Mature Flâneur
Mad about Madeira (Part 1)
Fun in Funchal
Madeira rises like a green gem in an azure ocean with no other land in sight (save for a few neighboring islets) — not the coast of Morocco, far to the east, nor the Canary Islands, far to the south. The subtropical island is the remains of a volcano that erupted and left a smoldering heap of lava out in the middle of the ocean. Over the ages, rain and wind wore down the hardened lava, gouging deep rivulets into the rock, rivulets that deepened into valleys and grew lush with vegetation until the island was covered in trees.
The Portuguese discovered the island in 1419, and simply called it “Wood” — Madeira, in Portuguese. As they settled this new land, they burned as much of the forest as they could to make way for agriculture. Today only about 20% of the original old laurel forest remains. The Portuguese imported peasant labor and slaves, and then exported wheat at first, then sugarcane, then wine. The island went through several cycles of boom and bust, as global tastes for its commodities changed, wars destroyed trade routes, and blights ravaged the once-wild land.
Eventually, in about 1850, Madeira found a secure path to prosperity as a tourist destination. Brits were especially fond of the mild subtropical climate and developed a taste for Madeira’s fortified wine, known the world over as simply madeira. That early tourist boom has pretty much sustained the economy through to modern times. The new international airport brings in flights from all over Europe, and massive cruise ships dock in the main harbor, sometimes two or three a day, during the busy summer months.
It’s surprising, though, that Madeira never really registered high on our “must-see” list. Teresa and I have explored a good chunk of Portugal. It is, after all, my beloved’s native land. As we flâneur about Europe, we have found ourselves drawn back again and again to this country. So, the decision to visit Madeira was more a case of finally getting around to it, rather than checking off a bucket-list item.
Now that we have arrived in Funchal, the capital, we wonder why the heck did we not come here sooner.
Funchal is beautiful, especially in the off-season before the cruise ships stack up. We found out that year after year it wins the award for the tidiest city in Europe. It was a bit disorienting at first, after a week in Lisbon. There is no trash on the sidewalks. No derelict buildings. Not even any graffiti scrawled on the walls. The ancient churches and forts are in immaculate condition. The quaint streets of the old town look like so many historic quarters in mainland Portugal, but with a fresh lick of paint.
A Madeira man named Luís told me cleanliness was a point of pride for the islanders. “We’ve been having visitors here for more than 170 years, so we like to present ourselves well to our guests,” he told me. “Even the poorer parts of the city look tidy,” Luis concluded with obvious pride.
Here are the highlights of our first few days:
Rua de Santa Maria: The Painted Doors Project
One of the oldest streets in Madeira, this narrow lane was rather dilapidated until 2010, when photographer José Maria Zyberchem started the Painted Doors Project. His idea was that local artists would paint all the doors. Today, over 200 doors have been turned into works of art. This not only attracted tourists, it revitalized the street, which is now full of restaurants and shops. It’s absolutely delightful to meander along this unique outdoor gallery. Here are some of our favorites:
West Funchal (Garden District)
West Funchal is a land of manicured exotic gardens and fancy hotels. We strolled around there our first morning, dipping into the historic Reid hotel for tea on their terrace and a free look at their spectacular cliff-top view.
Camara dos Lobos
A short ride to the western edge of the city took us to the fishing village of Camara dos Lobos, famous mostly because Winston Churchill loved the sea view and stayed here often after he retired, in order to paint. The Bay was renamed in his honor. Looking up from the water, past the colorful fishing boats, palm trees and fuchsia bougainvillea, we could see tiered banana plantations all the way up to the hilltops.
Cabo Girão Viewpoint
From Camara dos Lobos, it was a half-hour, hair-raising uphill ride to the lookout at Cabo Girão, one of the tallest cliffs in Europe and the continent’s highest skywalk. We walked out over the plexiglass floor and stared straight down 589 meters to the crashing waves beneath our feet. Vertigo, anyone?
Cable Car to Monte Gardens
Back in Funchal that afternoon, while Teresa relaxed by the pool, I took the cable from the waterfront up to Monte Gardens. The ride up over the city was an odyssey of sound. Through the open windows, I could hear all the noises of the city as we glided over the rooftops — children playing in a schoolyard, traffic from the highway, and a chorus of birdsong as we flew over the treetops of a park. From this perspective, I could see that there were no slums anywhere in the city below. No tenement housing. Just tidiness as far as the eye could see.
We rose up into the steep volcanic hills, touching down at the entrance to Monte Gardens. A wealthy estate-turned-hotel-turned-public botanical garden, the park contains an eclectic collection of art from around the world — Zimbabwean stone sculptures, old Roman statues, Chinese gateways, marble angels, bronze nudes, and a large golden Buddha who seems to have gotten lost on his way to Nirvana.
The garden itself is entirely vertical. It is shaped as a long and narrow green triangle that runs down the folds of the steep mountainside. It makes the park easy to navigate, despite the heavy tree cover: you walk down until you get to the lower wall with the viewpoint, then trudge back up to the gated entrance at the top, and the cable car ride back to the city.
That evening, our hotel had a surprise for us: a traditional song and dance folk performance in the hotel bar. We have seen a lot of these things in our travels, and we’re prepared for something folksy-hokey. But that was not the case. The eight dancers and six musicians, in full traditional costumes, put their hearts into it. I imagine they are members of a Funchal folk dance troupe of urbanites who make preserving these traditions their hobby. They clearly relished the chance to share their skills. We loved the sassy, flirtatious back-and-forth tunes the men and women sang to each other as they clapped and twirled and stamped their boots. The rhythms of the music reminded us weirdly of Cajun two-step dance music from southern Louisiana.
Near the end, the troupe reached out to the audience and hauled us all to our feet to join them in a chain dance throughout the entire bar. They had us all twisting and clapping as part of the performance, much to the obvious delight of the dancers, who applauded us, even as we applauded them. We felt most thoroughly welcomed to Madeira.
All this fun in Funchal in just days one and two! What else does Madeira have in store for us, we wondered? Come along as we explore the entire island in the weeks ahead.
Want more Madeira? You can find all six of my Madeira stories at the top of this list:
