Funchal, Madeira Island, Portugal

 I can't say Madeira without thinking of the line from some old movie - A little more madeira, my dear?  We arrived just as dawn was breaking.  There are 4 islands in the Madeira archipelago, 2 of which are inhabited and the population is around 250,000 people.

From the daily morning show. These two are always up to something and are great fun.

We started our excursion with a tram ride up the "mountain" to a height of around 1,900 feet.  It took 20 minutes and, like all trams, isn't for the faint of heart.  This was built in 2000 and ran very smoothly.  It starts and ends in the middle of neighborhoods.  Cost for two is $20 (included in our tour of course) one way.  We didn't see anyone coming back down because they usually do something different, as will become obvious.

Beautiful views

We were quite lucky with the weather

There is a small village at the top with a church that you climb up to.

The priest was nowhere to be found so we couldn't get inside.

It had some beautiful tile work outside.

As we walked back down this steep 2 way street, I couldn't help but notice 3 violations here:  parking in the no parking area (yellow line), near a fire hydrant, and not a single car curbed their wheels.  Driving here is a real adventure.

From this little village, we tobogganed back down.  No kidding.  This adventure costs $30 for 2 (again included) and is very popular.  These 2- or 3-person sleds slide down the street with 2 "drivers" who control it from the back.  It's about 2 km to the end with a top speed of around 20 km and it was a real hoot.  It really plays havoc with traffic at the top and the bottom.  Not sure how many sleds there are going at any one time.  Once at the bottom, they load them onto a flatbed and drive them back up.  The drivers are bussed back up so there are delays since it isn't a continuous system.  I think there's only one truck.  And the bottom is in the middle of a neighborhood also.  There's a small area for the company's truck and bus, but then taxis and tour buses clog things up and it gets very interesting.  Michael said they should hire a consultant from Disneyland to come straighten it all out.

Load 'em up, head 'em out.

The sleds are made of wicker with wood frames.  No brakes.

Here's the flatbed delivering the sleds back at the top.

And we're off.  The drivers pull the sled by ropes to get it started then jump on the back to control it.  They brake with their feet wearing special shoes with very thick rubber soles which get re-soled every month or so.  The streets are shiny where the sleds go down.

This was a flatter area so we had to be pulled along for a bit.  

Here we are, just part of the traffic.

Those drivers are really good.  I took a video but can't get it to upload here.  It showed how you are sliding around turns and near the edge and sometimes even get turned a bit sideways as you go.  I don't know how they keep the sleds going mostly straight, but I'm just thankful they can.

The sleds didn't take us all the way back down the mountain, maybe 1/4 of the way or so.  Then we got back in the bus to go down to an embroidery factory in town.  It was very small, but interesting to see how everything is done by hand.  The only "machine" is the hand held iron.  They also gave us a little taste of madeira wine, which is another fortified wine like sherry or port.  I liked it better than the sherry we tried the other day and as well as some of the ports.  The embroidered things were lovely, but very expensive.  I didn't think I needed place mats at $65 each.  Then back in the bus to go back up the hill to the beautiful botanical gardens.

This is the very rare cat bush.

Portugal has the most interesting patterns on some of their streets made with black and white stones.

This was actually the entry to the embroidery factory, not a street, but it carries the theme.

This is my favorite.

Rather than taking the bus back to the ship, we got off in town and wandered for a short bit.  We had a bite to eat and sat under this umbrella.

A clever way to deal with the tree.  The "Tree" on the bottom left was a display of Fever Tree beverages, but a nice coincidence in the picture.

We really like Funchal.  I think it's our favorite Portuguese city so far.  We didn't see lots of old buildings and city walls so I don't know if there are any.  But it seems to be a vibrant, pretty and mostly clean place.  The weather is good year round with lows in the 50's and highs in the upper 70's.  There's lots of rain on the other side of the island from Funchal so they don't have to worry about that and they get a good percentage of their power from hydropower.  There aren't any good beaches on Madeira because it is volcanic.

No Carl for Trivia today, as he was still on a tour, and we finished out of the running again.  We had dinner in Prime 7 to celebrate Sarah's daughter's 39th birthday.