Blogs from Madeira, Madeira, Portugal, Europe - page 3

Our first full day in Madeira, we signed up for three tours. The first was the sailing excursion that I last wrote about. The second was the Nun´s Valley tour we took on Thursday afternoon. The minivan picked us up at the hotel and took us to a lookout point, Pico dos Barcelos, about one-third of the way up the mountains above Funchal. It turns out that when you look at Funchal from the sea, you can see only about two-thirds of it. From Pico dos Barcelos you look down on more Funchal tucked in behind hills that block the view from the shore. From there, we wound up the mountains, twisting into and out of draws and ravines that hold more houses perched here and there. These houses are old because at some point there ... read more

Monday morning as we prepared for our mid-day flight to Madeira from Lisbon, we thought we had an easy day ahead of us--Not! It turned into the most bizarre travel day either of us has ever experienced. First problem: as we were deposited by taxi in front of Terminal One at 11:15 a.m. for our 1 p.m. flight, we realized that Someone had misread the itinerary and our flight actually left at 11:30 a.m. from Terminal Two! Our first inclination was to make a mad dash to Terminal Two, but we were shortly disabused of that notion as the path we followed took us to a bus that just sat there for ten minutes waiting for more passengers. O.K. We re-booked for the 2 p.m. flight and had lunch in the terminal while waiting for the ... read more

Today would unfortunately be my last on the island. I had a 5:00 P.M. flight back to Lisbon so, I had to have the bike back by about 3:00 P.M. I took another route from Seixal across the highlands to the center of the island. The going was a bit chilly at the higher elevation but not enough to deter my progress. Approaching Funchal, I made a quick detour to the inland town of Curral das Freiras. What a great decision that turned out to be. The town lies in the middle of a dramatic valley that resembles Yosemite. Valley walls rise up in all directions to dizzying heigths. Unfortunatley, team orson’s ever-whining team photographer had allowed his camera’s memory to run out! So…no pictures from Curral das Freiras. I made my way back to Funchal ... read more

Tonight’s destination would be another quaint fishing village on the northern coast named Seixal, in the heart of the famed Madeira wine growing area. I followed the coastal road but took every opportunity to explore any roads I encountered heading up into the mountains. These inland roads provided scenery just as dramatic as the coastline. Mountainous terrain shot straight up into the sky at dizzying rates. Farmers took every chance to cultivate any plot of available terrain, with terraced plots in every conceivable nook and cranny. Some of these backroads had also benefited from E.U. funds with a new coat of pavement making for some great curve strafing. Thank gawd for the E.U. funds. The last section of coastal road before reaching Seixal was clawed from the precarious cliffside making for a dramatic view of the ... read more