Land Ho...Madeira

After 7 sea days we reached the Portugese island of Madeira this morning.  It was cool and cloudy with rain occasionally but since we had a taxi tour booked it worked out ok.  The roads were very curvey, up and down the towns.  Newer roads are tunneled through the lava mountains but not nearly as interesting to travel.  Surprising to me, the lava is very fertile so the mountains have been terraced for fields.  There are many many small fields of sugar cane, vegtables, grape vines and others along the way.  Larger companies purchase the harvest many times from the very small farmers.

 

The fishing boats in Camara de Lobos were very colorful and interesting and made me want to stay and paint them.  Hopefully the photos will do.  From there we visited a cathedral then on to the plateau at the top of the island.  It is the flattest area but so far from anything that we saw only cows wandering the grasslands.  Eventually we found the sea side restaurant for lunch.  There were lava formed tide pools for swimming when the tide is up.  Unfortunately it was raining so outdoor dining was not an option….it would have been spectacular!!

 

Because we had heard about the large portions of the “tourist menu” we opted for a la carte choices.  I had a vegtable soup and bread and olives, with wine of course but George tried the Espetada which is skewered beef on laurel twigs.  It was delicious!!  And huge, coming with a large salad, bowl of fries and a side. The twig was like a small branch sharpened to a point.

 

On we went to the Cabo Girao which is the highest sea cliff in Europe and second in the world.  Standing on the glass walkway was fun, and a bit scarey!!  By now it had cleared up a bit so we could see without being in clouds or rain.  A lovely end to the day. George at Cabo Girao

    Between the seas     Funchal