Blogs from Madeira, Portugal, Europe - page 21

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

We arrived at Madeira at our due time, but had been advised by fellow passengers as to what to expect and they were correct. We did not dock at Funchal but tendered in. Why? Because there was a cruise ship traffic jam with, seemingly, half the cruise ships in Europe trying to dock at once. There were two or three super cruisers and all the big companies were there, including Black Watch from Fred Olsen. We eventually anchored about 3 kms to the east of the main harbour about half a kilometre out and, following clearance, were on the second tender. However, when we arrived in the harbour - which only had three slots for landing tenders - we were in a line of boats sent from about nine other cruise ships. It took until 5 ... 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

Hello my fellow travelers! This is the fourth of six posts I'll do about a trip to the Canary Islands, Morocco and Madeira in 2004 together with my parents and my uncle Anders. The last post covered the time I was down with the winter flu while this one covers my shortest ever visit to a place. As we docked in Funchal, after spending a full day at sea, I was still pretty much out of commission. The worst had passed but I was on a very definite fluid diet ordered back to the cabin. The rest of my family wanted to go ashore and I said no worries, just go and enjoy, I'll be here drinking Pepsi, eating soup and reading a book. Trying to regain some strength. My mother was concerned of course, as ... read more