Bracing weather

Travel Notes

Madeira January 2007

Background

The island of Madeira is the largest of a handful of small volcanic islands in the Atlantic, off the coast of Morocco. With its mild climate year-round and fertile volcanic soil, Madeira is also known as the 'floating garden' and is famed for its wine and countless varieties of flowering plants. Formerly a Portuguese colony, Madeira is now autonomous but remains Portuguese-speaking and uses the Euro as currency.

Geography

Madeira lies around 370 miles off the west coast of Morocco, directly on what was once a key shipping route from England to South America. Discovered 'officially' by Zarco and Tristao Vaz around 1420, this small group of volcanic islands once formed a key stop-over point for merchants, where their goods could be traded and ships re-supplied. It's one of the few times Europeans have 'discovered' somewhere that was not actually populated at the time! Christopher Columbus lived in Madeira and studied navigation there (Note: this is a real can of worms .. some sources dispute this).

Madeira island itself is vaguely kidney shaped and around 35 miles east to west by 15 miles north to south. Although now long extinct, the volcanic origin of Madeira is still evident in the centre of the island which is steep and ruggedly mountainous, with the highest peak, Pico Ruivo, at over 6000 feet. There is amazingly little flat level ground on the island, but the gradients tend to be gentler towards the sea.

Summary of my visit

While accepting that is not the best time of year to go, I felt lucky in having only one day of rain out of the week I spent there. It was 19C (66 F) during the day , 15C (59F) at night.

I only saw Funchal. Clouds and rain covered most of the rest of the island and one couple from Manchester declared their day trip out of the city a waste of time because of the weather, so I concentrated on Funchal.

My nice studio for £15 ($30) a night and included a good breakfast buffet. Only problem is that the hotel was up a very steep hill .. about 8 stories above the main street level. I was on the 7^th floor and had a great view, so there were compensations.

I cannot understand why this island attracts so many old people (primarily British, but there were also people from Scandinavia and Germany), because it is so hilly and walking is not easy. The climate is mild, but getting around not easy.

In the early evening the high winds picked up again and as one of the cruise ships hooted its way out of the bay I was happy to be on dry land .. the Atlantic did not seem at all appealing. Luckily, that ended the brief spell of bad weather and although there were cloudy periods, the rest of the week was nice.

Next day I returned to the botanical gardens and took the cable car which crosses a vast canyon (the cable run is 1,600 metres and while the Website says it is 10 to 100 metres in height, it feels much higher at some points ; it is notable because most of the canyon under the cable line is undeveloped with raw rock exposed and many trees).

Funchal is a compact city with small interesting gardens and a nice mix of old and new architecture. Most of the pavements (sidewalks) are tiled in grey and black mosaic. Which is very attractive but slippery when wet. When some of the global players (MacDonald’s ; Burger King), there are also many local shops and cafes. A very impressive building (with impressive service) was the local post office .. makes a British post office seem very Third World! Perhaps it was the post holiday slump, but I found the place rather dull as far as any bars or nightlife were concerned, but at least I fulfilled my goal in going there .. seeing the botanical gardens which were well worth the trip.

I found the restaurants to be in the international holiday mode – trying to cater for all tastes. My one restaurant experience was a fish dinner which was fairly mediocre. I suspect you have to go to a fine (e.g. expensive) place to get good authentic good food. The kitchen in my studio was more than adequate and the choice in local supermarket good, so I cooked most meals in my studio.