Let’s See Madeira Starting with Funchal

We are in Portugal once again, in Madeira.  It’s an island in the eastern Atlantic off the coast of Portugal, far north of Lisbon.  And it is another gorgeous, eye-full place. Steep hills complicate the walking and car travel but the land is very green.  In hard contrast to Las Palmas, this island is a vibrant green.   Volcanic eruptions formed the island; most of the landform is made up of hills or mountains rising as much as 6100 feet, and the land is fertile.  Bananas, passion fruit, grapes for Madeira wine, cherries, and vegetables like corn, beans, squash, and potatoes grow lavishly in private gardens and irrigated terraced farms.   We are told that the weather is variable; rainy on this side of the island and dry on the other.  Then vice versa.

I seem to fall in love with every town, city, state, country, island, continent, isthmus, and peninsula we visit.  It’s not that I’m easily influenced and fall in love easily.  I think it may be that I’m knocked off my feet by the hundreds, maybe thousands of different cultures, foods, customs, personalities, geographies, weather, and more there are in this world.  And each place has its unique set of characteristics and beauties.  I do like this place.  It boggles my mind that in a few days I will be gone from here.  Yet, this space, this beautiful space, and this way of life, a daily life for many, will go on, quite ordinarily, while I’m somewhere else. 

Like Medellin, Funchal is called the city of the eternal spring.  The weather is perfect year-round.  Comfortably warm temps greet you in the daytime and cool gentle breezes soothe at night.  Here is another place where the air conditioning is au naturel and just right.

Funchal, the largest city in Madeira, is almost centered on the southern coast of Madeira. A full moon greeted us when we left Lisbon but it shone brilliantly through much clearer skies here when we arrived.  It was our reward at our new apartment at 3:00 am for having dealt with delayed, delayed again, and ultimately missed flights. We arrived at our apartment at 3 am.  Unbelievably our host greeted us at this horrific hour, showed us around, and left a bottle of wine for us.  Too keyed up and too tired to go straight to bed, we popped that cork and sat on the balcony falling in love with the moon as it spread its white shimmer on the calm ocean before us; we drank that wine.  That sight was staggering, just stunning!  Had our flights worked out perfectly, we might have arrived at the apartment at 7 pm or 8 pm and in all likelihood missed that rare view of the moon over the ocean all us landlubbers seldom see.

We are still messed up.  We are still tired and we have no luggage.  Lost!  They promised we’d have it mid-day today, but no, not yet.  There’s no way to call these people.  We can track the status online but that is crap!  It only says “your lost luggage is being investigated.”  Hmmm!

We bought basics for the apartment today and later in the day when we realized we would not get our luggage today, we bought necessary toiletries, undies, and some spare clothing today – who wants to do this kind of shopping on vacation?  The best items? Toothbrushes and toothpaste. You never know how luxurious these item are until you no longer have them, If TAP does not reimburse us for this stuff, our Chase Sapphire credit card will. 

When our luggage finally arrives, I’m doing a deep clean of ropa!  Out with the old and in with the new is what I say!  As we shopped for basics, I found items I didn’t truly need but could not do without!  In my photos, there will be a new, tropical stylish woman in dresses no one has seen on me before!

Just a short walk down a steep hill is the ocean!!!  This must be a beloved beach place because people were out in great numbers.  There’s a very large private beach there, Lido, that for a nominal admission sunbathers can swim, catch rays on a floating square sun deck, or lounge in cabanas, and more. Pretty good!

Down the coastal walkway are ruins of a once vitally important wharf where coal was loaded onto coal-powered steamships. This was a major factor in building the economy here in the 19th century and made Funchal an important port.

All things do come to an end. Petroleum came along. It replaced steamships’ need for coal and the once thriving industrial wharf became a rusty place that thanks to the people of Madeira, is now a very classy venue for concerts, and tourist visits.

I do like this place.