The city of Funchal was founded in the early 1400s on the island of Madeira by the Portuguese. Madeira is about 1000km south west of Portimão on the mainland, our last port before Lisbon. Like the Canaries, Madeira is of volcanic origin. It was also another favoured stop over point for travellers to the Americas, India and Asia in the days of sail and slow travel.

It was a leisurely rise on the morning of arrival as our shore excursion was not until the afternoon. A welcome experience after the previous busy days ashore.

Earlier we had wakened to a brilliant sunrise over the ocean and islands off Madeira.

After a late breakfast we went ashore for a short look around the town before lunch back onboard.

Funchal is a market town, unfortunately time was a bit short and we didn’t have a look at the vendors in the big complex.

There is a big tile mural on its walls harking back to different times in the town. Quite impressive.

Nearby street vendors have an array of fruit and vegetables to tempt passers by. Plenty of fish eateries and some have species available other than sardines. Sardines are very popular in these parts.

Heading back to the Nautica one is reminded of the old days. A ‘replica’ of Columbus’s Santa Maria sits at the wharf. The ship was built in Madeira in 1997. There are a number of replicas in other places. The problem is no one knows the details of the original Santa Maia and replicas are all different sizes etc. This one is a party boat for three hour, twice a day, tourist trips on the Funchal bay, it does some more serious sailing at other times.

After lunch our excursion took us to a number of lookouts to gain an appreciation of the local landscapes, both natural and man made.

At the first, Pico Barcelos, we looked out over the hinterland of the city, mostly an urban landscape from the mountains to the sea.

On the way to the next view point we passed by some restaurants, almost on the roadway. Managed to get a pic of a couple devouring an Espetadas. These are a local culinary delight on Madeira. Grilled meat skewers, generally beef but you could have pork, chicken etc. They are a do it yourself BBQ over a fire (a special highly scented local wood) pit, you then hang them at your table and pull the meat off with a piece of bread. The wash it down with some cheap wine or beer over a long lunch.

The next view point was at Camara de Lobos, on the coast. From there we looked back out over rural areas, and below the old port area with its small fishing fleet.

It is said many times that the best is left till last. This was proved to be true at our stop at Cabo Girao. The highest sea cliffs in Europe and possibly the world! The Bunda Cliffs on the Great Australian Bight are chicken feed compared to these ones.

Homealone didn’t venture to the lookout let alone go out on the glass bottomed platform to get a good look down to the sea shore below.

Allthego crossed the glass to the other side, but didn’t dally on the way too much. Got some pics and moved on when a couple of clowns started to jump up and down a bit!

Back at the ship we set off for Portimão at 6pm as planned, getting a great view of the islands off the coast, the sun was low in the sky. Bit of a contrast with the view we had at sun rise.

Later that night we enjoyed dinner in the Pollo Grill sitting looking out the back of the ship towards Madeira with the wake glistening in the moonlight. The food was good too!