This tiny Portuguese island has an interesting character, wine like no other and is home to arguably the best footballer of our generation as you will see later. Closer to Africa than to the European continent.
Located in the atlantic ocean, some 520 km of the african coast and 1,000 km from the european continent. 1 of archipelago islands consists Porto Santo, Deserted and Savage.
Beside all that this island has to offer, If you thought the famous new year’s eve fireworks at Marina Funchal here was all a hype think again. We couldn’t have chosen a better time of the year to witness this specticle. What a memorable New Year’s Celebration!
We arrived in Madeira on the 28th December 2015 at night. Even though it was now late at night, you could feel the appreciation and anticipate the beauty of the island to come.
We arrived at our hotel and straight to sleep in preparation of adventure ahead next day. Next morning, Breakfast @ The Lince Madeira and off we went. And a chance to have better perception of our surrounding plus the hotel we are staying at. Location wise, hotel is good and service is kind and professional. Breakfast in my opinion is not as impressive though, standard full British breakfast and cereals, yogurt and toast are basically the options. The room are quite standard and does not have any views. It is not the worst hotel we have been to, but it wouldn’t make it to our top 10 either – reason? We left it too late. Lesson learned. Tip to self: if you are travelling during popular dates, book way early in advance.
Time to go explore the capital, Funchal. Coming from freezing London, it is amazing to get some sun in December. The temperatures were around 20°C the whole time.
By coincidence we found the Cristiano Ronaldo Museum. If you are a football fan, you will feel right at home here, it boast and showcase all the trophies, trajectory and even letters from fans Cristiano receives. There is also an interactive screen for a friendly kick about with Ronaldo! A side distraction and we move on.
Pros: you just relax, don’t need to worry about where to go, how to get there, am I going be lost?, am I going to miss highlights of the island since I am not familiar with it?
Cons: You have to follow the pace of the group, whether it is too slow or too quick, you won’t be able to spend extra ten minutes on a place you like or leave earlier if you don’t feel there is more for you to see there.
We chose and did the West Island Tour. We were picked up at our hotel at 9.00 am and left at the same point around 6.00 pm.
Our first stop was Câmara de Lobos (Chamber of the Sealions). A lovely suburb of Funchal with approximately 35,000 residents, it owns its name to the fact that sea lions were seen at the coast and they still appear occasionally today. Main highlights of the town are São Sebastião Church and the cliff of the islet from where you will overlook the sea.
One of the highest sea cliff in Europe, the viewpoint has been renovated and a suspended glass platform has been included to allow the viewer to enjoy a spectacular view amazing!
Madeira Happy Tours was our choice this time around.
Our first stop was Eira do Serrado, which is a 360 panoramic viewpoint of the Nun’s Valley. You can see the Valley beautifully surrounded by a chain of mountains.
After another exciting trip around the island, back to the hotel to get some rest and spend the rest of the afternoon anticipating the count down for the new celebrations for New Year’s Eve.
We ended the celebrations at one of the local clubs until breakfast time. A memorable New Year’s Celebration!
On our last day, we deci
We had lunch by the Marina´s restaurant and spend the afternoon buying some souvenirs for family and friends.
Relaxing afternoon in Funchal
As you may have noticed from this post, the beauty of Madeira does not reside on impressive architectural sites or palaces but in its nature, food and warmth of its people
Thanks For Reading
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– Ana
