Madeira, Portugal: home of very steep hills, many tunnels, flowers, flowers, flowers, super steep roads to climb, and home to Cristian Ronaldo.

It’s a long flight journey from Boston to Funchal Madeira, with a lay-over of a few hours in Lisbon airport where my brain decided I just had to sleep. We made it to the island late Friday morning after easy flights and a good snooze in the Priority Lounge (thank you Christopher for turning me on to these credit card perks!). Will and I had rented a house up one of the very many steep hills from the old part of town, and found our way there easily. It felt like we immediately entered summer. Funchal is a beautiful city sprawled up and down the hills that rise up from the port where fishing boats and cruise ships come in. Madeira is pretty tropical all year, but apparently the weather was unusually warm this week so all the trees and plants ramped up big time. And everywhere we looked, people of all ages were getting in the water.

We headed to the beach nearby, down a rickety stair made of concrete in some places and nailed on boards in others. The water was clear and cool- a mere 69 degrees compared to the 40-s we’ve been hitting at home. There was another ‘piscina’ as they call it a little further down the road where we could pay 5 euro each, change in the dressing rooms and lay out on the concrete around the volcanic edged pool. Another pretty heavenly place to swim and let go of the work and the busy world we quickly stuffed into our suitcases.

We found lots of other public swimming all along the water in Funchal during our week there. The weather was so summery, , and it was too hard not to go? Too easy to go? swimming every day or even twice a day. All along the harbor, people are getting in, changing behind towels their friend or family holds up for them. We found spots by the Yellow Fort where fisherman store their boats, old dogs laying underneath in the shade, and many locals laying in the sun with tans so dark like I haven’t seen in years. Other folks serenely swimming across the calm water that is protected from the waves by the concrete barriers built some years ago. The swimming was a good balm to our sore legs that came from walking anywhere in the city of many many hills. The whole island is volcanic land, and so is quite hilly by nature (hence the need for the incredible engineering feats of creating tunnels through mountains and hills.) The first day on island we walked about 9 miles, first to go pick up our rental car, and then to walk around town exploring after we parked the car.

We drove across the island one day to Seixal, a town with a natural pool on the Western side of the island. The roads are super windy, and STEEP- never got out of 2d gear driving a manual shift until the top of a hill is reached. The scenery is stunning the whole way with tiers of gardens and houses rising along the road. Roads and tunnels take drivers through, and over, mountains that look impassable to arrive at more intoxicating vistas.

We found parking at a precarious angle behind another car, a good idea given that the road doing down to the pools was pretty much straight down. We walked it, shins screaming a little, but ready to get in the clear water. There were a fair number of people there, laid out on rocks or rocky beach, and just enjoying this incredible place of nature. Will and I both swam, in both pools, and snoozed in the sun between swims. During our last swim, the tide was coming in, crashing on the outer rock barrier to send fresh water into the pools.

One day we climbed the hills of Funchal by taking the cable car (Teleferico do Funchal). The cars take up to 6 people with 3 seats facing uphill and 3 facing down. I chose an uphill seat and Will faced down the hills towards the sea and Funchal. . It was an amazing ride up, very quiet and smooth, giving us a bird’s eye view into houses, gardens and ravines.

When we arrived in Monte, it was even hotter than down in Funchal. We toured the palace gardens, sat in the shade to eat ice cream and admired the many birds and flowering bushes we saw.

Sad to say, we weren’t able to get one of the Monte toboggan sled rides part way down the hill because there was a wedding party. We waited for the public bus with school kids and older folks returning from shopping or work, and it was a far more interesting ride for people watching in the air conditioned bus!

More to tell about. art and food in next blog. Obrigada (thanks) for reading