Fun in Funchal, Portugal

Clean, beautiful, modern, safe - how wonderful to be out of Africa and visiting the capital city of the Madeira archipelago! Funchal is located about 520 miles southwest of mainland Portugal. Jagged mountains completely surround the city like a giant amphitheater with the ocean at its base. It seems that everyone on the ship enjoyed it and several have said they would like to come back.

 

Funchal, Portugal with Vista in background

 

I had tried to sign us up for an excursion by tuk tuk but unfortunately it was full, so we settled for the "Highlights of Madeira" tour instead. And it turned out to be a good choice. We could not have asked for more perfect weather - sunny with a high of 72!

If anyone is looking for a beautiful place to get away, I can recommend Funchal as a destination. https://portugalgetaways.com/en-us/destination/madeira/general-articles/funchal 

 

Our first stop was Santa Catarina Park in the heart of the city. It seems that everything grows here! Not only are many of the plants and trees native, but many have been brought in from other places and thrived. Funchal enjoys a mild subtropical climate with warm, dry summers and comfortable but slightly wetter winters. It has a year-round average temperature of 68 degrees and an average rainfall of about 25 inches. That would suit me just fine!

I've never seen so many agapanthus in bloom anywhere - both purple and white varieties and all around the city in large beds. From the park in the middle of the city, we took a cable car and rode to the hilltop village of Monte. The view on the way up was incredible. We could see the tops of the orange tile roofs covering white stucco houses that seemed to spread out for miles. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we reached the top, we had about 200 steps to climb to visit Our Lady of Monte Church. Again, what a view! And the church itself was gorgeous, as pictured below. All the flowers across the altar and in the side alcoves were fresh and smelled heavenly.

Our Lady of Monte Church

 

After our church visit, we could have taken a Monte toboggan ride back down the mountain but opted not to. The toboggans are 2-person wicker-like sleds pushed by 2 men dressed in white. These sleds were formally used to move wine down the mountain. We slowly made our way back down a rocky, uneven path to our bus. These are some of the neat patterns of the hand "paved" stone paths. Some were random sizes of various sizes, making it more difficult to walk on.

re-purposed toboggans

 

After everyone got back to the bus, we headed for Funchal's main garden - the Madeira Botanical Garden. Again, there was lots of climbing and rocky, uneven and sometimes even painful underfoot paths to navigate. But the trees and flowers were amazing. Of course I took many more than I'm posting!

 

 

 

  

Our last stop was for wine tasting at Universal Store Madeira. We were greeted with glasses of Madeira wine or a yummy sparkling passion fruit drink for non-drinkers. Of course they made sure we had time to shop. The store had many beautiful things and I was very tempted to buy an all-cork cross-body purse but decided I didn't really need it so came away with only a Madeira thimble for my travel collection. Click the link - you'll see (and they ship anywhere in the world!). https://www.universalstoremadeira.com/en/ 

An embroidery shop was also included in our itinerary but our excursion had already run overtime so that visit got scratched. The city is beautiful but oh-so-hilly and we had already gotten plenty of steps in for the day, much of them on incline. Had I been younger with more energy, I would have been dropped off in town as some did and enjoyed spending the rest of the afternoon browsing the stores and eating locally. But we were dragging and happy to come back to the ship for snacks and a nap! Funchal is a beautiful city that is definitely worth a visit.