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Family
& Friends: Madeira 2006
The
flight was uneventful though crowded, and we were very happy when
we arrived around 3 p.m. local time. The weather of course beautiful
even though on our way we mostly saw clouds. What a change compared
to 33 years ago when we visited this island for the first time!
There was a real highway from the airport into town (we later learned
that it continued much further). There were tunnels going through
this volcanic island which I later labeled a "Swiss Cheese", avoiding
much of the scarily winding road we had taken on our first trip
to get to our then hotel. The two are not far apart from each other.
We spent a wonderful week in Madeira (Portuguese and semi-independent).
Therefore, all these funds from the EU for the construction of the
highly, bridges, tunnels, and a few harbors with the fanciest dock
construction and harbor walls for almost no or only small seemingly
local boats. In all fairness, we don't know what these harbors look
like in the summer. At this stage, we only saw two boats that were
not Portuguese, one Italian and one from Norway. We were assured
that, in the summer, there are lots of boats from all sorts of places
- let's hope it is true. Otherwise, this would be a total waste
of money.
The
weather could have been nicer. We only spent a total of 6 hours
near the pool and those not even really in bathing attire. We rented
a car for two days, drove around the island, drove roads steeper
than 12%, narrow like almost one-lane with two-way traffic and truck
traffic which did not seem to notice the steepness or the narrowness
of the roads. In one case, the truck had to back up some to permit
us to drive into a tiny corner, allowing the truck to pass while
I thought we would soon be pushed down the mountain - crazy... Guard
rails seemed almost unknown on those small roads and the mountains
were steep-sloped - gorgeous to look at, scary to drive through.
In addition, it was raining with very low hanging clouds. Still,
we observed many families have picnics (spelling?) on the side of
these roads, near or in parking areas, barbecuing and seemingly
having fun. The coastline is often so steep that the roads took
us high up into these mountains from where we were supposed to have
beautiful views into various valleys. Of course, the clouds covered
the valleys like a vale. The town of Porto Moniz, small, most NorthEastern,
almost surrounded by water from three sides with volcanic rock
occasionally rising out of the ocean was cute. We skipped walking
through because of an unpleasant mist which started seeping into
our clothes. The return trip to Funchal and our hotel was a
little easier driving with fewer curves but more tunnels and part
highway. We tried to get back to the shore road a few miles before
getting back to the hotel - in vain. We ended up in a dead-end in
a village which had no access to the sea or the shore though being
right above it.
The
next day, we took the road North of Funchal to discover the most
NorthWestern part of the island - unfortunately, it was cold though
sunny. At least we had beautiful views over the shore and stopped
occasionally for some photo shoots. This time, we took the scenic
tour back to Funchal hoping to enjoy some vistas from one of the
passes. Unfortunately, also on this trip, the valleys were covered
by the clouds - still, the road was fun to drive on.
This
was May 1st, our wedding anniversary. We had made reservations for
dinner at the hotel's fanciest restaurant - it has a few. When we
got back to our room, we were overwhelmed with a gigantic arrangement
of Madeiran flowers, another bouquet of similar, i.e., local flowers,
and a bottle of champagne. Of course, we sort of "knew" who had
sent all these beautiful things and wishes, and we spent the next
half hour or so on the phone chatting with the various families
in Germany and the US. Juergen's family is very observant along
those lines - we were almost embarrassed but also very happy. I
had earlier said that we should order some champagne to celebrate,
sitting on our balcony, overlooking the hotel property which is
beautiful, and, more importantly, the ocean. Down near the beach,
the sun was shining, and it was very nice sitting outside for a
little before dinner, sipping the bubbly. Another two days on the
island and it was time to depart. The day before and the morning
of our departure, the weather was finally warm enough to dare donning
our bathing suits and exposing ourselves to the sun. The wind was
just a nice soft breeze, and so we enjoyed the last few hours on
Madeira doing what we had hoped to do most of our stay.
Click
on foto to expand!
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Our
hotel in Funchal |
Juergen
at Harbor |
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Downtown
Funchal |
Trees
in bloom |
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Flower
Festival |
Camara
de Lobos |
Terraces
cultivated |
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Old
tunnel on North Coast of Madeira |
Rugged
Coastline |
Flowers
in Fog |
Up |
