Madeira Island Christmas in Portugal

Madeira Island is quite beautiful and even if you were to just drive around the island and stay in a car and never get out, you would see how absolutely stunning it is. We were here for a 2-week trip over Christmas and New Year's and it was an island that one can easily fall in love with. We were based in Funchal which is the largest city on this Portuguese Island. Funchal is a city of 120,000 people and it is bustling and beautiful. This is a volcanic island, you get your exercise, walking up all of these extremely steep roads and sidewalks. 

Madeira is famous for many things beginning with Madeira Wine which is a fortified wine that Winston Churchill fell in love with. It is famous for its lush volcanic landscapes which provide grand hikes for nature enthusiasts, its amazing climate and year round temperature, New Year's Eve fireworks, the birthplace of Christiano Ronaldo the Soccer/Football star and Levadas which I will explain further.

Funchal is becoming more well known and touristy.  I wanted to explore this island before the rest of the world had. All good things must come to an end apparently. It was inevitable that it would find its place in the sun with its incredible beauty and nice friendly people. Even celebrities are moving here and buying third and fourth homes. Europeans have been coming here for years and North Americans are beginning to discover it. Madeira is located in the Atlantic Ocean 500 kms off the West coast of Africa. It is temperate and sub-tropical.  The two weeks that we spent here in December/January, it did not get colder than 18° c during the day, but we averaged around 22 ° c which was beautiful for hiking. 

Black volcanic rock off the Funchal coastline.  A tiny sailboat is off in the distance.

Madeira has numerous rock colors.

One of the numerous marinas belonging to the island.

Down by the cruise terminal in Funchal.  Madeira is one of the most desirable cruise ports in Europe winning the title for Best Cruise Port in Europe for 3 of the last 4 years.

This large art installation beauty is a kaleidoscope of colored metal depicting one of the fish found in these waters.

Steep rock cliffs down by the waterfront.

Funchal is very much a walkers paradise.

We came across this beautiful old city water source.  It was tiled with colorful blue and white tile art.

The promenade along Funchal's coast takes over an hour to walk it.  I would love to have views like this on a daily basis while walking my dog Peter.

The landscape is further beautified by the low lying clouds that creep in and add drama to an already stunning photo.  This is downtown Funchal.

Madeira is famous for its Christmas lights.  These blue festive lights turned everything blue and they were just outside our hotel that we had stayed at.

This was the first timeshare that we stayed at called Pestana Vila Lido.  Pestana is a large Portuguese owned chain that we have stayed at in Rio de Janiero as well.

Darren and I stayed two nights in a brand new five-star hotel for the first two nights after we arrived called The Editory Ocean Way. It had just opened up 2 weeks previously and we were the first people to stay in our room ever. The first few days Dax had not arrived yet. He was writing his last final so we did a lot of walking around on the promenades on the ocean front and discovering the center core of the city of 120,000 people. We then moved to the Pestana Vila Lido Apartments which was a timeshare, we had a one bedroom ocean front unit.

Funchal has an extremely long walking promenade which ended at our timeshare which was perfect.  This pic was taken from the promenade.  Funchal has many picturesque volcanic rock escarpments.

This flower was taken from a flowering hedge and I had never seen anything like it.  It had a flower the size of a Datura Flower.

Gorgeous double to triple Hibiscus flower.

The coastline of Funchal the capital of the Island.

Walking is a great deal of work anywhere on the island with all of the hills.

There are many swimming complexes on the coastline with many natural lava pools as well.

We shopped a lot at Pico Doce and Continente which are Grocery Chains in Portugal.  I had to include a photo of these - Canned wieners.  I gagged a little when I saw these.

This was a drive-by photo to show the hills, gorges and the cable car going up the slope to Monte which is a famous town on Madeira.  This photo also shows how thick the trees are on this island.  There are numerous cable cars running on different parts of the island.

We didn't do any major site seeing until Dax arrived. Dax had 4 flights to arrive on to Madeira Island which has one of the most difficult runways to land on and pilots need special training to land here. The day that he arrived was Christmas Eve so we walked down to Avenido do Mar which is the center of the city and right beside Old Town.  Madeira is famous for Christmas lights and now I know why.

A walk in the park that is decorated and lit up for Christmas.

Old Town with the cobble stone streets was very festive.

The main Christmas Tree on the 
waterfront, continuously changed color
and has design changes as well.

On the waterfront.

Dax on the Festive lit up waterfront with 
Palace behind him.

The fancy techno Christmas Tree.

A lit up tunnel to walk through and
take pics.

All of there traffic circles are lit up, the fountains are lit up, everything is lit up.

Street Christmas lights are everywhere on the streets and up the hills.  It is the most lit up place in the world and they take pride in this fact.

On the bridge over the deep gorge.

Dax and I spent some time planning the itinerary for the next 2 weeks to squeeze in as many hikes and site seeing as we could.  

Christmas lights are a big deal here in Madeira.  You can see all of the street lights on the hills that have been lit up for the Christmas season.

A bronze statue of Christiano Ronaldo, the islands most famous person who was born on Madeira.  Ronaldo now has a Hotel and Museum here in Funchal

African Tulip Tree

Schefflera Tree

Camellia Tree

I still don't know what type of tree this was.  It looked like an Avocado?

On the Promenade down by the water front.  It was reminiscent of Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janiero.  I especially liked the lit up Jelly fish that were hanging above.

A Banana bud.

Old Town buildings.

It was a pretty Old Town. I especially loved the cobble stones which always had a two toned design, they were quite fancy compared to other ancient European streets.

We left the next day for a drive to the farthest western point called Ponto do Pargo.  It took over an hour and you had to drive through numerous tunnels and gorgeous views to arrive there.  On the route we stopped at many times to check these out and it was quickly apparent that we had landed on a very special island.  

Daxtin leaving the edge of the cliff.

Numerous vineyards dot the terraces covering the hills and mountains. 

If you look closely there are people on the edge of that dangerous cliff.  My Man-Child Dax also stood on the edge.

Pretty coastal photo of ocean, cliffs and terraces.

The amount of natural beauty on this island is mind-boggling. 

Beautiful island of Madeira.

Every picture is picture perfect.  Below is one of the numerous tunnels drilled through the volcanic rock mountains and hills.

This valley is just on top of Funchal.  These man-made terraces for crops are extremely steep.

Banana crops cover the Funchal area giving it the appearance of a lush jungle.

There is nothing flat or boring about Madeira.

Christmas Morning on our timeshare balcony with my cup of coffee.  By 11:00 am each morning it was too hot sitting in the direct sunshine.

There are so many cool things about Madeira but everywhere on the island you can drink the tap water and it's very good tasting water just like Saskatoon has. Travelling for three months and buying gallons and gallons of water which sometimes can be pricey, Madeira was a pleasant surprise in this department.

We decided to alternate hiking days and site-seeing to save Darren's knee.  We all did a very long waterfall hike of two Levada trails which killed Darren and the last two kms uphill almost ended him.  It was a spectacular hike probably one of my most favorite ever.  It was lush, green and tropical with waterfalls, what's not to like?

Risco Waterfall at 330 feet tall in the distance.

We got drenched at Risco
Waterfall, there was water coming
down from every rock crevice.  It was warm 
out though so no worries.

The 25 Fontes Waterfall

Walking the trail beside the Levada 
to the left which was spilling over its
deep sides, built in the 1500's to 
transport water from the rainy north to the 
southern crops.  Madeirans built these maintenance paths to service the Levadas and now they have become world famous walking paths.

I am not sure if the birds eat sedatives but they seem to be very chill and sit and pose for you.  This pretty boy was sitting on a branch, spritzed by the rain and sparkling in the sun.

Next on our Madeira Itinerary was Miradouro or viewpoint overlooking Nun's Valley. Nuns valley is an absolutely breathtakingly fake looking place from the lookout which is over 3,000 ft above. The lookout is built out from the cliff face. When you look down it is straight down over 3,000 ft. You do get a little bit of vertigo feeling when you're taking pictures. You have to be extremely careful, it is very windy up there and if you drop your phone it's gone forever. 

There was a perpetual cloud at the top of the mountains overlooking the village of Nun's Valley or Curral das Freiras which means Nuns' Corral.  Nun's Valley or the village began by nuns who sought refuge in the village for protection against roving pirates that frequented Madeira Island in the 1500s. The village would have been almost impossible to get to. The road up that we took was a secondary road up and was one of the steepest on the island which goes down to a single lane driving through the areas of homes.  We came across one car only thank goodness and that car had to back up the hill to get into an area where we could pass because we couldn't back down the hill. Needless to say there are permanent fingerprints in the rental car dash on the passengers side. The road was crazy on the way up. We came to an area where the road began to widen and we found an area to park where people could pull to the side to allow the city bus to pass.  Its insane that the city bus goes up these crazy roads. You wouldn't believe them.  

We took some pictures and got some beautiful shots of other little villages below Nun's Valley. 

Picturesque Madeira Island.

A Panoramic photo of the valley below 
Nun's Valley

I am not sure that I would want to live on a Killer Cliff?

We lucked out with a rainbow over this 
lower town.

A cloud moves through the valley.

Panoramic, pretty and perfectly picturesque.  See if you can quickly say that 5 times in a row.

We arrived at the parking lot and from there it was a short 5-minute walk up cobblestone stairs to the Miradouro.

It was windy up on the lookout platform and it was starting to rain so it was unfortunately not a place to hang around for long. You really didn't get sick of looking at the views. The villages below looked so extremely fake. They did not look real. I understand that the last sentence was redundant.

This plateau area remained in the sun the entire time we were there most likely because it was just low enough to avoid the clouds.  I was completely zoomed out to the max on my camera.

The scary road up to the Nun's Valley
lookout.

The fake looking towns surrounding Nun's Valley

It was a moody and dark atmosphere without the sun shining on the village below.

You can see the terraces for the crops near the bottom of the photo and halfway up.  These farmers must be in great shape.

Fake looking houses 3000 feet down.  The road looked like a Fisher Price Toy Racetrack road.

A Panorama photo of the Pirate-Free Zone.

Fisher-Price Toy Racetrack Road below. The curves are everywhere.

Notice all of the hairpin turns in this cliffside village.

Over 3000 foot high Nun's Valley Miradouro or Lookout high on the peak of Eira do Serrado.

The clouds never left their sentry position covering up the tallest peaks.  It was becoming quite windy on the lookout and Dax had almost lost his sunglasses with a gust of wind.

Nun's Valley is an old volcanic crater.  This Panoramic shot of the other side of the crater and valley shows some of the roundness.

There is plenty of water in this valley with natural springs and the clouds that provide moisture.  There is also a river down below.

Erosion has worked its mastery of many of the rock escarpments jutting out of the crater area.

My apologies for the copious
amounts of photos.

Halfway down the stairs, I looked back for one last look and lucked out and saw that there was a rainbow. Dax and I started taking photos and then ran back up the stairs because a double rainbow formed and we thought we would get a better shot up higher. We lucked out. It was perfect. 

Double doozy over the hamlet.

The rock formation from this angle was super cool and the rainbow intensified of course after I had already descended the stairs again.

We headed back to the parking lot area where there was an amazing store and Cafe for tourists.  Usually we completely avoid these types of places because they are often tourist traps. But this store had some amazing little articles of everything from hand knitted hats to Cork shoes and purses to t-shirts. We bought quite a few things and I normally like I said do not do frequent these types of stores but it was our last two weeks of our holiday and I did have some room and weight to spare in my suitcase. This place was more authentic and not pushy, just helpful.  I contacted my sister Jackie who I know loves her Cork purse from Portugal and picked up another one for her.

We sat down in the cafe for drinks and custard tarts. A lot of the blogs that I read about Madeira said we should try the custard tarts. Darren really liked his tart and Dax and I not so much. I purchased 3 little bottles of Madeira wine to try and experience this as a Sommelier.  I felt obliged to do my duty as a trained Sommelier. One bottle was aged 5 years and dry or seco, 10 years and medium and 15 years and sweet. I really liked the dry Madeira plus it smelled like caramels, it was a bit reminiscent of a good Port.

That night we decided to go to Alforno Restaurant which is Italian and delicious, good prices and really good reviews. It was our second time to that restaurant and we had great meals again. 

One of the bigger Pepper Grinders that we have seen.

Great restaurant with good food and staff.

The next day we drove approximately 38 minutes up into the mountains towards Vereda dos Balcoes viewpoint and trail and on the way up the scenery was truly stunning.

It hardly seems fair that this island has our common indoor plants as outdoor plants like this Peace Lily.

Views of Funchal the capital never get old.

I took this incredible photo out of the window of our moving vehicle.  This place was giving off Banff vibes.

We drove through Ribeiro Frio hamlet which is also a protected park and found Rock-star parking in front of a restaurant.  There is zero parking in this place.  The tiny hamlet gives off Alpine vibes and it the cutest place set in the most stunning mountain valley.  I felt privileged to be there.  As we began to ascend on this hike, it quickly became apparent how truly beautiful it was.  Normally I lead on the hikes, but I was too busy gawking at this homey little piece of heaven.  

How cute is this place?

On Madeira many houses have roof decorations on the corners made of terracotta or ceramic.

I personally like the female roof ornaments like this one.

This was a particularly pretty rooster.  He was not that bright because he kept trying to walk into the chicken coop wall.  We found these guys while walking on the trail towards Balcoes.

On the sunny trail.

This photo is a bit whitewashed by the direct sun but oh my gosh was it pretty.

Thick forest was all around us, you can barely make out Dax in the dappled sunlight further up on the trail.

This pretty sheep was as fixated on me as I was of her.  There were many sheep lolling around on the lower slopes.

The beginning of the trail is quite open.

It was probably half of a kilometer out to the viewpoint, round trip 1 km.  We could see the different mountains where we were going to be walking in a couple of days on one of the most popular hikes on the island called Pico do Areeiro to Pico Ruivo and it looked quite intimidating, not going to lie.  However they were breathtaking views surrounding us.

The last section of the trail before you catch site of the peaks that the Balcoes Viewpoint affords.

It is quite majestic up there and awe-inspiring.

The Balcoes lookout was popular.

Then I caught site of this poster and noticed that these would be the peaks that Dax and I would be traversing the next day. Yikes!

Ocean views are everywhere on this island when you get up high enough in elevation.  Madeira is only 22 kms wide and 57 kms long.  The moody blue ocean and sky meet and it is difficult to see where the ocean stops and sky begins.

If you look hard enough you can always spot a town in the distance.

I started to get intimidated looking at these peaks knowing that I would be on them tomorrow, yikes!

The mountain peaks are quite rugged but well-treed in areas.

We walked back and hit the other trail which was 2 kilometers round trip and another kilometer back and it took us through a well tended trail in the forest. This trail was absolutely magical!!

This used to be an old road that was sliced through the rock and forest.  Walking through this area was cool due to the high cliffs on both sides.

Darren and Dax up ahead on the trail.  I held back strategically looking for a place to pee.

We got a chance to walk behind our dream home to check out the roof, yard etc.  It came with its own orchard and quite a bit of land.  Numerous trails surrounded this house for walking and hiking, Peter our dog would have loved it here.  The sound of running water was constant with the creek behind the house. On the terraces of this property there were even some untended grape vines.  I was in love!  Strangely Darren was too, we usually never agree on the same house. 

 

Gorgeous chartreuse moss was on all surfaces.

An old stone road railing and large Tree Ferns.

There was a Levada here directing the water to various terraces of fruit trees and vineyards in this area.

This was new fungi to me.

Does anyone else have a fascination with miniature fungi that grows on old tree matter?  I believe they are so picturesque.

The fungi in the forest have their own life to live.

An interesting angle.

Dax posing by the old stone road barrier.  There was a beautiful creek below.

On the World Tour in 2010, I took a photo of Dax at 6 years old in Ireland holding up a large red maple leaf.  He found this one and held it up and it brought back to me, it so many good memories.  Now that Dax is in his Terrrrrrrrrrrible Twenties, I miss my sweet little boy.  I think I have coined this term the Terrible Twenties?  Dax never did the Terrible Twos, he was an "Angel Baby" and wonderful child.

This was a special trail.

Our house in the middle left of the photo looking lonely and sad.  The clouds were just beginning to touch the tops of the mountains.

I loved this trail! To the left is a gnarly trunk of a Laurissilva Tree.

We spotted an old abandoned house that grabbed Darren's and my heart.

You can see the house in the distance tucked into the forest.  It was situated in a slice of heaven.

The house looked lonely, like it wanted to be lived in and it was just in a beautiful spot in an absolutely stunning area. 

It was my dream Fixer-Upper house set on a beautiful island.

When we walked back we went to the little cafe near the beginning of the mountain trail. It was cute and had great prices. We had drinks and bites to eat and only spent 10 Euros for the three of us.  We sat out on their indoor balcony that jutted out over the mountain and had great views to eat and drink.  

We asked about the house and if it was for sale.  They were asking 460,000 Euro and it had been vacant for 20 years.  The price was quite doable but apparently the road was no longer viable to it because the land surrounding the house was protected parkland and untouchable, no roads could be built.  It was a house without a road to it. Darren and I are always looking for another country to reside in because we are afraid that Canada is sinking and it would be a nice place to live in this heavily wooded area with absolutely drop dead gorgeous views. 

We continued on our way and stopped at many different lookouts and we had an absolutely beautiful drive back to Funchal.  It was another great day and of course the absolutely scary roads are ever-present. This is par and normal for volcanic islands.  If you have scary roads with steep drop-offs, then you usually have absolutely stunning views which is a double-edged sword.

Seriously this is a stunning island.  Those red clay tile roofs are just so pretty to look at.

This is the quintessential photo of Madeira Island, mountain, ocean, flora, the color green and the red roofs.

Directly above the city of Funchal.

I wonder if Madeirans know how beautiful their island is or do they just get desensitized to the beauty?

Spending two weeks on island we did not notice too many run down houses.

Driving through Old Town Funchal.

Old Town cobble stones are some of the prettiest in Europe.

Currently Storm Francis is howling outside our balcony doors.  The wind gusts were quite severe and it was constantly lifting up the balcony furniture and slamming it back down.  Although we did not love being stuck inside for two vacation days it did give us down time to play ping pong, relax and do some work.  I got to do some time-consuming blogging.