Ongoing Risky Business

Funchal, Madeira

After 3 long days of lockdown on board due to yet more passing storms, the Motley Crew decided it was time to shake out the land-legs with a day out.  So here then are a few more of our “touristico” undertakings in pleasant downtown Funchal:

#6.  Eat Unusual Things

During our wanderings we stopped to breakfast with Prince Charles (actually a café serving local snacks and that shot of strong coffee we so badly needed).  We also tried scabbard fish, crumbed then served on a sweet potato bread roll with a hit of chilli.  (We instantly thought of Galata Bridge fish sandwiches, Istanbul.  Not quite the same!)  Never having eaten roasted chestnuts, they were on our list too.  And off it immediately – they must be an acquired taste! 

Roasted Chestnuts. Not for everyone....

A stroll through the Mercado dos Lavradores (market) perked us up however as we watched fishmongers chop huge tuna steaks and came eye to eye with the razor-toothed grin of black-skinned, scabbard fish.  Further in, colourful displays of tropical fruits (tamarillos, custard apples, gooseberries and philodendron fruits) set amidst curtains of drying chillies competed with buckets of showy flowers, handcrafted embroidery and Camacha wickerwork.

Cherries for HOW much?

Adding traditional colour & song to Christmas Market festivities

The Christmas Market was another matter entirely.  It became our favourite last stop of the day.  Tasting four varieties of Madeira wine was essential, washed down with a local beer.  The best sedative for the bus ride back proved to be the much-loved poncho.  A shot of this lethal brew, made from distilled cane sugar juice (white rum?) mixed with honey and a healthy shot of fruit juice, burned our throats and chilled us out rather nicely, thank you. 

#7.  Look to the Past

Funchal offers museums a-plenty, so finally GS settled on visiting one, enchantingly titled “The Universe of Memories”.  Full of nostalgia and memorabilia, this well cared for and very elegant 19^th C townhouse, was once home for Joao Carlos Abreu and his family.  It now houses the many and rather eclectic collections amassed by Abreu on his world travels.  Collections are sensitively displayed through-out the house, keeping each room’s basic function in mind.  Ties almost overpower you in Abreu’s dressing room, ancient Chinese pottery or Indonesian carvings offset modernist paintings in the sitting room and horses, a definite passion, monopolise space in a cluster of small upstairs rooms.  (No photos allowed inside, hence the long-winded description. Photos on this local Madeira blog though.)

Garden Fountain

Cobbled Entrance to Abreu's Townhouse

After a quick pot of tea and a scone (served in cute, vintage crockery) beside the fountain in the Tea Lounge, it was off to walk the historic core of Funchal.  After a brief stop at the old City Gates, we crossed into the 15^th C Old Town with its narrow, cobbled streets and ancient buildings.  Many doors down on Dom Carlos & Santa Maria, are painted (some rather better than others) adding to the quirky ambiance of the area and uplifting the rather extraordinary, yellow painted, Sao Tiago (Saint James) Fort.  The fort, on its rocky foreshore, starkly reminded us of Madeira’s remoteness.  The area now, is packed to the hilt with restaurants.  Running the gauntlet of staff, well accustomed to soliciting attentions to their finest dishes, made us appreciate our quiet marina even more. 

Sao Tiago Fort

Happy Snappers

#8.  Dance with the Devil

Funchal’s Cathedral dates from 1514 and is one of the few buildings remaining from Madeira’s early colonisation.  Inside this Gothic delight, a dark and gloomy interior allows the carved and gilded figures of saints above the choir stalls to shine like stars.  Again, this chunky building speaks volumes of Madeira’s remoteness and survival during those heady days of the Portuguese Age of Discovery.  (Wealth from the spice trade in later years allowed development of a more exotic Manueline style; a showy architecture, Eastern influenced and very Portuguese version of the Renaissance and more readily found in Lisbon.) 

Fresco outside the Madeira Cathedral_another way of hiking perhaps?

#9. Take a Hike

In an effort to cultivate the island’s steep slopes, early settlers had to construct terraced gardens and levadas, irrigation channels, to ensure adequate water supplies.  In all, the levada system runs some 1400km over an island barely 57 x 22km.  Paths beside them provide ready-made hiking trails and if you’re keen, a good day’s workout.  Having suffered the Cinque Terre in Italy, the Cap’n baulked at the thought.  So did GS when she realised this was hiking for the serious.  Of the four recommended walks, only one was described as easy; the greater challenge was having to travel to the remote upper island by bus, a feat in itself.  Another offered a path “very narrow in places and not recommended for those susceptible to vertigo”.  Stories of cows rolling down hills in Flores during high winds (Azores) came to mind and the risk seemed just too high.

#10.  Christmas Lights & Delights

Now, do I really need to explain why this is risky??

Merry Christmas to family, friends and those brave souls who check in on our boating life & adventures.  We wish you all the best for the festive season and only ask that you save us some left-overs from that fabulous Christmas feast you have planned.  Baby Dexter has timed it just right to hang up a Christmas stocking and Santa’s on his way, Miss Phoenix!  We’ll miss you all.