Madeira, Seeing All We Can

Madeira is fascinating.  It is a lovely place.  It may be one of the most comfortable, accommodating places we have ever visited especially if a person is looking to live abroad.

If you walk a little, it offers all the up and downhill walks anyone needs to stay fit.  The weather here is heavenly . . . like spring all year, cool in the evenings and early mornings and quite warm during the daytime.  Because tourism is fundamental to the economy, most people speak English or at least enough to make communication easy and clear.  And most have learned English independently outside of school.  The key to it, they say is to speak it.  Right or wrong, just try to speak what you’ve studied, and eventually, it will stick.  I’m trying to put that into practice con Espanol!

The Portuguese and Spanish languages are very similar but as a young man told me, “we can understand Spanish, but Spanish-speakers cannot understand Portuguese.”  Funny!  But I can see that.  Portuguese sounds like Spanish with a heavy French accent.  The Portuguese speak with lots of “shush” sounds spoken from the front of the mouth.

One might guess an island like Madeira to be rustic and quaint. Although it is part of Portugal, it’s a two-hour flight south of Lisboa, and is just off the coast of North Africa!!!  Well yes, there are rustic rural towns in Madeira and sections of the city are antique as well, but it’s quite urban too!  In Funchal, the capital, the shopping is fantastic.  The dining is fantastic.  There are more dining places than one could visit night after night, day after day, in an entire year.  They range from tiny street-side cafes, seaside bars, and fancy roof-top bars, to tapas, seafood, and espetados restaurants. Then there are numerous high-style fine dining establishments like the two with Michelin ratings.  Madeira has decadent fabulous hotels too with such touches as pink top-hatted doormen who stand guard to greet those who want only the best in accommodations.  Stan and I are not seekers of this type of accommodation; we prefer to stay in neighborhood apartments where we meet the people and get to know the town.  However, cities that have many upscale hotels and restaurants generally offer a broad selection of dining experiences and attractions anyone would enjoy.

Although Stan and I don’t shop a lot, the fine stores are here with all of the great designers and brands.

There are history and art museums, embroidery museums, wine museums, forts, and fortresses. And then there is the rugged, but green landscape and the sea, oh, the sea!

It’s a fine place and we like it.  The weather is perfect and the sights are enough to tantalize the eyes every day!

The historic old town is well preserved.  Seems there was a mayor here in the 1920s, the youngest mayor ever, who was instrumental in building wide streets, decorated plazas, and walks.  His initiatives enlivened the town and encouraged it to grow.  Some of the shops on the street he changed into a pedestrian walkway are still here today and are thriving.

Another source of modernization of the island came about through the construction of over 100 tunnels and even more bridges that allow traveling through mountains and across great valleys.  Many are engineering wonders! Interesting too is the fact that this relatively small island has a network of 86 miles, few of which are in a direct line.

Formerly to get to one place from another, one had to travel around a mountain; now they go through a tunnel or across a bridge.  Once those travel modernizations were built, people and goods could travel in a fast way north to south and east to west.

We strolled through the City Park with lovely walks and amazing flowers – daisies as big as saucers.  Then we went to the Mercado dos Lavradores — another project initiated by the young Mayor Dr. Fernao de Ornelas. This wonderful market in art deco style has been maintained beautifully for the last 100 years and is a beloved institution here. We could not count the different varieties of bananas we saw, and the different kinds of passion fruits and dragon fruits.  The fruit and vegetables we saw were fresh and colorful If we had more time here I would have bought a basketful.  We did buy cherries and ate them all that day.

Leaving Old Town, we had a lunch of lapas, soup, and espetadas on Rua Santa Maria famous for its painted doors.  It’s a photographer’s heaven!  This tiny ancient street has nothing but minuscule shops and restaurants.  And oh, are they fantastic!

Lapas are limpets.  The only thing I knew beforehand about limpets was the movie, “The Amazing Mr. Limpet” with Don Knots.  Limpets are tiny lacy-edged clam-like sea creatures with a tiny bit of meat inside.  They are served on the half-shell roasted quickly with olive oil and herbs and are to be slurped like a raw oyster.  They are delicious.  What a new thing!!

Next came the soup.  All soups we have tasted in Portugal have been processed smooth and creamy – no bites of anything.  This soup was smooth, creamy, and tasted of broccoli, onion, cauliflower, and carrot.  Very good.  Then the espetada arrived.  The waiter placed a stand on our table with a tall pole with arms and hooks at the top.  When the skewers were ready each was hung on the rack like dangles on a crystal chandelier.  This was the most tender, well-seasoned steak we have had in months!  Espetadas – Yum!  A must-have in Madeira!

At the marina yachts, sail boats and vessels of all size can be seen. The park-like setting is a place for gathering, dining, coffees, strolling and people watching. Motorized, three-wheel vans set up offer coffee, ice cream, fruit juices and Madeira wine. We had our first taste of this famous wine there.

We tried to do a hike on Sunday.  Note to self: do not, not ever, trust buses on Sunday.  We did arrive at the top of the mountain at Ribeiro Frio.  The bus was very late, but we and several other groups waited patiently at the designated bus stop and as time passed, questioned if we would ever get there.  Although large like other city buses, when the bus finally arrived it had only six seats remaining.  The ones of us who arrived at the bus stop first got on board.  The others found a taxi.

The 40-minute ride was on curvy, roads on the mountainside. No tunnels or bridges here. At least, the road was wide enough for two cars to pass most of the time. As we passed villages and farms, the views downward were spectacular.

At the trailhead, Stan wanted a coffee.  The waiter opened his app with the bus schedule and assured us a return bus would arrive at 1:23 pm and again at 6:42 pm.  Deciding we did not want to wait until 6:42 to begin the trip down the mountain, we opted for a one-hour hike so we could catch the 1:23 bus back to Madeira.  We hiked. But the waiter’s info was Wrong!  The only, I mean the only bus back down the mountain on Sundays is at 6:42 pm.  If we had waited for the 6:42 pm bus there was always the chance there wouldn’t be enough seats for all the hikers seeking the return trip to Funchal.  We grabbed a taxi.  The cost was fifty Euros. Ouch! But it was quite worth it.  Bummer!  At least we got home at a decent hour. After all these travels, we are still learning and refreshing ourselves . . . Note to self: Online apps are not flaw proof; neither are waiters.  Never, ever, take a bus to a remote location on Sunday!