Funchal, Madeira (Portugal)

  

We awoke before daylight, and when we pulled the drapes back, saw the lights of Funchal stretching out in the distance. We had arrived in Madeira during the night. Funchal is quite mountainous and stretches around the bay, forming a natural amphitheater. White buildings with terracotta roofs reached nearly to the mountaintops.

We took the shuttle bus provided by Cunard to the center of town and got off on a tree-lined street filled with numerous outdoor restaurants. Music coming from a nearby restaurant greeted us. The sounds of Portugal? No, the group America singing “A Horse With No Name.” No matter how far we travel, we are never far from the things of home.

Off topic: The singing group America started playing together as high school students at the American School in High Wycombe, England about the time we lived there in the 1970s. The students at this school were primarily the children of American military personnel and U.S. government employees working in England. The daughter of a Navy chief I worked with in London was a classmate of the group. Six degrees of separation.

Throughout the city, large blue and white murals, which consist of individual ceramic tiles to complete the image, decorate the fronts of commercial buildings and churches.  

Tile mural and mosaic sidewalk

Beautiful purple flowers cascading from cliff sides and supporting walls fill the city with color. Madeira is famous for its flowers, which are probably sold in the flower markets of England. The intricate patterns on the sidewalks add a lot of interest. Each street seems to have a different sidewalk pattern made up of black and cream irregular shaped tiles laid in mosaic patterns. They are very much like the ones in Rio de Janeiro, which makes sense since they are both Portuguese.

We quickly left the center of town and major shopping area and made our way to the seafront, which was lined with lovely new parks filled with palm trees. We knew they were new because workmen were still planting palms, and the pavement wasn’t covered with discarded chewing gum that we saw in other places. Large cement bollards in the shape of children’s jacks stretched along the seafront, which we thought was an interesting method for preventing erosion.

Stopping along the way, we watched cable cars that went from the seafront to the mountaintop above the city. We considered riding on one for about a nanosecond. It would have been nice to see the views, but after watching the cable cars soaring over buildings and deep gorges as they made their way to the mountaintop, and considering my fear of heights, we decided against it.

Instead, we toured a brightly painted stone fort that also serves as an art gallery. From one of the battlements, we saw a replica of the Santa Maria sailing by carrying tourists. Columbus stopped in Madeira with his ships the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. We had heard the ships had been quite small. After seeing just how small, we were amazed that Columbus and his ships made it across the Atlantic.  

Fort

Santa Maria

We stopped to look at the Capela De Corpo, a lovely little white stone chapel. Incongruously, the front entrance of the chapel sat twenty feet away from the Casablanca Strip Club.

We soon realized after we started walking back to the ship that we had greatly underestimated the distance. It was quite a hike, and our Fitbit reported that we had covered over four miles. Health officials recommend walking 10,000 steps a day, which I rarely achieve. Today we had walked over 10,000 steps before lunch! Thank goodness for the Smart Wool socks my daughter gave me for Christmas, or my feet would have been killing me. They really work.

Later on the top deck, we saw a man posing for a photo holding a bottle of Madeira wine. He stood in front of lifebuoy with “Queen Elizabeth” printed on it and the city of Madeira in the background. He looked quite happy with his purchase, and the photo would tell the whole story. It also reminded us that we had forgotten the bottle of Madeira we had planned to purchase. Madeira is a place we would enjoy visiting again—and not just for a bottle of wine.

As we sailed away that evening, music played and people danced on the back deck. It was quite a festive event.

Sail away

Next, seven days at sea.