Funchal, Madeira Island, Portugal

We arrived mid-October in Funchal  from Ireland in the evening. It was a relatively short flight compared to what we often have. What a thrill to see the island lights as we landed, then were driven through the hills and valleys into town. Even though it was dark, we loved the steep descent and the winding roads. After a mandatory quarantine in a local hotel for a few days, we had our Covid test results and were free to explore. They only asked us to keep them informed of our health status using an app for two weeks. While not perfect, it is well worth the extra steps in order to stay safe.

Our first home in Funchal was directly on the main canal street and we listened to the sounds of water flowing night and day. I kept trying to find the leaky water faucet so I could turn it off, then would remember the sound was outside. (Yes, I AM a North Dakota farm girl at heart!)

Our location allowed us to walk downtown for groceries to a couple of stores. Hoofing the grocery bags back up the hill to our home took some effort. Initially Funchal had quite a few outdoor cafes open but as numbers increased more have closed and there is a ban on being outside after 7 pm. (Covid numbers have gone from 2 per 100,000 when we arrived, to around 25 now) We settled into our routine of hiking up and down the vertical streets in the mornings. Tim ended up hiking alone when my knees decided after a month that they would complain. He can really power up the hills and often went to Monte Palace to sit in a garden and rest before he came back down the hill.

Looking across the divide towards where Tim walked up to the palace.

There is a crazy, but fun, tradition of Madeiran toboggan rides given on traditional wicker basket sledges. Here are a few stored near Monte Palace. As we hiked up the hill we would come across the famous sledding carts of Madeira coming down with tourists. The men stepped on the back of the carts to steer them and slow them down.

While it looks like this must have been an offshoot of a drunken frat party that turned into a business, they’ve actually been doing it for around 170 years!

 

One of the hiking paths we used we began to call “dog alley” because there were so many barking dogs along the way. We both got (lightly) nipped once but some of them were our “friendly companions.” The view below is from one of the trails leading up from our second apartment. This neighborhood was a little quieter, both for living and hiking. Both places allowed a reasonable hike up to the Monte palace/church (Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Monte) where it was nice to sit and relax before heading back down.

 

And below, the Monte Palace area church, which is about a 6 mile, 1700 foot vertical walk from our either of our apartments. (10km, 550m) There is a small but pretty park next door, more vertical than horizontal ground. The feature picture at the top of the post is a bridge that runs through the park.

And the view from the church, looking down over Funchal. Our first two apartments were near the left side of the picture, about half way between the tree line and the ocean. And at the bottom of the stairs you can see the carreiros drivers in their traditional white clothes with dark jackets, waiting for their customers to arrive.

Mountains of Madeira, with cable cars in the distance that are going to the Monte Palace area.

Steps to nowhere

We took the cable car up one day to view the grounds of Monte Palace and to see the Botanical Gardens.

Botanical Garden and over active water fountain

Some of the sights from Funchal can be seen in our Christmas Letter post but here are a few more.

Coffee served at the grand piano bar

Empress Elizabeth Amalie Eugenie or “Sissy” statue from Austria in the Casino Park Resort garden. She was known to “take the cure” on her passage through Madeira. There was a musical I saw in Vienna many years ago about Empress “Sissy” and was very informative.

View from second home. The sunsets here are amazing!

Street scenes

Some of the many beautiful flowers and flowering plants in Funchal

We like the wide assortment of vegetables and fresh fruit, picked right outside our doors at times. As you can see in the photo, the restaurants served delicious food. Bread is baked fresh daily. This meat on a skewer was so good.

We’ve certainly been enjoying our time in Madeira. It was nice to be able to eat in outdoor restaurants again, although we’ve stopped that now that Covid numbers are getting higher. Still, the weather has been wonderful, and we can get in some good hiking, even if it is often along quiet city streets. But there’s always interesting things to see – the flowers, the intricate dry stone walls, and the interesting buildings.

We’ll do another Madeira post later. And give you an update on our big news- we’re applying for Portuguese citizenship! We’ve been discussing this seriously for about 9 months, and took the plunge a couple of months ago. What does this mean? Well, we will remain US citizens. But some time in the future- around 7 years- we will have the option of becoming Portuguese citizens. And in the meantime, we will have residency rights in Portugal, but this also means that our ability to travel in Europe will be greatly expanded. And as long as we limit our time in Portugal to less than 6 months per year, Portuguese taxes won’t be much of an issue for us. So we are excited. And it also means that we will be able to stay in Madeira longer than 3 months, so can continue to isolate in a comfortable location with good hiking trails.

Bye for now,