Madeira My Dear

Maderia island, part of the Maderian archipelago and one of two inhabited islands, lies in the Atlantic ocean, west of Morocco and 251 miles north of the Canary Islands. Discovered by a Portuguese explorer, Joao Goncalves Zarco in 1420 it has become another British favourite for a holiday abroad. Funchal is the capital and was named after the fennel plant (funcho) that grew abundantly when Mr Zarco discovered it. We pulled into port around 8.30am Friday morning and admired how the little snow white houses seemed to tumble down the hillside and spill out the bottom. It had quite a dramatic backdrop of steep hills and mountains, we could see a road perched high on concrete pillars then disappear into the side of the mountain and reappear some distance later. Maderia is famed for its beauty & gorgeous gardens not without reason and of course its wine, who hasn't heard of Maderia wine or cake?

We decided to do the hop on hop off today so started with doing the complete 90 minute tour of the city. The jacaranda trees were just about all in flower and the streets were lined with them so it looked just stunning. It was a bit chilly on the top of the bus so for the first time I had to put on a jacket, don't think I like this northern hemisphere summer. Everyone keep saying what a beautiful day it was but it was nothing like the lovely weather we had before Africa. The bus took us over the hill to the next little fishing village called Camara de Lobos. It was a really pretty village, made famous by Sir Winston Churchill as he loved to sit on a terrace and paint the scene before him. Before we got there we went past terraced hillsides covered in banana plantations. This is one of their main exports and appears in most of their dishes, particularly with fish.

They have this particular fish here called espada which is a very long, black and evil looking fish. Its head is much like a barracuda with very sharp teeth and these enourmous eyes. They have to line catch it as it lives in deep waters, from 800-1500 metres down. By the time it gets to the surface its dead due to the pressure of coming up. We had some for lunch and it was absolutely delicious. We also saw them all lined up in the fishmarket at the Mercado dos lavradores, a lively place selling fruit and vegetables as well as all sorts of fish.

When we were in Capetown we missed on going up the cable car due to the weather, we missed the cable car again in Tenerife due to the crowds so we were deterimed not to miss out here. Good news for us was there were no crowds and weather was fine enough so we finally managed a trip in the cable car. It was great too as it took around 15 mins to climb up the steep slope (1800 ft incline) to Monte. We could peer into peoples backyards and see how they lived from our swinging capsule as well as getting a fantastic view of the harbour, our ship down below and the rest of the town.

Coming down was a little more interesting. We hurtled down the slopes of the streets in a wicker basket made for two and driven by two guys all dressed up in white wearing wide brimmed hats and rubber soled shoes which are meant to act as breaks. It's a traddition of over 160 years so I guess they knew what they were doing but it was pretty scary, especially when it swung sideways and looked like we would hit the wall on the side of the road. This road is also open to cars so its not without risk. They both held onto a rope at either end and rode the cart as well as ran alongside it guiding it down this steep road for 2 kms all the while laughing & joking. What we didn't realize was it didnt take us all the way down. Where they did stop was by a fortunate souvenir shop and cafe with a plethora of taxis claiming it was at least an hours walk and over 6 kms to the bottom. We felt we knew better so we waved them off and proceeded to walk down this 90 deg street. After 10 mins we had somewhat regretted our hasty decision as our knees and thighs started to scream. Two days later we are still feeling it. We did come across a very pretty cafe tho, perched on the side of the hill that served very good coffee and maderia cake with bougainvillea drapped over the walls and near a little pond.

We took another 90 minute ride around on the bus just to fill in some time and have another look around before we went for dinner of another classic Portuguese dish, sardines and sangria. The boat wasnt due to leave until midnight so we had plenty of time and didnt feel the need to hurry as usual.

After a quick hail mary in the beautiful cathedral with its carved wooden ceilings & built between 1485 - 1515 we wandered back to the ship and sat on the balcony to watch all the lights, described in one guide as "funneling up from the harbor area to nearly 5 000 ft of mountainous terrain, the lights of the homes and businesses rise straight up as if suspended in air, twinkling aloft in the middle of nowhere" which pretty much sums it up.

No prizes for guessing what Jons thinking

check out the pointy hat on the old woman