Funchal, Madeira

Funchal, Madeira                                                                                                           April, 1 2022 

19 degrees Centigrade.  66 degrees.  It's getting cooler after all the 80 and ninety degrees we've experienced on the trip.

When you are just past the half way point of a 6 ½ month epic journey and they inform you that for the umpteenth time you won’t be going to another of your planned stops but you will be stopping instead at another place you’ve never heard of you sort of sigh and wistfully recall the things you had planned to do and wonder what you will be doing instead.  Such was the case as we lost Ponta Delgada in the Azores and Tangiers in Morocco.  It was replaced by Funchal.  What the heck is a Funchal.  I’ve never even heard of it.  So, you don’t pay much attention.  You visit the “Destinations” desk to see what tours will be offered and you sign up for the general tour and forget about it.  So it goes on our Magical Mystery Tour.  Turns out Funchal is on the island of Madeira, another unknown entity, part of the Madeira archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa (Morocco) about the same latitude as North Carolina. 

Well, as we closed in on Funchal we learned it is actually a pretty well-known tourist place in Europe.  We heard from several sources that it was a favorite port for some of our experienced cruisers.  We also heard about a most unusual activity we’d never heard of before (sort of like the island) that was a must do and was luckily listed as a part of our tour. 

We arrived later in the morning than usual so were able to view the arrival in partly cloudy conditions after 7 straight days at sea.  It was a lovely city of about 100,000 people built on steep rocky (volcanic origin) hills.  

First stop on the trip was the cable car ride up the steep hills.  Sort of like a Disney ride with over a hundred people in line we went up the circular ramp to the cars which held 6 passengers each and the 15-minute ride up the hill.  It looked like we were going to end up in heavy fog at the top, but the ride stopped a bit below the cloud level.  The building on the sharp hills was very interesting, and one car was parked on what looked like a helipad with no actual outlet.  I’m sure this was a visual illusion.  Talking about a visual non-illusion is what happens with the size of our ship compared to others when you are further away from the ships. We know our ship is considered a smaller ship, but when we got part way up the hill it started to look tiny, if anything this big can look tiny.   Once at the top we took a short walk then traversed a bunch (84) steps to the “Our Lady of the Mount” Church (first chapel built in 1470, first stone laid for this church in 1741, this building rebuilt after earthquake and consecrated in 1818).  Lovely interior.

After the church we went to the unique activity.  I have kept the activity secret because you would have just skipped over everything else to get to it.  Hopefully Nicole will be able to put this together in such a way as to keep you from skipping the rest.  Good luck, Nicole.  It was Disney ride number two for the day.  We took the toboggan ride for two kilometers down hill through the streets of Funchal.  It sounds bizarre.  It is totally unique, it is as weird as it sounds, and it is a lot of fun.  

Apparently it started in 1804.  I would describe the vehicles as sort of like porch swings set on a sled with wooden runners.  The pics will help.  We got in line and a whole host of nattily dressed young men traipsed up the hill past our line.   These are the drivers? guiders? brakemen? escorts?  who start you down the street with a pull then hop on the back on both sides on the backs of the runners.  Where did they come from?  Had they walked back up from below?  A truck came up from the other side with a pile of sleds which were offloaded and moved to the hill where we passengers boarded at the behest of our fearless leaders.  They control, a term used very loosely in this context, your descent using specially designed rubber soled shoes that last them about a month, steering, also a term used very loosely as you waggle back and forth down the city streets.  

The streets appear to be asphalt and have a sheen like ice that has been polished by the continual sledding.  I believe the goal of the drivers is to catch up to the sled in front of you that has already disappeared around the first 90-degree corner over two blocks ahead.  

Our guides were talking constantly the whole way down, in Portuguese.  Have no idea if they were talking about the weather or discussing what to do next to get between the cars or around the very sharp corners.  We easily caught the sled in front of us which had easily caught the sled in front of them.  I guess our guys were good.  It was fast, exciting, and fun.  You could smell the runners as they heated up from the friction.  Would recommend this activity to anyone visiting Funchal.  While it is too expensive, if it is something only offered in one place in the world you should probably do it once.  If you spent enough money to get to Funchal, you have enough to do this activity.  Part way down the hill were photographers taking our pictures.  Less than five minutes later, like a well-oiled machine, we were at the bottom and a host of salesmen were seeking the appropriate arriving passengers with printed pictures in nice souvenir folders.  What an operation.  We saw our guides boarding a bus (aha—they did not walk, they just wanted it to look like they did) to take them back to the top. 

We were met by our bus and taken to the next stop on the tour, a lovely botanical garden followed up by an embroidery and wine shop.   Madeira wine is well known (similar to Amana wine for those who are familiar with that) and hand-stitched embroidery which has to be certified by the government here as traditionally done.  We had a nice tour of the “factory” where the patterns are created then outsourced to women doing the embroidery at home.  

A short shopping excursion from the street entrance of the shop allowed us to find hard candies made from fennel which is the word from which Funchal gets its name.  Fennel was found in this spot on the island causing it to be named after the plant.  The shopping spree was a wild ten minute affair as we had to get to the bus on time.  We (Jen) did it finding two stores in which to buy the candy.  Jerry had the Euro’s to pay for it.  None of which was surprising.  Back to the ship and an early departure.  Not much time in Funchal but a really fun time.  We would go back here for a longer stay.