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Autonomous Region of Madeira

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    • Portugal
      1111111111111
      Day 5

      Off to Madeira!

      March 29, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

      We got up for an early flight 🛫 and are now in Madeira! Had to wait about an hour for our rental car but then we were off! It is much warmer here than it was in São Miguel.
      We went to an amazing restaurant in Porto da Cruz (A Pipa) recommended to us by the guy at the rental car station. We then went to Santana and visited the thatch roofed houses.
      We stopped in at the Airbnb for a quick rest and ended the day at Pico do Arieiro for sunset. A bit of a hike but the views were gorgeous!      Read more

    • Darren and JanetMorocco and Portugal 2023
      1
      6
      Day 48

      Down the waterfront with CR7

      April 9, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

      We had a sleep-in this morning, the first day in 7 weeks we haven't set an alarm. After a leisurely breakfast we headed out for a walk around the backstreets.

      Being Easter Sunday there wasn't much open, but after a quick visit to church, we found a cafe to stop for lunch (black scabbardfish rolls).

      Our original plan was to catch the cablecar up the mountain behind town, and ride a traditional toboggan part way down. That was stymied when we got to the front of the ticket line and saw a notice that the toboggans don't run on Sundays.

      Change of plan was to visit the waterfront near the Cristiano Ronaldo statue, museum and hotel - they certainly are proud of their favourite son in this town!

      We tried to go down the main cruise ship dock (to get a cache, of course), but were blocked by security, so we rested a while and watched the ferry from Porto Santo dock and unload (Porto Santo is the second largest island in the Madeira Island group - Christopher Columbus lived on Porto Santo briefly, having married one of the daughters of Bartolomeu Perestrelo, one of the navigators who discovered Madeira).

       We meandered back to our apartment via Santa Catarina Park, and had favourite Portuguese dinner in-house - toasted sheep's cheese and black pork neck sandwiches.      Read more

    • Darren and JanetMorocco and Portugal 2023
      3323
      Day 49

      Nuns, Winston, Poncha and Nikita

      April 10, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

      We joined a half day tour to the Valley of the Nuns today, only 8km as the crow flies, but 17km by road from Funchal, and at an altitude of 1,095m. The road out of Funchal is very steep and windy and the views spectacular. The south coast is thick with eucalyptus trees... but some history fun-facts first...

      Madeira Island was discovered in 1419 by the Portuguese navigators João Gonçalves Zarco, Tristão Vaz Teixeira, and Bartolomeu Perestrelo. It was uninhabited at the time. Due to the number of trees, they named the island "Isla de Madeira" (Island of Wood).

      Most of the islands' trees were cut for timber by early settlers. In the 16th and 17th centuries the southern side of Madeira was converted to sugarcane plantations, and Eucalyptus was also planted extensively, displacing native species.

      We began our day with a visit to a viewpoint over the Valley of the Nuns, which was the best way to see the village (named when Nuns fled there for just 3 days in the 1500's fleeing a pirate attack in Funchal... so there is no convent and no Nuns!

      On the way back to Funchal (the name Funchal derives from the plant Foeniculum Vulgare, the fennel plant, prominent in the early regional cuisine and confectionery), we stopped in at Câmara de Lobos, a fishing village famous for black scabbardfish and Winston Churchill's visit in 1950 where he painted landscapes in his leisure time.

      In the afternoon we partook in some traditional Madeiran drinks - Poncha, made with sugarcane rum, honey, sugar, and fruit juice, and
      Nikita, originally from Câmara de Lobos, consisting of pineapple ice cream, pineapple juice, and either white beer or white wine. It was created in 1985 by a man called Marcelino, who named it after his favourite Elton John song.      Read more

    • Darren and JanetMorocco and Portugal 2023
      1
      21
      Day 50

      Teleferico up, Carreiros down

      April 11, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

      We made an early start today to ride the cable car (Teleferico) up the mountain behind Funchal. The cruise ship passengers usually do it in the morning, so we avoided the last 2 days when there were 2 ships in, with a total of 7,500 passengers. Today there is only 1 ship of less than 200.

      The journey up the mountain is 3km, and there there are a number of gardens, churches and a palace that can be viewed at the top.

      The fun way to come down is by wicker basket sled (Carreiros do Monte). The small village of Monte, perched in the hills overlooking Funchal, was formerly a health resort for Europe's high society, so what began as a method of transport in the late 1800's for the elite, is now purely for tourism.
      Standing on the back of the sled, 2 white-uniformed drivers (Carreiros), wearing straw boaters and rubber soled shoes, steer the baskets along the narrow winding streets 2km downhill, at up to 40kmh.

      After our slide down the hill we caught the local bus back to the city centre, walked along the promenade, and visited the supermarket to buy supplies for dinner.      Read more

    • Darren and JanetMorocco and Portugal 2023
      1
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      Day 51

      Cliffs and Clouds

      April 12, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

      We're leaving Funchal today and heading to the north west corner of the island to Porto Moniz.

      We contacted a taxi driver a few days ago who specialises in transfers for tourists and agreed a price for the journey, including stops on the way. To drive direct takes one hour, so we hired him for 4 hours with 3 stops.

      First stop was the Cabo Girão Viewpoint, famous for its suspended glass platform. At 589m it's claimed as the highest sea cliff in Europe and the 2nd highest in the world (but both claims are in dispute!)

      We then ascended the central mountain range close to the highest point of the island, where we were above the clouds for much of the journey.

      On the northern side of the island we stopped at the Fanal Forest, an old growth laurel forest - it's at 1500m altitude and often shrouded in cloud, giving it a mystical appearance... but the cloud blows in quickly and disappears just as fast. Laurel forests were once spread throughout Europe, but today are practically extinct, so the Madeira Islands laurel forest was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999, covering an area of 150 square kilometres.

      We arrived at Porto Moniz at 2pm, had some lunch on the foreshore and a trip to the supermarket. Oliver and I then went for a caching walk, and had an impromptu Levada walk.

      A levada is an irrigation channel or aqueduct specific to Madeira. They were originally constructed of stone and later concrete to irrigate the sugarcane fields, and usually have a walking path next to it. There are more than 2,170 kilometres of levadas - not bad for an island 57km long and 22km wide.      Read more

    • Darren and JanetMorocco and Portugal 2023
      2
      22211
      Day 53

      Caching up and down the mountain

      April 14, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

      The weather is cool and overcast again today, so our plan to swim in the natural sea baths was put on hold.

      We solved a puzzle cache this morning so we set out on a mission! It was located beyond the end of a walking path, about 700m from our apartment. After some searching we found that one and was walking back to town past the school got chatting to the caretaker (it's currently school holidays), so we had a look around their indoor football stadium and 6 lane swimming pool... and he motioned that there is a walking path up the mountain (his English was as good as our Portuguese 😁).

      We set off up the path (toward a cache that we aborted the search for 2 nights ago when we ran out of footpath), and kept going up until we reached our destination. And, as luck would have it, a local cafe was just up the road. After a steak sandwich, coffee and Portuguese tart, we headed back down the walking path toward the coast.

      Still too cold for a swim, we walked around the town for a while, and had dinner in.      Read more

    • Darren and JanetMorocco and Portugal 2023
      1212
      Day 54

      North Coast

      April 15, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

      Time to leave Porto Moniz and travel across the north coast from west to east.

      We engaged the same taxi driver to pick us up and give us a tour of the north coast, narrowly avoiding a road block as the São Vicente Car Rally was starting on the public roads this morning.

      We stopped at the black sand beach of Sexial, voted in the top 3 beaches in Europe in 2022 - not for the quality the beach (because the blank sand turns to black mud after going in the water), but because of the setting.

      We stopped briefly to see some traditional Madeiran triangle houses in Santana. They are made of straw and wood because they were both abundant materials in the early days, and the high pitched roof assisted to keep the rainwater running off.

      Another glass viewpoint visited at Guindaste, this one vying for the world's shortest? 😂

      Porto Da Cruz is home to a rum distillery, so while Bek and Jake sampled their wares, Oliver and I climbed the nearby viewpoint for a cache and watched the many surfers in the bay.

      Two more viewing areas were visited before arriving in Machico, both with views of the airport. We stayed a while and watched a number of planes take off and land - the airport is certainly busier that we thought it would be!

      After settling into our accommodation, we headed to the city centre for a late lunch and a walk around the beach front, which is split into two by a breakwater. One end is a pebble covered surf beach, the other a sandy swimming beach in a protected end of the bay. It is one of the few sandy beaches of Madeira, with sand imported from North Africa. The sand imports were quite controversial, as the sand was taken from Western Sahara, a Non-Self Governing Territory which has been largely occupied by Morocco since 1975.      Read more

    • Darren and JanetMorocco and Portugal 2023
      32
      Day 55

      Meandering in Machico

      April 16, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

      Free day in Machico today, and the weather is warm and clear, so we thought we do some of the walking tracks around town.

      As we discovered in Porto Moniz, there are walking tracks throughout each town, but they don't appear on any maps, so it's a bit of trial and error to get the right one.

      We began near our apartment on the western side of town, with a track that crosses the main highway and heads toward the airport. It got very steep, very quickly, so we found another path down, back towards to centre of town.

      After some meandering we realised we were only a few hundred metres from one last cache (there's always just one more 🤣), so we trekked up the hill to the east to claim it.

      We found a series of levadas and roads down to the beach to join Bek and Jake for alfresco lunch near the fort, then headed back uphill to our accommodation for a quiet afternoon.      Read more

    • Madeira
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      15
      Day 2

      Planung und Funchal

      April 28, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

      Der heutige Tag stand ganz im Zeichen der Planung des restlichen Urlaubs und er endete mit einem Spaziergang durch Funchal Inkl. Marktbesuch & Abendessen. Als Hausgast durften wir heute eine graue Katze begrüßen, die sich aufgrund ihres Fells den Namen „Filzmaier“ eingetreten hat.

      PS: Tag 2 en Suite mit Sichtung einer Schleiereule, hoffentlich hält die Serie an 🦉      Read more

      See translation
    • Madeira
      211241
      Day 3

      🦜 und die erste Levadawanderung

      April 29, 2023 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

      Unsere erste Levadawanderung führte an einem Café vorbei, bei dem zutrauliche Buchfinken einem direkt aus der Hand fressen.

      Rund 14 km war die Strecke lang, die mal durch Dschungel, mal über Geröll und großteils an Levadas entlang führte. Zitat Wikipedia: „Levadas heißen die künstlichen Wasserläufe, die in Portugal und auf Madeira (Portugal) erbaut wurden, um Wasser aus den niederschlagsreicheren Gebieten zu den landwirtschaftlichen Anbaugebieten zu leiten.“
      Es hat etwas meditatives an fließendem Wasser in Betonrinnen entlang zu gehen und wird nicht langweilig.

      Abendessen zu Hause und ziemlich müde - aber Vogel- und Wasserbaubegeisterte kamen auf ihre Kosten 😁      Read more

      See translation

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Madeira, Autonomous Region of Madeira, Madère

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