|
By the LuxuryWeb Staff
Madeira Island and Funchal
Situated 400 miles off the coast of North Africa, Madeira forms a triangle with Portugal and Morocco. When Portuguese explorer João Gonçalves Zarco, the One Eyed, first spotted the island in 1418, he described it as "vapors rising from the mouth of hell". Be that as it may, Madeira Island is surrounded by the waters of the Gulf Stream; the result is warm, comfortable summers and mild winters that make Madeira a resort destination all year round.
The airport is approximately 15 kilometers from Funchal and has been recently upgraded. Several rent-a-car companies are located just outside the airport’s arrival lounge, but if you are a nervous driver, the 20-minute drive into Funchal is full of hairpin curves. You are probably better of with a taxi. A taxi stand is also located outside the arrival lounge, just look for a yellow car with blue stripes and the sign TAXI on top. The taxi drivers are friendly and glad to take you anywhere you want.
Madeira has many newly paved roads and a recent four-lane motorway. Driving is on the right hand side and all cars have the steering wheel on the left. Use of seat belts is mandatory, as in all Europe. Children under the age of 12 are not allowed on the front seats. The speed within cities and villages is limited to 40 - 50 km/h – outside to 80 km/h. You can still find narrow cobbled roads within cities and villages, which can be very slippery when wet. Outside residential areas, there are many, many narrow winding roads, especially around the central mountain. The locals obviously know their way around and therefore tend to drive very fast. However, they are, in the majority, courteous drivers.
If coming from outside the European Union, you can exchange your money in the local banks and at official exchange kiosks. There is a minimum fee of € 8, independent of the amount you exchange, when changing cash at the bank. In exchange kiosks there is no fee but the exchange will be based on a lower rate. Credit cards are almost universally accepted but debit cards, although valid for withdrawals at ATM machines, are not accepted for payments in restaurants and shops.
Madeira's almost five-century-old capital is a city that can be easily explored by foot and no matter where your hotel is located, as long as it is in the Funchal tourist area, you will have  no difficulty walking around the city center. The most central point is the ‘Sé’ Cathedral. Built between 1493 and 1514 by Gil Eanes, it represents one of Madeira's numerous architectural treasures.
Madeira Island is famous throughout the world for its natural beauty and is often called the “floating garden in the Atlantic”. There is a wide variety of gardens and parks that are carefully maintained and exhibit a vast array of flowers, plants, and trees. Since the opening of a new coastal promenade, the Lido area in Funchal developed even more into an extensive leisure zone. Lined with palm trees and bordered by splendid botanical gardens, this promenade links the Lido with the pebbled Praia Formosa beach at the western end of Funchal, offering breathtaking views over the sea and towards Cabo Girão to all those who stroll, walk or run along there or who just relax on one of the many benches. You will also find some nice restaurants of different categories with varied menus, giving you the opportunity to enjoy your meal while admiring magnificent sunsets and breathtaking views over the ocean and the surrounding areas.
 The “Quinta das Cruzes”, known for its splendid orchid displays, used to be the home of an important wine merchant. Earlier, the Quinta was also the last residence of the discoverer of Madeira, João Gonçalves Zarco. In an area of approx. one hectare, you will find the old manor house, which today is a museum for decorative arts and furniture, the “Our Lady of Mercy” chapel, gardens, the orchid cultivation sheds, camphor trees, palm trees, Australian eucalyptus, and many other species of flora.
The first buildings in Funchal were on the Campo do Duque square: the Town Hall, the Notary’s Palace and the Assembly Rooms, all completed by 1491. Two years later started the construction of the “big church”, consecrated “Sé” in 1514. During the 16th century, the rest of the major governmental edifices were built around here as well. Soon the Fortress, the Bishop’s Palace, the Seminary, and the Jesuit College occupied the entire area. Additionally, the leading local and foreign traders settled here with their business.
 In 1894, William Reid opened his eponymous hotel (Reid’s Palace Hotel) on the western edge of Funchal bay and English afternoon tea for the cognoscenti has been served there ever since. A collection of the eminent and infamous visited the island since that time, including George Bernard Shaw, who took time off to learn to dance, and Winston Churchill who painted the village of Câmara de Lobos. Madeira also welcomed its share of exiles from Napoleon who stopped off on his way to St. Helena, to Charles Archduke of Austria, the last of the Hapsburg Emperors who died, and was buried, in Monte.
The famous toboggan ride from Monte to Funchal is an exhilarating experience and takes approximately 20 minutes, but is not for the faint of heart. Madeiran tobogganing was invented as a form of passenger transport around 1850, as the gentry lived on top of the hill while their businesses were located near the harbor. Still in use today, tobogganing attracts thousands of tourists every year who want to have this exciting experience of sliding at high speed on narrow, winding streets down to Funchal. These two-seater wicker sledges glide on wooden runners, pushed and steered by two men traditionally dressed in white cotton clothes and straw hats, using their rubber-soled boots as brakes. The downhill journey to Funchal is made in about 10 minutes on a total course of 2 km, reaching at times a speed of 48 km/hour.
Madeira Wine was renowned all over the world. A tourist to Madeira should not pass on a  place that absolutely deserves a visit. The “Madeira Wine Company”, as it is also called, is located within a complex that once belonged to the São Francisco Convent. When entering the premises, you walk on one of Funchal’s oldest streets and you can still see where the chapel used to be. Today the entire complex has been converted to the wine museum. Start your visit with the Wine Tasting Room, where rural paintings from Max Römer relating to viticulture decorate the walls, and where you can taste the renowned Madeira wines: Sercial, Verdelho, Bual and Malmsey. Not to be missed is a tour of the Wine Cellar, where many vintage wines, some dating as far back as the 18th century, and the wine maturing cellars with casks made of oak-tree and mahogany can be seen. The museum itself comprises of three rooms, where you will find varied documentation concerning the administration of wine exporting houses, letters from famous personalities, a wine press from the 17th century, and sealing irons to engrave crates and casks. One intriguing item from the history books: the Duke of Clarence, sentenced to death and imprisoned in the tower of London, chose to be drowned in a barrel of Madeira wine.
The hand embroidery and lace-work of Madeira is recognized as being the finest of its kind.  Over the last hundred and fifty years Madeira has collected expertise from the fast disappearing regional centers of hand embroidery across Europe and molded these various disciplines into a distinctive style, that, in terms of quality of handwork, is unsurpassed. In the 1860s, Elizabeth Phelps, the youngest daughter of a wealthy wine merchant, set out to turn the rural pastime of embroidery into a cottage industry. Using her overseas connections, she started to sell the work of Madeiran embroiderers to the parlors of Victorian England. The industry, although vibrant in the early part of the century eventually slipped into decline, though demand from US companies remained relatively high. In the middle 1970's with the opening of the market to Chinese imports, the US trade fell off dramatically. Since then, with the exception of trade with southern Italy that tailed off in the early 1990's, no single market has dominated and influenced the industry.
© February 2006 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
|
