8/12 Funchal, Madeira

Thursday 8 December      Funchal, Madeira (Portuguese)

Happy birthday young Hayley (9) and our dinner companion, Nanette, who has now morphed into Renalda (70 lots).

Our dinner companions Renelda & Manuel

This is what they do for excitement, place you in a wicker basket and let you slide down the hill with your only brakes being the 2 men holding the ropes beside you.  We declined to be this excited!  This is Renelda with me.

The sun didn’t rise until 8am so we missed the apparently attractive spectacle of various small islands as we cruised in.  While we sat enjoying our breakfast, a firework display burst forth high on the hillside.  And what a pretty hillside.  The island is an extinct volcano and rises sharply from the water.  The buildings are all white and are stacked up the hill.  Each one would have the most spectacular sea view.

There is a replica of Christopher Columbus’ ship the Santa Maria here.  It is available for day sailing trips.  It is so small, amazing to think how people roamed such large oceans in such small craft.  People do it these days but they have all the modern navigational aids.

We were early ashore and soon fell into the company of a pair of Victorians and a Sethefrican family from Pretoria. Very interesting. We walked with them the length of the beachfront, all the while being told by the locals that it was a holiday (apparently true) and that everything was closed (untrue) and we should hand over all our ready cash to taxi drivers for a scenic tour (fanciful).

We located an internet place and found Stephie on Skyp. By way of unexpected bonus, Lissa was still up and we got to see her (looking more like her father on a daily basis) and my Hayley happened to be there with news of her exam results and Courtney’s having signed a modelling contract (obviously also looking more like her father on a daily basis). So we went off a very happy grandmother and a very proud father.

 We really liked Funchal. It is clean and pretty, the people mostly speak English and are very helpful but not pushy, and the weather was beautiful (particularly for December). We are not really in the market for eating anything while we are on SS Gluttony but the prices in the cafes looked very reasonable. For once, I was actually tempted to sit in a square (you know what I mean) with a coffee and listen to the local musos. Had I not been cruelly dragged up a series of precipitous mountains to inspect museums and forts I may well have done so. All things being equal, we should be back here next April on our way to Lisbon. As J said, our experience here bodes well for an enjoyable exploration of Portugal in May.

J writes: Found a small municipal museum in an old mansion that has been used as an aquarium, a library and a natural history museum. It was open and today it was free!  The ground floor had several tanks with some local underwater sea life, large moray eels being the highlight.   Second floor was the library and it was closed. *sigh* Top floor housed collections of insects, crabs, mammals, fish etc.  Outstanding collection of birds with some unusual local species and also the sharks with some species I have never heard of.  We continued up the very steep streets till we reached the Fort do Pico that we could see from the ship.  This was in very good repair and had good views over the city and bay.

Drawbridge

Small houses

Many of the streets and all paths were patterned using the volcanic stone.  Very pretty.

Tragedy!! On reboarding the ship, we emerged from an enclosed airbridge and had to cross a 2 metre long walkway before stepping into the ship. That was where the crosswind flicked my cap off and dumped it into the harbour. This is my Perth cap that matches my safari outfit and has been all round Africa, India, Hong Kong etc, Nepal, Turkey, Egypt, China and Europe. Possibly NZ as well. Bugger. Well – it has about 4 months to find its way to Rio when we are on our way back, else I am going to walk the beaches of Funchal when we return here in April and find it. Watch this space.  There is also a lot more to see and do on this island, so hopefully we will get another full day here on our return.

We pulled away just after 6pm, with almost a full moon rising and the lights up the mountain all lit up. Very pretty. These places go all out with Christmas lights and all the trees along the promenade were dripping with lights, Xmas trees and large decorations were also lit.  A very high bridge up on the hillside had what must have been hundreds of lights, which formed their flag – brilliant.  A lone windsurfer wandered within 100m of us and seemed to be trying to get away without success. The pilot boat was staying between us and may have to rescue him after they collect their other passenger.

The evening programme was yet another classical concert (Ok bring back the dancers). The same lugubrious baritone, the tenor that everyone loves (not least Maestro) and the sopranos. The violinist did a very good job of a (R) Strauss overture – I would have expected her to saw through at least 3 strings. The girls lightened the mood at the end with the Duet For Cats (the script consists solely of “meow”). We weren’t even curious about the Pleb Show (“gin whisky and soda”) and went straight to bed.