On a personal note, I will be traveling to New England through the end of October, and will not be updating the site while away! But look forward to more articles in November!

Madeira – Tropical, Mountainous and Lovely

Article and Photos BY: KARI HOEL

The trip to Madeira was decided during a conversation between my husband and I sometime in June, when the holiday was coming closer. “Kari, I have been thinking: What if the weather in Norway this summer turns out as terrible as it was last summer? It would be nice to go away somewhere warm and nice for a week or so – what about Madeira?” I smiled, turned on the computer, checked out some facts about Madeira (all very promising), booked tickets and said: “Yes, that is a wonderful idea, we are leaving 6 am. on July 7th. !“

Madeira is an island in the Atlantic ocean (600 kms off the west of Morocco) and an autonomous region of Portugal. The climate is comfortable all year around, and there is plenty of sunshine. The scenery is very diverse: It is rocky, but there are also hills, colorful flowers and sub-tropical forests. Madeira does not really have nice beaches, but Porto Santo – an island northwest of Madeira – apparently has a wonderful 9 km long beach. There are several seawater pools along the coastline of Madeira, so it is not hard to find places to swim and sunbathe. The Rough Guide Directions Madeira and Porto Santo contains lots of information about Madeira, and we used it a lot during our holiday.

We stayed in Funchal, the capital, and most hotels in Funchal are situated in the western part of the city, the “hotel zone”. Our hotel, Terrace Mar, had big rooms, a great pool area on the roof, and it was very clean. However, the street had a lot of traffic, so it was quite noisy. Fortunately, the room had air conditioning, so we were able to shut the noise out while still maintaining a comfortable temperature indoors.

Uphill and downhill things to do

We rented a car to get easy access to the mountains and get around at our own pace. Some of the roads are very, very steep. I live in Norway, a country with ice and snow several months a year, but I still have no problems driving up hills. In Madeira, the rental car stopped several times because the (stupid little) engine could not handle the hills. Fortunately, all it needed was more speed, and it got us up every time.

Pico Ruivo is the highest mountain, at 1862 m. It is possible to get to it the easy way or the hard way. We chose the hard way, going from Pico do Areiro (1811 m), where we parked the car. One might think that the altitude difference of only 51 meters made this an easy walk. It was not. Imagine walking up and down the stairs of skyscrapers, and you get an idea of how the walk was: The path between the mountains consisted of a large part of stair steps. It was a hard walk, but it was also spectacular. The scenery was diverse, and the view from Pico Ruivo was incredible. The view of the island from above the clouds was definitely worth the effort.

Hiking (or driving) is not the only way to experience heights in Madeira. From Funchal, we caught a cable car to Monte, a hilltop town overlooking Funchal. Monte has s a great botanical garden with a museum (Jardins Tropicais do Monte Palace). Walking around here is a peaceful way to spend a couple of hours.

And a quick way to get out of the peaceful mode is to catch the toboggan run down from Monte. You sit in a basket car while two “drivers” jump on and off the back of the toboggan in order to control speed (the “brakes” are the rubber soles of their shoes). It looks scarier than it is… The ride takes about ten minutes, and is well worth doing if you are in Madeira. I am pretty sure that you cannot experience this anywhere else!

A flat walk into a lush forest was a nice change to the experiences mentioned above. There are several levadas (mini-channels) on Madeira, and we walked along the Ribeira da Janela, north-west on the island. The Ribeira da Janela is a river in the valley below, and the trip offers great views of the valley and the forest, apparently UNESCO-protected.

Food and Madeira

The selection of bars and restaurants in Funchal is huge, which is not so strange, provided that this is a popular place for tourists. We were able to find some great places to eat and drink, and the Rough Guide did not let us down this time either. Unfortunately, none of the places we visited have websites.

Golden Gate (Avenida Arriaga 27-29) is a restaurant/bar in the centre of Funchal, open from early morning until late at night. The restaurant is spacious, with a high ceiling, a wonderful balcony on the first floor, and attentive staff. For lunch on the day we arrived, my husband had a salmon and pasta dish and I had a caesar salad. The food was good, but not fantastic. However, the atmosphere of the place made us return a couple of days later for dinner. My husband had a steak and I had chicken cordon bleu. This time, the food was a bit better, but it was still the atmosphere that made it a great experience.

The Quashbah Oriental Caffe is in the “hotel zone” west of Funchal. It is situated on the promenade close to a big saltwater pool (Lido), and it serves Middle-Eastern inspired cuisine, but it is also the kind of place where you can have a coffee or a drink. The food is good and reasonable, and the vegetables that came with my dish were wonderful!

Doca do Cavacas is my most memorable dining experience from Madeira. The lovely building with a big terrace is right over the sea, and the view is spectacular. This restaurant is about 5 km from Funchal, but well worth the trip. We both had scabbard fish with vegetables, and it was delicious. On top of that, the soothing sound of waves and the fresh air made this evening even more wonderful.

Bernini is a small (wannabe) Italian restaurant close to a big casino complex. It was supposedly Italian, but the pizza was American-style pan pizza with lots of cheese, not the thin crust that Italian pizzas are known for. It also had some local twists on the menu (pizzas with banana, for instance). I had a vegetarian pizza, and it was really good… in fact, we went back to this place because good American pizzas are hard to find in Norway, and I like American-style pan pizza just as much as Italian pizza (even though that is a very “untrendy” preference for young and semi-young Europeans these days).

When in Madeira, it is almost compulsory to drink Madeira Some of the restaurants served it before the meal, other restaurants served it after the meal. We also went to a place that produces and sells Madeira, Pereira d’Oliveira located on Rua dos Ferreiros in Funchal. Fortunately we had read about this place in a newspaper just before we went to Madeira, and this was a good place to taste and buy Madeira – it was not a tourist trap that sold overpriced stuff. We tried several types before we went for a Madeira from 1984 that was the second sweetest category (the types are dry, medium dry, medium sweet and sweet). The price was about EUR 35, which was not bad.

For people who seek beach life or a wild nightlife, Madeira is not a good holiday destination. Anyone besides that will probably have a wonderful time on Madeira. We certainly did!

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On a personal note, I will be travelng to New England through the end of October, and will not be updating the site while away! But look forward to more articles in November!