Madeira – a magic place

Madeira

Despite being warned about morning showers, we sailed into Funchal, capital of the Portuguese island of Madeira with it bathed in sunlight.  The city rises very steeply on all sides, with many villages clinging precariously to the side of very steep hills.

A coach for six

By 9:15am we were ready to board our wheelchair accessible mini coach for a three hour tour “the Scenes of Madeira”. 

Jane, Fred, Marg, John, Jenny, Richard

Fred and Jenny had booked this tour and so had another couple, Jane (a wheelchair user) and Richard from Hampshire who we’d already met on the ship.  So we were a very jolly group of tourists, as you can see from our photos.

Louisa, our guide

Our guide Louisa had a South African accent and had been born there.  She had been brought “home” to Madeira by her parents when she was 15 and had never left.  She had plenty of work leading mountain climbing and coach tours.

Cars and trucks in Madeira need very strong engines since they get an amazing workout on the steep and winding roads which were built only in the early 20^th century.  Prior to that, the locals were reliant on foot and donkey to travel anywhere on the island.  In the past 20 years, a network of tunnels and motorway flyovers has been created.  The airport has also been vastly extended using EU loans which they are having difficulty paying back.  There is much unemployment due to the GST which has hit Madeira hard.  It reminded us of the stories of Ireland with its large injection of EU loans prior to the downturn in its economy.

Although much nearer Africa than Portugal, Madeira did not have an indigenous population prior to it being claimed by Portugal in the late 1400s.  The population speaks Portuguese with a distinct accent and is 95% Catholic.  There are many saints recognised.

Sheep being herd by a shepherd, sans dog.

The coach took us way up the hills through Monte and a number of remote villages through forested areas which included a great number of blue gums.  Hydrangeas grow along the roadsides like weeds, as do many other flowering plants from places near and far.  Jacarandas in full flower, coral trees, cedars etc.

A plot of land much larger than most

Most homes have a small plot of land beside or in front, wherever can be made into a flat piece of land, often terraced, and grow vegetables for domestic consumption.

We saw villages full of old properties where it used to be customary for the English suffering from respiratory diseases to stay.  Altogether a magical place.

In Fuchal, outside the Ritz

The coach delivered us back to the port at 1 pm, and after lunch and John cooling down, having got far too hot on the coach, we caught the shuttle bus into Funchal and took heaps of photos.  There were two cruise liners in town yesterday and the locals were certainly playing up to the tourists as some of the photos show. 

Playing up to the tourists

The streets are mainly cobbled but not too rough and John said that his new wheelchair handled the cobblestones very well indeed.

The temperature was only 17C but I still managed to get slightly sun-burned, probably as we walked back to the ship at 4.30pm.  We are now on GMT +1, so equivalent to English summer time, making us 9 hours behind Sydney if I’m correct.

A lane in the old part of Funchal - made for donkeys

I thought I’d brought some euros with me from Sydney but darned if I could find them.  So we spent no money at all apart from the tour, which we’d paid for in ship currency (American dollars).  On the ship, no cash changes hands. Our ship ID card records all expenditure and at the end of each cruise leg – ie San Francisco, Fort Lauderdale and Southampton, a deduction is made from our preferred account.  This to me is a very civilized arrangement.  One can ask for a statement at any time.

Everyone was back on board by the required time of 5.30pm and we set sail shortly afterwards.  But at 7.15pm the Commodore announced that we were returning to port to disembark a seriously ill passenger.  So I suppose we are running shortly behind schedule, but the Commodore stated that it would not affect our estimated time of arrival in Southampton.

Less than three days to go now, and we’ve already passed through immigration.  There are two immigration officers on board and we were invited to go through this procedure anytime this afternoon.  With us both chorusing “five weeks” when we were asked how long we were staying in the UK, we sounded genuine enough.

I now need to start packing for the first time in over seven weeks.  That will be interesting … a few more bits and pieces of clothing and a couple of coffee mugs to carry home.  But decreasing amounts of medical supplies to compensate.