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Monday, December 11th, 2012: Funchal, Madeira
Bob: Our Plan A for Funchal was to walk into town, take the cable car up the mountain, slide halfway down the mountain on the street tobaggans, walk the final bit down the mountain into town, hit the local market or Mercado for some shopping, and then wander through the city back to the ship. It was a good plan, but it involved a lot of walking and once we were out and about, Monika didn't have the energy for that. So we shifted over to a Plan B that involved just a relaxed walk around the old town section of Funchal, which kept the walking to mostly level ground. |
Monika: We sailed into Funchal while it was still dark. It was our third time here and I truly like this little town. Our first thought was to take the cable car up and a tobaggan halfways down. But I really was too tired for all that, so we decided to just walk around and enjoy the Christmas decorations. Immediately off the ship, there was a large Christmas tree with its lights still glowing when we walked past it. In the town there were Christmas decorations along the streets and in front of the cathedral. |
Bob: That is not to say that we didn't have some concrete goals, however! We had accumulated 7 letters and 6 postcards to mail by this point, so we were getting rather desperate to find a Post Office that would accept either Euros, US dollars, or a credit card. We were also getting low on Euros, so we wanted to find an ATM where one of our cash cards would work. Finding the Post Office given the approximate nature of the map provided by the ship ("Distances Not To Scale"!), took us a bit longer than expected, but once we located it a kind Portuguese lady explained the take-a-number system being used. We were Function D for purchasing postage and number 24 in line for that. I was impressed with the modern, efficient main Post Office in Funchal and we ended up paying about .80 Euro per letter and card sent. Also, the postal clerk there was fast, efficient, and friendly--everything the Royal Mail in Gibraltar had NOT been. But one thing that puzzled me were two large columnar mailboxes in front of the post office, one blue and one red. I imagine one was for local mail and the other for foreign mail, but I am not at all certain of that. |
Monika: Our first "must do" was the post office. After all, Heinke's birthday was tomorrow and the birthday card had not been mailed. The ship's map kind of showed where the post office was supposed to be, but we did have to walk once around the block to actually find it. There we were stymied. There seemed to be some sort of system, but without speaking Portugese we had a hard time figuring it out. Some kindly soul came to our help and explained, we had to get a number for the correct line at an automat and then wait for the number to called on a large sign. She also told us, that stamps for letters were line D. So with our number in hand we waited and soon were at the teller and got our stamps. Outside were mailboxes, so in under an hour we had that little chore taken care of. |
Bob: We continued wandering the streets of old town Funchal, enjoying the black-and-white mosaic designs built into the surfaces of the sidewalks and pedestrian areas. Most of them we could figure out easily, up to and including the mosaic depicting two guys and three passengers in one of those famous street tobaggans! |
Monika: Now we really could enjoy the quaint little side streets that connect the few major streets. Most of the side streets had some type of mosaic in-lay, but one was special. It had pictures of different aspects of Madeiran history and culture, starting in 1419 with a sailing ship and ending with the famous street tobaggan. Amazing. |
Bob: Wandering back and forth and up and down, we came across a traditional hardware store on Rua Do Castanheiro 7 e 9, apparently operated by Antonio Faustino D' Abreu, LDA (Tel. 291 220 810 or 291 223 383, Fax 291 220 953). Besides paint, tools, doorknobs and other housewares, he happened to also sell a small selection of the pretty ceramic wall tiles that we enjoyed so much on the walls of some of the older buildings in Funchal and at the Mercado. Although I hankered after some of the really big designs done with multiple tiles, they would have been both very heavy and quite fragile and thus difficult to get home intact. In the end we selected two medium-sized ceramic tablets, one with an old square-rigged sailing ship on it (possibly the Santa Maria) and one depicting a beach scene with a fishing boat drawn up on shore, maybe 9 inches by 12 inches or so in size. They cost 11 and 13 Euros as I recall, and the proprietor wrapped them very thoroughly in bubble wrap, so although they were heavy we had some hope that we could get them home intact. |
Monika: Our goal was the Mercado, but we slowly ambled about and came upon a local hardware store. It had in its window beautifully painted tiles, from one scene on one tile to large pictures of many tiles. We could not resist. We knew we couldn't bring a large one home, but two of the smaller tiles we thought we could manage. So we ended up with a sailing ship and a beach scene. |
Bob: Carrying the tiles we worked our way past the cathedral, parliament, and government house, all quite picturesque, and finally arrived at the Mercado or marketplace. There Monika found a long embroidered runner for our dining room table and a nice doll dressed in traditional Madeiran costume. I found a refrigerator magnet I liked. We both enjoyed all the displays of fruit, fish, handbags, and handicrafts for sale. We also checked out a modern shopping mall just down the block from the Mercado, and that was a very different experience--a modern, sterile, spic-and-span type of indoors mall. At one end we found a food court with what seemed to us to be quite reasonable prices, so we plopped ourselves down and had a kind of custard tart thingy plus a teeny glass of espresso coffee for 2 Euros each. In the mall we picked up two small pocket watches, one with roses on it for Monika and one with a hart on it for me, despite the fact that they were made in China. The lower floor of the mall was a medium-sized grocery store, so we cruised through that until I found pretzels (Yay!) and Monika found a small pair of scissors. By that time we had enough of shopping and were also starting to come up on our ship's "All Aboard" time, so we turned back. |
Monika: A little farther on was the Mercado. On the first floor is the fishmarket and flower and fruit stalls. The flower stalls were tended by women in native costumes: colorful woven skirts and vests and a beanie for the head. I always loved looking at them and was overjoyed when I saw a doll in the same Madieran costume. She certainly will fit right into my collection. We ended up by wallking through a modern mall, with a food court and a dollar type store. I always like looking at these and found a small pair of scissors. A stop at a grocery store for pretzels, beer, and wine finished our shopping spree. |
Bob: We explored the park on the bluff next to the Casino on our return trip, and that was well worth it as the overlooks provided nice views of the city and bay, and the park contained several pretty ponds with fountains and so forth. We took pictures of "Isabella", Monika's new Madieran doll, with the city and bay in the background. Curling around the casino we zig-zagged downhill to the street running out on the pier to the Pacific Princess. |
Monika: It was time to head back to the ship. All aboard was 1:30 PM and it was getting there. Why on the day before a stretch of 5 days at sea we had to be on board by 1:30 is anybody's guess, but there it was and we did not want to be late. But we did walk along the main drag past little board huts where they were going to have a Christmas market, and past the Ritz hotel with its beautiful painted tiles on front. We ended up walking through a little park on top of the bluff surrounding the casino, before turning down to the harbor and back to the ship. |
Bob: On the pier I stopped to inspect a small electric town car built by Renault that featured clamshell doors, tandem seating, and a claimed 100-kilometer, 4-hour range on a fully-charged Lithium-Ion battery pack. It was available to rent for 15 Euro per hour or 80 Euro for a complete day, and might be a fun way to see the local sights. Apparently they cost 10,000 Euro to purchase, which seemed a bit expensive as they looked like glorified dune buggies. Once back on board we took pictures of our departure from Funchal, had a late lunch with Pat and David, who had been the last people back on board, and then put our feet up for the rest of the afternoon. After dinner we listened to a pianist play a nice assortment of tunes ranging from Scott Joplin's ragtime numbers to show tunes and even the first movement of Edvard Grieg's piano sonata. Curiously, the more difficult the number, the better he played but he was always at least adequate, so we had an enjoyable evening. |
Monika: Just before reaching the ship, Bob stopped to talk to a couple of people who rented electric cars. If they just had been here when we left, we might have tried it. From the deck we watched Pat and David being the last people on board, for which we teased them, and then rested for the rest of the afternoon. |
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