Friday 30 Sept: On the Alfa-Pendular express to Lisbon at 220kph. Our holiday begins!
With me I had taken a suitcase inherited from my father - an old-fashioned back breaker. It was a mistake! Fortuitously, a wheel came adrift at Lisbon's Oriente station, right outside a luggage store. Fifteen minutes later, I had a new freewheeling suitcase and the store had my relic.
Sat am: At the Berardo art gallery in Lisbon.
Sat evening we flew with easyJet to Funchal. The airport is built on one of the few bits of level ground on the island and extends on giant pillars over the highway. Planes swoop in low over the city. Note the blackened tree stumps on the horizon, a legacy of the summer fires.
We stayed at a new hotel close to the commercial centre.
From the roof deck there was a wonderful view across the city as well as a delightful infinity pool.
We breakfasted in the courtyard beside the dining room.
Madeira is a volcanic island. Apart from a single beach - sand imported from Morocco - its rocky shores offer sunbathing opportunities only to the determined.
On Sunday morning the foreshore was cordoned off for sporting events. Here come the young female roller-bladers.
In the evenings we would go for a stroll along the marina.
In old Funchal the tradition is to paint something imaginative on your doors.
Visitors find a treasure chest of trees, shrubs and flowers everywhere on the island.
Choose your loo with care!
A refreshment stop in one of the city lanes.
During our stay in Funchal we set out on several walks - some guided - along the water channels known as levadas.
Guides are expected to inform hikers about the local fauna and flora in several languages.
The path is often narrow, with steep drops below - not for sufferers of vertigo.
Full day walks last around five hours and cover some 10kms plus. Here, two groups meet on the trail for a picnic lunch.
The hikes offer fine views of the steep hillsides below. The slopes are terraced and every inch of available soil is tilled. Sweet potatoes, used largely to make a bread known as caco, are a popular crop.
Hillside houses are often accessible only via long flights of steep stairs from the road below. As these ruins indicate, many of their inhabitants have sought easier lives abroad.
The levada walks sometimes involve passages through tunnels or steep rock gullies.
One outing by bus was to the town of Curral das Freiras - named after nuns who sought refuge in the remote valley during an extended raid on Funchal by French pirates.
We left the bus at a hotel on the heights above Curral das Freiras and took the steep mountain path that snakes down to the town.
A waiter estimated 45 minutes for the walk; a waitress an hour. In the event, it was closer to a knee-knocking 75 minutes. Thank heavens for the beer at the bottom.
Waiting for the bus to take us back to Funchal. The roads - as everywhere on the island - are steep, twisting and narrow. A bus journey on Madeira is an adventure in itself.
Yet another walk - this is the last one - took us down from the town of Camacha to the hamlets below.
The terraces sometimes fall away at 45 degrees.
Mercifully we found a hikers' pub on the path. Jones takes a sip of my beer for the camera. She prefers baggies or a glass of cold white wine.
The road back to the bus stop was occupied by several geese.
And surveyed by the occasional cat.
The town of Lobos - just beyond Funchal - boasts the highest cliffs in Europe, nearly 600m above the sea.
A glass-floored platform that extends over the ocean is a big tourist attraction.
It's a long way down!
Some folks are not too bothered by the prospect of joining the fishing boat at the bottom.
Others are a bit more tentative.
It's only fair to add that Jones now takes in her stride dizzying levada hikes that would have stopped her in her tracks not long ago.
Part Two - across the island to Porto Moniz.
No comments:
Post a Comment