ten of them would have committed murder.
It all went as planned and the next morning the Romans were amazed when they advanced to find the Fortress completely silent.
The rebel group was called the Zealots, and this is where the word zealot originated.