Funchal Part Two

 Week One is done and dusted and we are still enjoying our time on the Portuguese Island of Madeira.  Funchal is quite touristic but still feels, acts, portrays itself as Portuguese through and through.  Actually Madeiran through and through - there are some differences in customs and colloquialisms between here and Portugal, mostly in foods and coffee orders, which we are learning at a rapid rate.  

The city is gorgeous and our apartment is at the edge of the Old Town and about 100 yards up from the marina/ the ocean.  Perfect.  We have never stayed or lived anywhere that had so many excellent restaurants within a stone's throw - and that doesn't count the dozens of excellent restaurants 5-10 minutes farther out. It's amazing.  The apartment itself has presented us with various challenges, the kind we have faced in other apartments where the owner never lived on site. The two bathrooms have zero towel bars, the shower heads have had to be replaced, there is no place in the shower to place your soap, washcloth, shampoo ... well, you get the drift.  Cindy is on a first name basis with all the members of management. In order to get in and out of the complex you need a key card and they gave us ONE, which means we need to coordinate all our coming and goings. After the first week they gave us a new one but it didn’t work and they never tested it. This was particularly difficult when our friends from the mainland came to visit, one card for four people just doesn’t work!

They have wonderful concerts in various venues every week - so far we've only managed to hear the Buena Vista Social Club concert - not the original group of course but really fine and fun musicians.  We'll go to some more concerts before we leave on Feb. 3. We walk everywhere in order to do everything. In order to get to the above concert we had to walk thirty minutes, all up hill!  Coming home was a breeze but getting there was not half the fun

The downside is that it's an island!  Our friends who visited us here live in Southern Portugal and couldn’t leave on their scheduled flight because all flights were canceled that day due to wind sheer at the small airport. They finally got out the next day after more hours of waiting, missed their train in Lisbon (both days; MUCH rescheduling happened); it was one hassle after another.  

Speaking of airports, this one is named the Cristiano Rinaldo Airport after the famous son who is a futbol/soccer star. Everyone here just calls him CR7 (the number of his jersey). There is a stadium, museum, statue, store, hotel, and so much more that is simply called CR7. From all accounts he is a rather remarkable human being contributing much back to the community that he loves so much. Nice to hear about honorable professional athletes.

We have done a lot of touristy things but the one that was the most fun was taking a toboggan for two kilometers down a steep and curvy road. It was exhilarating and just a tad frightening - but oh my, the memories!