Tuesday – Funchal, Madeira
Today, we arrived in Funchal Madeira, or to be more precise, we anchored just outside the port of Madeira, since all the berths had been allocated to other ships (P&O Aurora, Fred Olsen Balmoral and Saga Sapphire). Apparently, berths in Funchal, on New Year’s Eve, have to be booked 6 years in advance, so someone just wasn’t quite quick enough to get us in there this time around. It’s not a problem, of course, since getting passengers ashore simply means dropping a couple of lifeboats into the water and laying on a tender boat service. For whatever reason, however, this seemed problematic. From what we can gather, there was a bit of argy-bargy with the three other ships anchored similarly just outside the port (Fred Olsen’s Braemar, Saga Ruby and another, unidentified vessel), all of whom also wished to run a tender service. I think the problem was at the other end, finding a suitable quayside where the boats could land, and share the space… Coupled with this, the sea was a tad choppy, which makes it awkward for getting passengers onto the boats in the first place. Several times, the ship had to be repositioned, to make the transfer safer; the whole process seemed to drag on, though, and many passengers didn’t get ashore until after lunch (ourselves included). Once ashore, though, we were able to enjoy the festive atmosphere that Funchal is very good at creating.
The town was bursting with people, and the main street featured live music and people dressed in lots of colourful costumes. There were brightly coloured stalls, a full-sized nativity scene, people making and selling bread, squeezing fresh oranges, drinking, singing, and generally having a good time… wonderful! (It all reminded me vaguely of the Edinburgh Festival).
We’d read about Madeira’s mountain levadas, which were a unique and extensive network of irrigation ditches built all around the island to bring water from the highest points down into the lower, civilised areas. Modern technology has rendered the the ditches redundant, but they have been preserved as hiking trails. Our plan was to find a Tourist Information Centre, where we’d been told maps of the levadas are available, take a cable car trip up the mountain, then hike the levadas back into town. Amazingly, despite asking three different people, we failed to locate a Tourist Information Centre. After wandering around the town for a good half hour or so, and getting slightly frustrated at being unable to find what we were looking for, we headed for the cable car and bought one-way tickets (figuring we’d just wing it once we got up the hill).
Our journey up the mountainside, which should have been a joyous thing, enjoying the spectacular views across the city, was right-royally-ruined by a couple who we had the misfortune to have to share the car with. They winjed and moaned about the cruise the whole way up… not stopping until we climbed out of the car at the other end… thanks guys! In the shop at the top, we found some maps, but they were expensive, and a quick study of them revealed to us the fact that the levadas were off in a different direction to where we’d hoped they’d be. Had we more time, we might have kept to the original plan, but under the circumstances, with time being so limited (Last tender back to the ship would be 7pm), we decided to take a look around the Monte church, then walk back down to the town via the roads.
Our precise route back down into town remains a topic of slight disagreement between Tracey and myself. Whilst in the cable car, and having our ears chewed off by Mr & Mrs Happy, I’d been trying to check out the road system below us, with a view to us finding an interesting way back. The conclusion I came to was that the simplest, and most direct route would be to follow the same route taken by the sledges (something we’d treated ourselves to the last time we came this way, but didn’t feel like spending a further 30 euros on this time around). As I say; our precise route was something that we couldn’t agree on, but ended up following the sledge route anyway. I maintain it was the best choice based upon our reduced time constraints; it’s pretty linear, with less chance of us getting lost, and gave us a little more time to chill out in Funchal and enjoy the atmosphere before taking the tender boat back to the ship. It was New Year’s Eve, of course, with the highlight of the trip taking place on the dot of midnight….
…. I’m pleased to report that the fireworks didn’t disappoint. Several ships were gathered outside the harbour to witness the spectacle. As 2013 became 2014, the entire island, stretching from one end to the other erupted in a spectacular display lasting for a full 10 minutes… truly awesome!!!!
