We had an insanely early start to to the morning having to wait and catch an Uber to Victoria train station. We then had to wait about 40 minutes for the bus to take us to Gatwick. By the time we arrived it was 4:30 in the morning.
Our flight left at 7 so we had a quick breakfast and some coffee and then boarded the plane. Jack and I both passed out along the four hour journey to funchal, and we landed without a problem even though it is quite a crazy airport to land at. I picked up a higher car, she's a small little white Ford Fiesta and then drove to the east side of the island where we met the owner of the apartment at a petrol station. He didn't look us up some windy road to the house.
It is gorgeous with lots of rooms and it's very big lots of big glass windows with an amazing view of her huge Rock and then the water the sea to both sides. We napped until around 3 p.m. and then got up and went and bought some groceries and went to look for dinner. Had some fish at a local fish shop, I had the Scabbard which is a type of deep water fish that they eat around here, paired with a banana, and Jackie had pork which wasn't so amazing. After dinner we went home and passed out.
The next morning we woke up at 7:30 a.m. Had breakfast then drove to funchal which is the capital city of Madeira. We took the inland route over the a mountains and it was spectacular. As you gain elevation your surroundings change, going from topical to forest and high altitude plants. It took about an hour and a half to make it over to funchal, but we were greeted with some amazing views at the top.
Once we were in central Funchal we walked around the old town, the seafront and also went to the story centre which tells the history of Madeira. It was quite interesting to learn that Madeira was an important trade route to Africa and the Americas.
We had lunch at a random arcade; a nice meal of fish for Ryan and chicken for me.
After lunch we walked around Funchal some more, explored some of the parks, visited the CR7 museum, and then headed to the sea cliff of Cabo Girão. It's 500m high!
For dinner we drove in to Porto da Cruz and had a nice seafood dinner right by the ocean, only €25 for drinks and grilled squid, octopus and tuna and garlic bread.
The next day we began our drive to the western side of the island, following a road that hugs the coastline all the way to Porto Moniz. The views were stunning, and the roads very well maintained. As an aside we are constantly amazed that Madeira can afford to have so many tunnels cut through the mountains. The population is only around two hundred thousand people, yet there are these amazing tunnels cut through the mountains linking all the Turns. Jackie Googled and saw that actually Madeira was in debt to the tune of 6 billion euros, I guess that explains how they can afford to have amazing roads, they can't. We stopped at lots of little towns along the way, and it was in one of these towns that we noticed a our rental had been smacked! Uninsured a I might add :(
We kept driving, quite depressed at this point, until we found a restaurant for lunch. We tried the local speciality of limpets fried in their shells, but we were not fans haha way too sea tasting. But we loved the fried trout and the garlic bread. Amazingly they have a fish farm on the island... We've also seen all kinds of things that are made in madeira (eg fire lighters) which you just wouldn't think would be made here. We continued on to Porto Moniz, where there are some natural rock pools that have been blocked in to create a really nice swimming area, so Jackie and I striped down and went for a quick swim. It was lovely and refreshing. The water is 19° so it's quite warm.
We drove home after our swim which took a while, only getting home late in the evening.
Along the way we had stopped at a grocery store a bought a small charcoal BBQ for €5! So we had flame grilled chicken thighs for dinner, cooked out on the balcony.
The next day we had a leisurely morning before picking up Yanan and victor at the airport around noon. We took them back to the house, then headed out to lunch at Porto da Cruz. It was really sunny so the views were clear and magnificent, perfect intro to Madeira for the two newbies. We had some amazing seafood again at the same restaurant for lunch, then hopped over to the rum factory for some traditional poncho. It was some pretty strong rum! Yanan and I enjoyed it.
After lunch we got some icecream and beers and sat on the beach to admire the sun and the surf. Then we went to the supermarket to get groceries, before coming back and spent the afternoon cooking and playing saboteur until late. All in all a relaxed and nice day.
Next morning we got up early, had brekky and drove out to the sea cliff to do our first hike - the PR8 - VEREDA DA PONTA DE SÃO LOURENÇO. It was not too long in length but damn was the sun strong with the low cloud cover. The wind was also bonkers. We covered the 4.5km there and back in about 3 hours, but everyone was sunburnt by the end of it.
We grabbed an icecream each before setting out in search of real food. The first place was closed so we ended up in Mochico town centre, at the Porto de Recreio de Machico.
After a lovely meal in the sun next to the harbour we drove back into Funchal proper and wandered around the old town. It was a lot nicer than our first time and we were in a bit of a different area so chilled out and sat on the grass in a park and relaxed. We found a random hole in the wall and had a Prego 'special' for dinner.
After that it was home for bed.
Our flight left at 7 so we had a quick breakfast and some coffee and then boarded the plane. Jack and I both passed out along the four hour journey to funchal, and we landed without a problem even though it is quite a crazy airport to land at. I picked up a higher car, she's a small little white Ford Fiesta and then drove to the east side of the island where we met the owner of the apartment at a petrol station. He didn't look us up some windy road to the house.
It is gorgeous with lots of rooms and it's very big lots of big glass windows with an amazing view of her huge Rock and then the water the sea to both sides. We napped until around 3 p.m. and then got up and went and bought some groceries and went to look for dinner. Had some fish at a local fish shop, I had the Scabbard which is a type of deep water fish that they eat around here, paired with a banana, and Jackie had pork which wasn't so amazing. After dinner we went home and passed out.
The next morning we woke up at 7:30 a.m. Had breakfast then drove to funchal which is the capital city of Madeira. We took the inland route over the a mountains and it was spectacular. As you gain elevation your surroundings change, going from topical to forest and high altitude plants. It took about an hour and a half to make it over to funchal, but we were greeted with some amazing views at the top.
Once we were in central Funchal we walked around the old town, the seafront and also went to the story centre which tells the history of Madeira. It was quite interesting to learn that Madeira was an important trade route to Africa and the Americas.
We had lunch at a random arcade; a nice meal of fish for Ryan and chicken for me.
After lunch we walked around Funchal some more, explored some of the parks, visited the CR7 museum, and then headed to the sea cliff of Cabo Girão. It's 500m high!
For dinner we drove in to Porto da Cruz and had a nice seafood dinner right by the ocean, only €25 for drinks and grilled squid, octopus and tuna and garlic bread.
The next day we began our drive to the western side of the island, following a road that hugs the coastline all the way to Porto Moniz. The views were stunning, and the roads very well maintained. As an aside we are constantly amazed that Madeira can afford to have so many tunnels cut through the mountains. The population is only around two hundred thousand people, yet there are these amazing tunnels cut through the mountains linking all the Turns. Jackie Googled and saw that actually Madeira was in debt to the tune of 6 billion euros, I guess that explains how they can afford to have amazing roads, they can't. We stopped at lots of little towns along the way, and it was in one of these towns that we noticed a our rental had been smacked! Uninsured a I might add :(
We kept driving, quite depressed at this point, until we found a restaurant for lunch. We tried the local speciality of limpets fried in their shells, but we were not fans haha way too sea tasting. But we loved the fried trout and the garlic bread. Amazingly they have a fish farm on the island... We've also seen all kinds of things that are made in madeira (eg fire lighters) which you just wouldn't think would be made here. We continued on to Porto Moniz, where there are some natural rock pools that have been blocked in to create a really nice swimming area, so Jackie and I striped down and went for a quick swim. It was lovely and refreshing. The water is 19° so it's quite warm.
We drove home after our swim which took a while, only getting home late in the evening.
Along the way we had stopped at a grocery store a bought a small charcoal BBQ for €5! So we had flame grilled chicken thighs for dinner, cooked out on the balcony.
The next day we had a leisurely morning before picking up Yanan and victor at the airport around noon. We took them back to the house, then headed out to lunch at Porto da Cruz. It was really sunny so the views were clear and magnificent, perfect intro to Madeira for the two newbies. We had some amazing seafood again at the same restaurant for lunch, then hopped over to the rum factory for some traditional poncho. It was some pretty strong rum! Yanan and I enjoyed it.
After lunch we got some icecream and beers and sat on the beach to admire the sun and the surf. Then we went to the supermarket to get groceries, before coming back and spent the afternoon cooking and playing saboteur until late. All in all a relaxed and nice day.
Next morning we got up early, had brekky and drove out to the sea cliff to do our first hike - the PR8 - VEREDA DA PONTA DE SÃO LOURENÇO. It was not too long in length but damn was the sun strong with the low cloud cover. The wind was also bonkers. We covered the 4.5km there and back in about 3 hours, but everyone was sunburnt by the end of it.
We grabbed an icecream each before setting out in search of real food. The first place was closed so we ended up in Mochico town centre, at the Porto de Recreio de Machico.
After a lovely meal in the sun next to the harbour we drove back into Funchal proper and wandered around the old town. It was a lot nicer than our first time and we were in a bit of a different area so chilled out and sat on the grass in a park and relaxed. We found a random hole in the wall and had a Prego 'special' for dinner.
After that it was home for bed.
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