Day 117 : Valley of Nuns

Starting the day late today after a late night out, and also since there isn't any major plans other than a half day tour to the Valley of Nuns later in the afternoon. 

So I joined the other guys from the hostel for lunch at a local Funchal restaurant and ordered the touristy local item on the menu - Scabbard aka Michael Jackson fish with bananas. 

The texture of the fish is really nice, and the bananas used are Madeirã bananas which are not exported. I was surprised when I bit into them as they are super sweet. 

I was picked up not long after by the tour company at 2pm, and Philipp decided to also join me on the tour. 

The 1st stop being Miradouro Pico dos Barcelos with an almost 360° view. 

Weather looked fairly nice, however as we drove up towards our next stop, Miradouro Eira do Serrado, it started getting really foggy. 

There was also some rain as we got off the bus, but as we walked towards the viewpoint, the clouds just opened up for us and we were able to see to the Valley of Nuns below.

From where we are to the valley is about a 750m drop, and about 1,000m above sea level

And within a couple minutes we even had a rainbow! The driver was telling us he had some people on his tours that got really emotional when they saw rainbows while in Madeirã because it was their first time seeing one.

Such simple things that we sometimes take for granted 🙏

And just as we finished our photo taking, it started getting foggy again. 

It's called Valley of Nuns because back in 1566, Madeirã was attacked by pirates and to protect the precious church jewels, they followed the mountain stream from the fishing village Câmara De Lobos into the valley, while the men fight the pirates. 

We drove down towards the town in the valley Curral Das Freiras, with the view of the cliffs towering over us. 

The old monastery where the Nuns used to live is still standing. 

The town is also famous for products made from chestnut. Such as chestnut liquor, chestnut cheesecake (Quijada) etc

Philipp and I sat down and shared a Quijada, which tasted a lot better than the one I had on the West tour, as it's less sweet. 

We got back by about 5pm, and then headed out with the rest of the group for dinner, followed by drinks at a different bar (Bar Number 2)

The DJ was literally playing songs for our group for the night, with different song requests made by the group (including German and Dutch songs) especially since we were the largest one hanging around. 

I find it funny how the DJ selects playlist by choosing MTVs from YouTube 🤣😂

 

It was in the same bar, I met a local from Madeirã whom told us he had volunteered himself to go Ukraine to fight the war. For me it's unimaginable why someone would sacrifice themselves to fight for someone else war, and I salute them for their courage. 

Day 113 : Madeirã

I woke up at 3am today, so that I can catch my 6am flight to Madeira. Car hailing apps have been really useful in Porto, as it is even cheaper than taking an airport shuttle to the airport, an option I had originally considered when trying to figure out ways to get to the airport at an early hour, and also since the metro doesn't start so early. 

The flight from Porto to Madeira takes 1hr 40mins. 

I only came to know of this island recently, when Chua Enlai posted about this place on his recent trip to Europe, and there were some elements of it that looked amazing. 

Upon arrival, I headed over to the airport shuttle stop, which has a very infrequent bus schedule and the next one will only arrive about 40 mins later. 

The good thing is that the trip to the nearest stop to the hostel took less than 30 mins, and with very few people on board (about 8 people in total), there were no stops at all and I was the 1st one to get off. 

It's a good thing I was able to check into the hostel early and got round to exploring Funchal before noon.

The walk took me towards Praça do Município (City Hall). 

This was also where Igreja do Colégio - Igreja de São João Evangelista is located and inside was quite impressive. 

Everywhere was really quiet when I walked through the city centre, and then I later realised that a number of things are closed on a Sunday. It's a good thing the supermarkets and some restaurants are still open! 

My next stop took me to Funchal Cathedral, but there was a mass going on at the time. As I was feeling hungry, I headed to the nearest café at Madeirinha Cafés and ordered a Bola do Cono with Chorizo and pineapple juice. 

Bola do Cono is must order in Madeirã, which is essentially a local wheat bread with garlic spread (just like garlic bread), toasted with what other fillings you choose to have it with. 

As for the juice, I asked the staff what juices they have and they suggested pineapple. It's been a while since I had the juice, so I was pleasantly surprised that this was available. I suppose it's an island after all! 

By the time I was done with the snack, mass had just ended at the church and I went to take a look at the inside. It was less impressive than Colégio. 

Continuing on with the random walking, I soon found myself at Santa Catarina Park, a very pleasant park with a church  in the middle of the city with great views of the harbour.

It was starting to get really warm, and I also noticed many people on the streets were just wearing t-shirt and shorts. I feel overdressed in this weather, but I don't have much of a choice as I have packed mostly for the winter 😅

I walked down to the waterfront and soon found myself in front of a statue of Christiano Ronaldo, who is originally from Madeirã. Do you think this statue looks like him? 

There is even a museum for him!

Not far from the museum is a residential building which is claimed to be his house, not sure how true that is!

This casino however looks like a fortress!

I passed by an ice cream store while at the waterfront and craved for one in today's hot weather. This is a very generous 2 scoops of ice cream on the cone!

Other views along the way... 

As most things were closed, and I was feeling somewhat drained from the weather as well as having woken up really early this morning, I headed back to the hostel to take a rest, before heading out for dinner.

Dinner venue is at Kampo by Chef Julio Pereira. This place came recommended by Enlai and also quite a few websites which indicated this to be one of the top end restaurants in Funchal.

I ordered a tuna tartare, which was served in a cone, followed by a fillet, mushroom and foie gras dish, as well as a glass of red wine.

The food was good, though I was expecting more from the place for the price and the hype. Probably I didn't get to try the other stuff too, as the appetisers available are meant for sharing.

Time to call it an early night! 

Day 116 : Monte & Old Town Madeirã (pics)

No tour today, as I chose to stay in Funchal to explore the old town and head up to Monte. 

I walked over to Mercado dos Lavradores to check out the local market, with most of the stores selling a combination of flowers, fruits, spices and souvenirs. 

There were some really interesting fruits here which I have never seen before. This is pineapple banana, and there's even passionfruit banana. 

And all these different chillies! 

There's also a fish market, and I found the local Scabbard Fish. 

Rua de Santa Maria is known as the street with doors with art. A narrow lane filled with restaurants with numerous doors (and sometimes walls) painted with different images. Some of my favourite ones are

By the time I got to the cable car at about 10.15am, there was a long queue snaking. The wait took about 40 mins to reach the cable cars, and then a 15 minute panoramic ride to the top. 

On the East Tour yesterday, we had briefly stopped through Monte and I had already visited the church. The only other place that was worth a visit in the area was the Monte Palace and the Tropical Gardens. However when I saw that it costs €12.50 for admission, I decided against entering. 

The main reason why I wanted to come back up to Monte was to take the Tobbagan - a means of transport that looks like a sled, however this is made out of wicker basket and a flat wooden base. There are no brakes and requires 2 men to constantly run and push the tobbagan down a road which is also being used by normal cars, while avoiding any traffic along the way. 

At one point, as we were about to pass an intersection, 2 cars each from the left and right side of the intersection appeared, just as we were closing in to the centre of the intersection. Thankfully the cars came to a stop just as we slid past them. 

The 2 guys who were pushing my tobbagan were very experience with 24 and 27 years respectively, so in some way I felt in very safe hands. They shared there are about 154 men in the group and they make about 3 or more trips each day depending on the crowd. 

The ride down is about 2km long and took less than 10 mins. It was super exhilarating. 

 

The tobbagan ride is the only 1 in the world, and has been around for over many years, as it was the only means of transport to get down from Monte to Funchal, since there were no roads back then. 

There were images of the olden days where it showed how the tobbagan looked back then, and how the men who pushed the tobbagan had to slowly carry the baskets back up on foot, since there were no roads back then. 

It's a lot easier now, as the tobbagans are now loaded on trucks and ferried back up. 

The end point of the Tobbagan ride is not in Funchal city - to get to the city centre, it requires about a 20 mins walk, passing by the hostel as I made my way down. 

I was starving by then and headed over to Funchal sushi, a restaurant which had promoted a free flow Sushi and sashimi for just €14 for lunch. 

It's been a long time since I had decent sushi, and the portion served was really a lot that I struggled to eat through it all, although I did finish most of the items and even requested for an additional portion of sashimi. 

By the time I was finished, I was so stuffed that I couldn't even have dinner in the night! 

Day 115 : Eastern Madeirã (to do)