Madeira - cable car to Monte

Since we were last here, there's now a second cable car from Monte to the Botanical Gardens.
This is the first cable car to the gardens at Monte.
 

Funchal harbour in the distance.
 

Amazing road system - there are a LOT of tunnels.
 

 

Madeira - Sea Cliffs

This is the view over Funchal from a new viewpoint - you can see the HPB site to the left.
 

Here's the glass walkway 580 metres above the sea.
 

Looking down through the walkway
 

These are the highest sea cliffs in Europe
 

Madeira - HPB

Just back from Madeira where with stayed at the Holiday Property Bond (HPB) site
 

Our apartment was top right in this yellow block
 

View over the capital Funchal, from our balcony
 

That's our block just left of centre, and the large red building is the club house with restaurant, shop, bar, club room and indoor swimming pool
 

Ascott House 3

Really nice place!
 

 

The house is fascinating too
 

 

Ascott House 2

Extremely well tended gardens - well worth a visit
 

 

 

 

 

Ascott House

Ascott House, sometimes referred to as simply Ascott, is situated in the hamlet of Ascott near Wing in Buckinghamshire. It is set in a 3,200-acre estate.

Ascott House was originally a farm house, built in the reign of James I and known as "Ascott Hall". In 1873 it was acquired by Baron Mayer de Rothschild (of the neighbouring Mentmore Towers estate). The Rothschild family had begun to acquire vast tracts of land in Buckinghamshire earlier in the century, on which they built a series of large mansions from 1852 onwards. Baron Mayer gave the house at Ascott to his nephew Leopold de Rothschild, who transformed it over the following decades into the substantial, but informal, country house it is today.

Couldn't have put it better myself!

 

 

 

 

The yew topiary sundial reads
"Light and shade by turn, but love always"
 

POST NUMBER 700

Just over four years since my first post, we are at number 700
Here's a memory of last summer!
Thanks to everyone for following my ramblings
 

Birmingham - Back to Backs 2

This is the yard and laundry of the cottages
 

Courtyard
 

 

Inside the cottages - no photography allowed - Ooops!
 

 

Birmingham - Back to Backs

This is the Campanile Hotel we stayed in while we were in Birmingham
 

View from our room - good location for us boaters!
 

Preserved shop fronts
 

The National Trust's Back to Back cottages are just behind here...
You need to book your time slot in advance for the visit by the way
 

Museum of the Jewellery Quarter - Birmingham

This is a fascinating place - well worth a visit
 

A display of the history of jewellery
 

This is just as it was left the day the owners shut up shop and just walked out
 

Workbenches
 

Rack of jewellery stamps