I saw at least one rainbow every day in green and mountainous Madeira, a beautiful and fascinating island located 978 km south of Portugal and about 700 km west of the African coast. Colonised by Portuguese settlers in the 1420s shortly after its discovery, Madeira is, today, a popular year-round tourist destination and Funchal, the island’s picturesque and historic capital, is a mecca for cruise ships due to its strategic position between Europe, Africa and the Americas.  It is particularly famous for the splendid show it puts on for Christmas and New Year when the whole of the city is magnificently lit up by thousands of coloured lights. Madeira is also the place where the ukelele originated!

Madeira is the principle island of the Madeira Archipelago, a Portuguese archipelago situated in the north Atlantic ocean nearly 400 kms north of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. It is the tip of an enormous shield volcano that rises 6 kms off the north Atlantic seabed. One of two of Portugal’s autonomous regions (the other is the Azores), it includes the islands of Madeira, Porto Santo, and the Ilhas Desertas. Madeira is a large island, covering an area of approximately 800 kms² (info varies according to source!). Its name means ‘wood’ in Portuguese as it was originally covered in forest, burnt down on the south side of the island by the early settlers to make room for cultivation. Very popular with tourists due to its year-round temperate climate and its location, Madeira now welcomes over a million tourists each year – over 3 times its population, estimated to be 289,000 in 2016.

Funchal does its best to attract visitors and puts on a fabulous display of Christmas lights and a busy calendar of concerts and events in the run-up to Christmas. Enormous Christmas trees are everywhere, lights are wrapped around every tree and every public building is decorated with lights.  The electricity bill must be astronomical! A busy and well-organised Christmas market lines the black and white cobbled streets of the pedestrianised town centre, including a life-size nativity scene and a little ethnographic market showing how life used to be on Madeira – complete with people dressed in traditional costume, cooking traditional bread and soup on wood fires and making local punch from Madeiran rum in the traditional way.  The island’s annual New Year’s Eve Firework display is said to be the world’s largest and is a popular draw for cruise ships (I remember it from my time here on the SS Canberra in the early 1990s!).

It took a lot longer than expected for me to get to Madeira as the ‘plane was re-routed to the neighbouring island of Porto Santo due to bad weather. The final part of the journey had to be done by ferry from there. I finally arrived in Funchal 23 hours after leaving home!  Even the beautifully lit harbour with its amazing array of colourful Christmas lights failed to impress me. Funchal is, however, a lovely city and after a night’s sleep in my very cheap but brilliantly located ‘residence’ it all looked a whole lot better.  I spent a week here in mid-December. The weather was warm and sunny down on the coast in Funchal but damp and cold inland so I mainly stayed in the sunshine and wandered around Funchal and the surrounding area.  I loved it here!

Funchal has an enchanting old town where the bright yellow Fortaleza São Tiago keeps watch over the sea on one side and charming narrow, cobbled streets and squares lined with bars and restaurants on the other.  The wooden doors are imaginatively painted with murals, and street musicians serenade diners at outside tables as the cable car ‘pods’ glide overhead on their way up the hillside. At night the area is charmingly lit with strings of bulbs hanging from every tree and a huge Christmas tree in the park by the shore.

The town centre area surrounding Funchal’s small but beautiful cathedral is paved with beautiful distinctive black and white cobbled streets and has many old architectural treasures including the National Bank and Blandy’s the ancient port factory and cellar where visitors can do a tour and taste the port.  The city’s shoreline boasts a wide promenade which is beautifully landscaped with parks and outdoor cafés and looks directly onto the cruise terminal.  At Christmas a large and popular fun fair occupies the town end of the esplanade and at night the whole town seems to be there.  An enormous Christmas tree made completely out of lights hanging on a metal frame graces the main square and everywhere you look there are lights and more lights! It’s a very beautiful city, bustling with vibrant café culture and, in December it’s completely Christmas crazy.

The island is also famous for its Madeira wine, its embroidery, its cuisine and for being the home of the world’s best footballer, Cristiano Ronaldo, after whom the airport has been renamed. A bronze statue of CR7 (of dubitable likeness) stands outside a museum dedicated to his football career (which I didn’t visit) down at the port.

Madeira’s flora and fauna also attract visitors. Funchal has several flower stalls where flower sellers in traditional costume sell gorgeous tropical flowers – Birds of Paradise, brightly coloured Poinsettias and other native blooms I’ve never seen before.  There are impressive botanical gardens and the island’s ancient Laurel forests on the high peaks are now classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with forests dating back 1.8 million years. A ridge of mountains runs through the centre of the island – its highest peak is 1,862 ms – and much of the island remains inaccessible. Most of the towns, including the capital, are built around the ravines which carry the water down from the high ground to the sea. The roads across the island wind around mountains and follow the natural contours – journeys can be long and nauseating! I enquired about travelling by bus to the town of Santana on the north coast but decided against it when I looked at the road snaking all over the map and discovered that it took the bus 3 hours to get there.

Madeira has a lot of water on the northern coast and very little on the south eastern side.  A comprehensive network of ‘levadas’ or aqueducts was built, with work starting in the 16th century, to transport water to the more arid areas of the island for agricultural use. Building the 2,170 kms of levadas, including 40 kms of tunnels and some carved into the side of mountains, was dangerous work and it is said that many were built using the forced labour of slaves and convicts. The levadas have pathways running alongside them for maintenance and today, walking the levadas is a popular tourist activity.  Some are easy to walk and can be walked alone but there are lots of organised excursions with professional guides to take groups along the more challenging routes. I took a bus up to Camacha – a town in the hills above Funchal supposedly famous for its wicker basketwork (although I didn’t see much).  I had coffee in a dusty and ancient bar (50 cents!). The lady proprietor directed me to one of the nearby levadas and I had a short walk along an easy one just to see what it was like. It was a pleasant walk through woodlands and I chatted to some friendly Germans on the way – there wasn’t much water in the levada though!

Funchal has done a good job of separating the tourist hotels from the ‘real’ town.  The vasts majority of hotels and tourist apartments are situated to the west of the port and are serviced by their own (more expensive) shops and restaurants. It’s a short walk or taxi ride into the town centre. The old town, the markets and the more original parts of Funchal were on the other side of the town centre and therefore had a more authentic feel to them as the streets were full of the ‘Madeirense’ (as they are called) going about their day-to-day business.  Being on a very tight budget by this stage, my chosen (budget) accommodation was more the sort of place people live in than choose for a holiday stay. I had a large, clean room with en suite bathroom for €115 for the week!  It had seen better days but the location directly across the road to the main market was superb.  I was very happy staying here.

The amazing Mercado  dos Lavradores (Market of the Famers) – Funchal’s food market occupied a large square building with several storeys.  Fruit and vegetables were sold on the ground and first floors; a single-storey annexe for the fish market was down some steps to one side, flowers and plants occupied the entrance hall and the butchers’ shops and cafés were arranged around the outside.  Open daily from early in the morning, the market was a feast for the eyes. Huge baskets of colourful fruit and vegetables were beautifully displayed, strings of red chillies, baskets of tomatilloes, custard apples and other exotic fruits I’d never seen before. Women in traditional costumes were selling freshly cut exotic flowers as well as bulbs and plants to take home and plant in the garden. The cafés and bars around the market are always busy and every day the old men gather to play cards standing up by the fence with a large audience.

From the fruit and vegetable section, visitors can look down on the marble tabletops of the fish market where skilled fishmongers wield enormous knives as they slice huge swordfish and tuna and drape the famous ‘espada’ fish over their counters.  Huge red and green baubles had been hung above the market as part of the Christmas decorations. On Fridays and Saturdays, even more stallholders turned up to sell their local produce and the whole place was bustling and vibrant. There was a bar right in the centre of the market where you could have coffee and watch proceedings. I found a fantastic little bar underneath my residence where all the market workers went.  A delicious coffee and a pastel de nata (custard tart) for €1 – I made it my breakfast local for the week. On the Sunday I was there, the fish market was turned into a Christmas flea market with red carpets on the tiled floor and the fishmonger’s marble tables turned into market stalls for the day full of local people selling bric-a-brac and memorabilia. I bought a couple of old black and white photographs and a beautiful set of copper goblets.

Funchal’s cable car station is situated in Almirante Reis Park in the old town. It was built to replace the old Monte railway which was in operation until 1943. The fast and modern cable car opened in 2000 and now transports up to 800 passengers an hour up the 3,718 metre line to the town of Monte.  The journey – which is definitely not for the faint-hearted – takes about 15 minutes, costs €11 and offers spectacular views of the city of Funchal, the cruise ship terminal and the surrounding countryside. I took the cable car on my first afternoon in Funchal.  The weather forecast for the week wasn’t very good and, as it wasn’t raining, I thought I’d go up while the going was good in case it rained for the rest of the week!  I had a cabin all to myself which was brilliant but it was quite scary! The views were amazing! It had been warm and sunny in Funchal but up the hill in Monte it was damp, dismal and cold! There is another cable car to the botanical gardens from the top but the weather was so miserable I didn’t bother.

The town of Monte (literally ‘mountain’) is a mountain town where the rich of Funchal kept summer homes in order to escape the heat of the coast in hot weather. It is also home to one of Madeira’s famous tourist attractions – the toboggan run.  The ‘Carreiros’ wearing jaunty straw boaters, guide tourists down the steep streets in ‘toboggans’ made of wicker with wooden runners underneath. Ropes are attached for the two Carreiros to maneouvre the ‘carro’ once the weight of the passengers causes it to slide downhill using its own momentum. It’s a fun experience which I did back in the 1990s when I first visited Madeira.  On this visit, there were no takers – probably due to the dismal weather – and the Carreiros were hanging around smoking and waiting for customers. Apparently it costs €25 for the pleasure these days.  Apart from the toboggans, the town of Monte has an impressive church with views out to sea and a lot of water can be seen and heard gushing down from the higher ground along the levadas which run through the town and onward towards Funchal. I took the bus back down. One trip in the cable car was enough for me and the bus ride down through the red roofed houses clinging to the hillside on the way down was very picturesque.

I was warned that eating and drinking in Madeira would be expensive. I could see that it could be, if you went to the swish-looking tourist places (which I obviously didn’t) but there were plenty of great local places offering delicious, simple dishes or ‘Menu of the day’ for a fraction of the price.  I managed to have a very decent cooked lunch with wine or beer and coffee at a sunny outdoor table every day for about €5 or €6 euros.  Pudding was an enormous cone of delicious chocolate ice cream eaten on the sea wall in the sun for €1.50! Bargain! Bars offered filling snacks like a sandwich of pork cooked in wine and garlic for €2 and a small beer or a coffee anywhere (except the posh places) only costs a euro so it’s cheap enough to take regular breaks from walking or to while away a couple of hours at a sunny table people watching.

If you are adventurous with food and drink, there are plenty of local specialities to try here. Local drinks like Madeira wine and Madeiran rum are sold everywhere and several local punches are made from the local rum mixed with honey and the juices of various local fruits – delicious and very potent. The local fish is ‘espada’ – black scabbard fish which can be seen draped across the fishmongers’ tables in the fish market and is served in most local restaurants. The traditional bread ‘Bolo de Caco’ is a thick, round, flat loaf that can be bought from kiosks stuffed with local chouriço or other fillings. Try the tiny, sweet bananas grown everywhere here or some of the weird and wonderful fruit sold in the markets. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to have an interesting gastronomic experience in Madeira!

One of my favourite places in Funchal was a bar on the outskirts of town, on the slope up behind the yellow fort of the old town.  The beautiful church, Igreja de Socorro, bedecked with large Christmas lights and decorations faces a ‘largo’ – a wide section of pavement where tables have been arranged along the wall overlooking a steep drop down into the sea. The tables belong to the Barreirinha Bar Café, a little bar on the other side of the street, whose waiters must transport everything across the not-very-busy road to their customers on the other side. This was my favourite place for a morning coffee or for a sunset drink as there was a perfect view of the sun setting over the sea from here.  It was a popular spot and was always crowded with locals and tourists alike – great for people watching!  When all the tables were occupied, the waiters served customers sitting on the wall or the public benches or just standing around looking out to sea.

Funchal has no beach to speak of and most of the hotels have pool areas or gardens where guests can sunbathe. There is a little stony stretch underneath the fort and a concrete lido which is no doubt busy in warmer weather but not really a proper beach.  I took a walk one day along the coast through ‘tourist town’ and out the other side to the nearest beach – an attractive long stretch of beach made up of fairly large grey stones known as Praia Formosa (beautiful beach).  A couple of beach bars with tables and chairs on the promenade were open and it was a nice place to stop for a drink in the sunshine. A few hardy souls were sunbathing but I didn’t see anyone in the water.

As part of the Christmas celebrations, there were choirs and other concerts performing outside in the central squares of Funchal.  I came across a group of folklore musicians and dancers all in traditional costume as they got off the bus from a village on the other side of the island.  I followed them as they walked down to the promenade and performed some traditional dances for an appreciative crowd.  It was interesting to see children as well as their parents and grandparents joining in.  The costumes are colourful and beautiful with interesting pointy hats and leather ankle boots.

I loved Funchal – my favourite bits were coffee and a pastel de nata whilst watching the market traders and the bustle of the daily market; sipping a glass of wine and watching the sun setting over the sea at the Barreirinha Bar; the amazing views from the cable car; exploring the narrow streets of the old town and discovering the murals painted on the doors; watching the folkloric dancers in traditional costumes and wandering around the quiet streets at night all lit up for Christmas.

Madeira is a beautiful and fascinating island. Funchal is a vibrant, lively and colourful city especially at Christmas. Stay in the town centre if you can, eat in the local bars and restaurants around the market, take the cable car up to Monte and then do the toboggan run down, do a levada walk, try all the local food and drink you can and hire a car to see more of this stunning island. It’s a beauty!

NEXT ISLAND:  My next and final island will be Iceland.