My travel in Europe:
Madeira, a Portuguese island, 2019

Content:

• Day 1: First day in Funchal
• Day 2: Madeira Botanical Garden and Cathedral of Funchal
• Day 3: Monte palace Tropical Garden and fortress Santiago
• Day 4: Western Coast of Funchal
• Day 5: Santa Cruz
• Day 6: Old Funchal and Fortress
• Day 7: Big cruiser in harbor
• Day 8: Last walk and then flight home

Planning our Madeira trip:

There wasn't very much planning this time. We had a restoration of our bathroom at home and not so easy to live there. What to do? I looked at the ads for cheap travels and found one to Madeira. Madeira is an island of Portugal and I have always wanted to visit that island, perfect. It's placed far away out in the Atlantic Ocean, North of the Canary Islands.

Google Map over Madeira:

From Madeira Airport to Funchal.

I got some new local friends down here, maybe they will help me writing later and fill in the missing details.

Day I, Funchal:

Aeroporto da Madeira:

We had read about the aero buses and find one just outside the airport. 5 Euro for a one way ticket to Funchal, you pay by cash on the bus.

Already on the bus we see that Madeira is very steep and also a green island.

At Wikipedia you find more information about Madeira:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Madeira (Madeira, Wikipedia)

Funchal:

After we left the buss we had a 300 meter walk along the street R. do Carmo where our hotel is placed.

Here is our hotel, do Centro. Not the old red commercial sign, RadioluX, many years since I saw one of them.

We had our room on the fifth floor, here is the view from the balcony towards the mountains.

And here towards the Atlantic Ocean, not bad, we didn't even expect to have a balcony.

After we had installed us on the hotel we took a walk on the nearby streets to see what town Funchal is like.

At Wikipedia you find more information about Funchal:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Funchal (Funchal, Wikipedia)

We found small nice shops and restaurants everywhere.

Just 5 minutes walk from our hotel we had the old market Mercado dos Lavradores, it's built 1940.

One of the channels where the water flows from the mountains, the birds seem to like to sit her.

Inside the market we found flowers.

Inside the market there is a garden with coffees and shops.

Here they have food for us, sandwiches and vine.

At the second floor we have more food and a nice view over the square.

More restaurants.

In most markets we have visited we found decoration with fruits. Looks so nice that you cannot refuse to buy something.

At Wikipedia you find more information about the market Mercado dos Lavradores in Funchal:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Mercado dos Lavradores (Mercado dos Lavradores, Wikipedia)

After we had walk a while we noticed several colorfull houses like this.

At the harbor is the starting point for the cable car. We had seen old photos of a steam locomotive that goes up the mountain. Maybe a cable car is a more practical solution in these steep mountains.

At Wikipedia you find more information about the Cable Car and the old Monte Railway:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Funchal Cable Car (Funchal Cable Car, Wikipedia)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Monte Railway (Monte Railway, Wikipedia)

The evening comes quickly. In front of us the Funchal Old Town. In this block there a lot of restaurants that we visited several times the following days.

A big cruiser has anchored at the harbor.

Now back to the hotel, we were tired after the 5.5 hours flight. We feel these days will be nice for us, great nice town.