Mostrar mensagens com a etiqueta gardens. Mostrar todas as mensagens
Mostrar mensagens com a etiqueta gardens. Mostrar todas as mensagens

quarta-feira, 19 de agosto de 2015

17.8.15 - Singapore





Australia stayed behind and, on the plane, we race with the sun to see who arrive first to Singapore.It was the sun. It was there, lovely and warm to cheer us.Then came the storm and a tropical rain that flooded everything in minutes. Thankfully, the heat was smashing us.In Singapore we saw what hadn`t seen in the first time.Started by the Little India: some art-décor houses painted with lush colors, Hindu temples and some Muslims, shops that sell everything from carpets to knives, antiques, appliances, souvenirs from around the world, MP3 for $ 4, crowns flowers for the temples, spices and almost everything what our imagination wants. It was the first clean Indian neighborhood that I saw. And maybe by that, it doens´t have the mystique of others.From there we walking, under a lot of heat to the area of ​​Orchard, through fabulous School of Arts building, before entering a street with luxury shopping.Whipped rain and the tight schedule, we climb the hill to the fort where the city began. It is a quiet place amid the bustle of the city/ state.This was followed by a stroll through at Marina Bay Gardens, the new Babylon, given the height and spectacular where vegetation is located, and ending the trip at the top of Marina Bay.Upstairs, on top of the restaurant, overlooking the city, the port, the sea, we saw the extent of the buildings, the F1 GP path; drink gin, eat some snacks prepared by the chef, we laugh, we remember stories that make up the story of the journey; took selfies, we promise to return. When ?! We don`t  known. But the will is with us.

quarta-feira, 15 de abril de 2015

12.4.15 - Mata Nacional do Bussaco

Travelling in the Bussaco National Forest is a complete adventure in a very small space: nature, history and gastronomy.
Rising from the N1 to Luso and then to the Bussaco, we can smell on air that something mystical will descend upon us, calmly and stillness.
The houses, the trees, take a very different format from the one we are used to, the vegetation changes profoundly and instead of Australian eucalyptus we can see what should be our forest.
A token payment to entry helps sustainability and could serve as an example to many other places scattered Portugal.
Entering the Forest by the Luso gate, the steep parallel road where the sun finds it difficult to penetrate, takes us to a fantastic and romantic world: ferns, water points, ruins. Sources flank the path and make it magical.
Chapels, shrines, trails, is a little of what there is to see until you reach the palace gardens, this mystical land where glorious battles fought against Napoleon's troops.
Designed by several architects, presents a neomanuelino mark with reasons Jeronimos and Belem Tower, inspired by the Convento de Cristo and contrasting with the gothic romantic, containing the tiles inside the great masters of XIX century and tapestries, the palace is a mystical and worthy place of Kings.
At table, a place with one of the most beautiful wine cellar of Portugal, the famous Beef Wellington, in honor of the general who spent the night over there.
To my friend Alexander and his family, a warm hug to keep alive the history of Portugal.