WEEKLY BLOG EPISODE 144 | WINTER SUN IN MADEIRA

In my last weekly blog episode (which was, er, two weeks ago…), I said that I wanted to do three things while on holiday in Madeira – spend time sitting down, walking, and eating. And I can happily report that I managed all those things.

It was a real combination of being active and relaxing, just what I needed. I went for long walks and wanders in the city and the countryside, enjoyed all kinds of delicious food (including at least one interesting flavour combination…), and made use of the various seating options available to me at the hotel and in the local park.

Time for Writing

I even found some time for writing, which was a real pleasure. I wrote and published my last weekly blog, episode 143, and part three of my Cumbria Way adventure journal series from my hotel room – I even started this weekly blog episode sat on the sofa, but as you can no doubt tell, I am very much back home as I finish it. It might not sound like much, but to stop still long enough on a trip to find the headspace and time for writing means I must have slowed down, at least a little bit.

I’ve been in two minds about whether to write a travel-focused article featuring all my Madeira thoughts or not (like this one about Lanzarote). There will be one of my ‘short hikes in…’ posts coming up later this month, as I really want to encourage you to go hiking when you visit Madeira. But I think I will include everything else I want to share about my week on this lump of rock in the Atlantic ocean in this weekly blog episode – it feels like the right place for it.

Get a cup of tea, I think this could be a long one…

My Week in Madeira

Clearly, it has not been a normal week in my life. And that in itself has made it a good week. A change is as good as a rest, and all that! I was able to completely switch off from the routine of normal life, which was much needed. It’s not completely undone all the stress and tension I was feeling, but it has certainly helped.

Madeira was a most excellent location for someone who struggles to sit still to take a break. Although I admit that I remain very tired, probably something to do with the more-than-20,000 steps-a-day average showing on my phone for the week – and the fact that Funchal is VERY hilly.

The weather helped. I mean, it rains a lot in Madeira, but we were fortunate not to have much of that. It was warm, mostly sunny, with a bit of cloud. The wind moves the weather through quickly here, and so the one or two rain showers we found ourselves under didn’t last long.

I guess the fact Madeira is basically a little bit of rock in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean – just twice the size of the Isle of Wight if you were wondering – means that the weather can be unpredictable. They have a lot of floods on the island, caused both by rain and the sea.

The temperature sat somewhere between 17 and 22ºC, which is even nicer when you consider it snowed in Gloucestershire the day after we returned home. Snow in March in the UK isn’t unusual, but the novelty of being cold has run out for me this year!

Travelling

As we were staying in one location for the whole week, it made sense to do the package holiday thing. We booked with Jet2holidays, who we’ve used a few times, both for flight/hotel combos, and just for flights (including that gifted trip to Lanzarote last year), and have always had a good experience. Jet2holidays aren’t about luxury travel, but I find the prices are good, the staff are friendly, and the company seems efficient.

Our flights from Birmingham to Madeira were at reasonable times of the day, and each lasted for less than the scheduled four-hours, which was a nice bonus.

We did have a bit of a worry when we got to the airport to return home, as Flight Radar, Jet2 and Birmingham Airport were all reporting that our flight had not yet left the UK, and wouldn’t be doing so until just before we were meant to be getting on it for the return leg. Er… cue a bit of panic on our part. Thankfully it was a weird glitch in the system, as while it had been delayed and was late arriving, it was not the four-hour delay suggested on the internet. Phew.

The Views Baia

Our chosen hotel for the week was The Views Baia, which we chose for a combination of the in-room facilities, car parking (I’ll mention the hire car in a moment), and the promise of some peace and quiet. The latter being our main requirement if I’m honest – and as an adults-only hotel, we felt we would get that.

Located up on the hill opposite the Sao Jao Fortress, it’s a little bit outside the busy centre of Funchal. Its position provided fantastic views over the city, up into the mountains, and over the sea. The balcony I sat on to do my writing sat above a small kitchen garden used by the restaurant chefs, and had a view of the fortress and of the hills up towards Monte. Very pretty.

It wasn’t far from the action, though. We could walk to cafes and restaurants within 10-minutes, the sea or city centre in 15-minutes, and the Old Town in 20-minutes. Of course, thanks to the geography, it was much quicker to get to these places than it was to get back – the hills in Madeira are not to be underestimated!

And being slightly outside the main centre meant there was a good sized (included) car park, and the road access was decent. We didn’t have to weave our way through all the narrow one-way streets to get out of Funchal and on our way elsewhere.

Our Studio Room

We chose a studio room because having somewhere to sit and relax that isn’t the bed is important to us when we’re at a hotel for more than one night. I want to put my feet up to read or write, and it’s not always agreeable to do this by a pool or in a bar. We’re out exploring most of the time, but when we are in the room, we want to be comfortable.

And we were. It was a good choice of room. No, we didn’t have a sea view, but we did have a very pretty vista, and the added bonus of heaps of extra space to spread out and unwind.

Our room was large, with slightly separate sleeping and living areas. The latter had a small kitchenette (including hob and microwave, fridge, coffee maker, kettle, sink, and the required kitchen equipment), dining table with chairs, and a sofa. Unfortunately, the sofa wasn’t particularly comfortable, which was a shame. Actually, nor were the chairs on the balcony – fine to sit properly to write, but not designed for lounging. I wonder if the person buying the furniture actually sat on it for more than three minutes?

The other thing we noticed was how inconsistent the housekeeping service was. We had to choose on which days we wanted our room to be cleaned, which was no issue at all. But what we got on those days was different each time. I mean, one day housekeeping provided a bathmat next to the shower, another day we didn’t have that but we did get a flannel, and we seemed to gain a tea towel by the kitchen sink on the last day. But no real complaints, it was a good choice.

Hiring a Car

In order to make the most of our time on the island and explore on our own schedule, we booked a hire car. Rather than doing this via one of the airport hire centres, which we’ve done many times before, we chose to use a firm based in Funchal itself. This meant we could use the transfer provided by Jet2holidays to get us to and from our hotel, and benefit from a cheaper hire price.

We used Driving Madeira Rent a Car, booked via Booking.com, which happened to be directly opposite our hotel – most convenient. The car, a Seat Leon estate, was a bit rough around the edges, but it did the job for the week.

Driving in Madeira is straight forward enough. Yes, some of the roads are steep, and some are narrow, and some are steep and narrow. Including those in the city. But it’s all doable, and we didn’t have any problems there. We made sure we had Madeira maps downloaded in both Google Maps and Scenic before we left home, so we had useable satnav we were familiar with, and that meant we were all set.

On the Dinner Table

In my weekly blog episodes, I normally write at least a paragraph or two about the food I’ve been serving up on my dinner table. And while we did have the facilities available, I did zero cooking. I mentioned one of the three things I wanted from this holiday was to eat well – and oh did we do that! The food was surprisingly good in Funchal.

I did my best to try a bunch of traditional Madeiran dishes, as well as eat some of my favourite things, as is only right when on holiday. Of course, that involved plenty of Pastel de Nata (and the local Pastel de Maracuja – the Madeirans put passion fruit in everything!), mainly from Nata 7 which came recommended by a local. At €1 each (€1.50 with a coffee), it was the best value we found.

I plucked up the courage to try the unusual sounding Scabbard fish in tempura with fried banana, served with buttered boiled potatoes and salad. It was incredibly tasty – we had it at a lovely local place called O Visconde down a back street in Funchal. Other restaurants we tried that I’d recommend include Gruta, where I had the traditional skewered meat, Portaliano, which is one of hundreds of Italian restaurants in the city and is where I had an excellent carbonara, and 351 Bistro, which was a quiet and unassuming burger place off the beaten track.

Lunches and Snacks

We were told the Madeiran’s do quiche well, and that was spot on – I had a couple of excellent examples, including in the Arcada do Teixeira mountain café at the Pico de Ruivo trailhead, and in the café at the top of the Tropical Gardens. Other lunch spots I would happily return to include Snappy’s Pregos and Bar, cheap and cheerful, Casa de Bolo de Caco, where they cook the bread fresh, and Oh My Dough, where the cookies were unbelievable.

My favourite food item of the week? The Bolo de Caco, which is traditional bread from Madeira. The loaf itself seemed very similar to the Moroccan bread I really enjoyed last year, but this comes warm and covered with garlic butter. Absolutely delicious. We had it at every meal where it was available!

Oh, and if you ever go to Funchal, I would highly recommend visiting Fabrica Santo Antonio, a traditional biscuit maker. The story goes (and I paraphrase what our guide told us), that while the English and their ships could bring tea with them on their voyages, the all-important teatime biscuits were too heavy to carry as cargo. A baker saw the potential, and started making traditional English biscuits to serve to British sailors and settlers. This biscuit factory has been making the same teatime biscuits since 1893. You may well see these biscuits feature in my Currently Loving post later this month – we brought quite a few packets home!

Exploring Madeira

While I did want to relax on this holiday, I didn’t want to sit still – I get bored very easily, and I always like to explore the places I visit. We weren’t galivanting about all the time, but we did try and see quite a lot of Funchal and further afield. I mean, we walked an average of 21,500 steps a day in the six days we were in Madeira, so we can’t have done too badly!  

Free Walking Tours

I came across Free Walking Tours Funchal when looking at the map working out the best route for us to take to get from our hotel to the sea. And I’m glad I did – we did two tours with Lisa and Romeu, and they were excellent ways to explore and learn some of the history of Funchal.

We did Funchal Essentials first, as this was in the afternoon of our first day in Madeira. Romeu gave us a potted history of the island as we walked from Parque Santa Catarina, through the Municipal Garden, to the Cathedral (it was closed but we returned another day to look inside), Municipal Square, Sao Pedro’s Historical Centre and the English Church.

Then a couple of days later we joined Lisa for the Funchal Old Town tour, which included Sao Lourenco Fort, the Legislative Assembly, Funchal Old Town and the famous Rua Santa Maria with its painted doors, Sao Tiago Fort, and Igreja do Socorro Church. Both tours were really interesting – they each lasted a couple of hours, and were well worth our time.

Of course, they’re not actually free tours. I guess they could be, if you’re feeling a bit mean. They’re actually pay-what-you-feel tours – you tip at the end based on your enjoyment. We paid €10 each for each tour, which seemed like a reasonable amount. I would highly recommend both, especially if you can fit them in early on in your stay in Funchal – an excellent way to get to know the city.

Hiking

I’m not going to say much about the hiking in Madeira in this weekly blog episode as I’m planning a ‘short hikes in Madeira’ article later this month (I’ll try and remember to come back here and link to it when it’s live). But I did want to at least mention it, as hiking is probably one of the main reasons people visit this particular little island in the Atlantic.

Getting out into the countryside was just so wonderful. Madeira is beautiful and crying out to be explored on foot. There are a bunch of popular hiking routes, most of them making use of the famous irrigation channels – the Levadas. We did three short hikes outside Funchal, walking along three different Levadas (one hike included two), and climbing to the top of Madeira’s highest peak, Pico de Ruivo.

Even in the few miles we hiked we saw waterfalls and streams, cliffs and crags, forests and farmland, and viewpoints overlooking mountains and the ocean. I would very happily go back to Madeira for more hiking, too – the Madeira Ultra Trail, a 70-ish mile long-distance hike which crosses the island from west easy is very tempting. I would need to be MUCH fitter, though!  

Museums and other Interesting Places

Funchal has a museum for everything! It seems like if there is an empty old building in the city, they will turn it into a museum. Which is kind of nice really, as it means buildings which might otherwise be left to ruin are maintained and kept open. The museums are cheap to get in (two or three Euros each), and cover all kinds of topics. We visited the Military Museum, the Sugar Museum (which was free), and the Electricity Museum – the latter of which was definitely the most interesting of the three.

For our day in Monte, which sits high above Funchal at the top of the hill, we chose the Tropical Gardens over the Botanical Gardens. I’m sure they are both beautiful, but we only wanted to visit one pay-to-enter gardens and the internet told us the Monte Palace Tropical Gardens was the better of the two. It was beautiful – the gardens are set in terraces on the side of a hill, with a leaning on oriental style gardens and local tropical planting. There were even flamingos! The collection of huge quartz and other gemstones in the museum within the gardens was a bit of a surprise, too.

We also spent a lot of time simply wandering. We climbed up to the top of Sao Jose Fort, visited the famous fruit and vegetable market with its ridiculously priced tropical fruits (it’s as expensive as they warn you!), and explored the ramparts of the bright yellow Sao Tiago Fort. Aimlessly wandering really is a lovely pastime, I highly recommend it.

Things we Didn’t Do

While we crammed quite a lot into our week, there were things we missed out. We didn’t have time to do everything, and didn’t want to overspend on tourist traps or gimmicks.

We didn’t take the cable car up to Monte, choosing to leave that to the hordes of cruise ship passengers who seemed willing to queue up for what looked like hours for their place in the gondola. I’m sure it would have been a very pretty ride, but we felt driving up and using a free car park at the top of the hill was a better option for us this time.

We also didn’t take a ride on one of the funny looking basket toboggans – although we did walk to the end point to watch them come down the hill. These traditional basket sledges date back to early 19th century, when they were used by the locals who wanted to travel quickly from the village of Monte to the city of Funchal. The toboggans are driven by two runners, who steer the flimsy-looking vehicle down the 2km run up to a speed of 30mph, wearing weirdly grippy shoes. I have to admit that the people nearing the end of their ride didn’t sound like they were having that much fun!

And we didn’t visit the CR7 Museum, dedicated to Cristiano Ronaldo. Neither of us care for football, so it would have been wasted on us. We did at least get a photo of the statue outside for my nephew!

Thoughts on Madeira for a Winter Sun Holiday

Madeira, and Funchal specifically, was an excellent place to go for a week of sun at the end of February. It was warm and mostly sunny, the food was great, and there was plenty to see and do.

It was a holiday I very much needed, and I was able to find what I craved there. It’s not somewhere we will necessarily rush back to again and again, but if I found the time and money to spend a week hiking there some time, I will certainly take that opportunity. If you’ve never been, you should go.

How’s that One Hour Outside Habit?

We might be well into March now but as I missed a weekly blog episode, I just wanted to wrap up my One Hour Outside February Photo Challenge. How did you get on with the last three photos? We had ‘can’t live without’, ‘waking up’, and ‘sunset’. Of the three, I think my water photos for the first of those themes were my favourite, a nice coincidence that we chose to walk a Levada walk on that day. Well, as you will realise because I am in the photos, they were actually taken by my husband – it counts!

Thank you so much to everyone who joined in with the photo challenge in February, whether you did one day, a few themes that took your fancy, missed just one or two, or managed all 29 (well done you!). I hope the photo themes helped get you outside, and maybe even encouraged you to develop a habit that will mean you spend a little bit of time outside every day for the rest of the year.

Keep tagging #OneHourOutside in your photos so I can see what you get up to.

Removing Presenters from Scala Radio

What is it that makes something a radio station rather than streaming service? The presenters.

At the beginning of March, Scala Radio presenters Mark Forrest, Mark Kermode, Luci Holland, Richard Allinson and Sam Hughes all left and the digital station introduced more presenter-free programmes. With the exception of a few hours on weekday mornings and weekend daytimes, Scala now plays ‘more music’ – hours and hours of (I assume computer chosen) music with no talking other than during the commercial and news breaks.

This is so disappointing! And weird. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Scala since it launched in 2019, and have recommended it a few times here on Splodz Blogz (I included it in my Currently Loving post in March 2019 and have continued to listen to it most days since then). It very much filled a gap in the market by playing modern classical music as well as the traditional stuff we all know by heart; the sheer variety of music satisfied my love of orchestral music very well. It has been the perfect radio station to have on the background when I’m working at home or getting on with my chores.

Is this Progress?

The decision was clearly made for financial reasons, and it’s a shame that the radio station is struggling with reducing listener numbers. But Scala are badging this as an evolution. Is it? It doesn’t make sense to me. Who’s going to tell me what I’m listening to? Where’s the musical commentary? How will Scala continue to warrant playing the unusual tracks if there’s no-one to explain them?

Surely this means Scala is not a radio station anymore. It’s a streaming service – and now competes with all the other easy-listening playlists available on Spotify, Amazon Music, and in my old CD collection. I don’t know, what do you think? Is removing presenters from a radio station progress? Is that what the masses want now? I guess we’ll see what happens next.

Nemesis Reopens!

I absolutely love a roller coaster, always have done. And this year sees two new coasters open in UK theme parks. I think it might be time to get One Hour Outside or two at Alton Towers and Thorpe Park, having not been to either for a little while.

Most excitingly for me, as Nemesis has always been one of my favourite UK roller coasters, Alton Towers have redeveloped this classic and are reopening it as Nemesis Reborn. I remember queuing for hours to ride Nemesis as a teenager, and was weirdly so sad when it closed. The PR information for Nemesis Reborn says:

“Venture into Forbidden Valley to encounter this fearsome creature, fury heightened and more uncontrollable than ever before, sending riders through terrifying inversions aboard this intense rollercoaster that leaves thrill-seekers exhilarated. Nemesis Reborn invites the bravest of thrill-seekers to tackle dominating drops and intense inversions aboard the ride. The Phalanx have lost all strength and now it’s your turn to encounter this terrifying creature. Back with a vengeance!”

It looks and sounds fantastic, and I very much hope to head to Alton Towers sometime this year to ride it.

Hyperia at Thorpe Park also looks like it’s going to be incredible. It’s going to be the UKs tallest and fastest rollercoaster, getting up to 236ft and reaching speeds of over 80mph. Yes please!

If anyone can send me some more time off work so I can galivant around the country riding cool new roller coasters, that would be great – cheers!!

See You Next Time…

This weekly blog episode really has turned into a dissertation-length post, so I really do have to stop writing now or you’ll be late for whatever it is you’re meant to be doing next. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my week in Madeira, though, and that it might have inspired your next holiday.

In my next weekly blog episode, I will be sharing a couple of really fun One Hour Outside activities I’ve done in South Wales recently. That’s right, our guided stargazing and astrophotography experience actually went ahead a few days ago! And this weekend we’ll be doing a spot of off roading.

Until then, there’s a bunch of other articles to read here on Splodz Blogz – catch up on the final instalment of my Cumbria Way adventure journal series, published on Sunday, or take some time to practice some good stretches for hikers.  

I hope you have a really great week. See you next time!   

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