Madeira

To celebrate Hillary's 30th birthday, we went to Madeira, the small Portuguese archipelago 300 miles west of Morocco in the Atlantic Ocean. Portuguese sailors sent out by Prince Henry the Navigator in 1418 discovered the islands after being blown off course during a storm. Portuguese colonization began only a couple years later.


Madeira today is a major vacation destination for Europeans. It has a great climate year-round and beautiful landscapes. We stayed on the main island in the capital, Funchal. We went for five days and stayed at an amazing hotel called The Vine.


Funchal feels like Lisbon set in the tropics.


We had hoped to rent a car, but because it was peak tourist time, there were none available. We made the best of our time, regardless, by visiting local beaches, touring the town, scuba diving, and eating great food. One great meal was in a restaurant called Armazem do Sal. As the name suggests if you plug it into Google Translate, the restaurant is set in an old salt warehouse. The food and ambience were great. The wine was even better.


We ate plenty of other great food during the trip, including espetada - grilled meat cooked on a laurel skewer over a fire. It was delicious.


Our hotel had a French restaurant, so we ate there to celebrate Hillary's birthday. Also very good.

But back to the island. Madeira has been home to a few famous people. Christopher Columbus lived there, but more recently, it's most famous local boy is Cristiano Ronaldo, the Real Madrid star.












It's also home to this crazy fruit hybrid that was delicious - pineapple-banana.


One afternoon during our stay, we went to Monte, a city up the mountainside from Funchal. The island's early governors used to go there to find cooler temperatures.




But since they wanted to get back to the city quickly, the locals built box cars that would slide back down the steep cobblestone streets. The only brakes were the shoes of the two drivers.


Ernest Hemingway said that the ride was the "most exhilirating experience" of his life. The ride is now just for tourists, but we took advantage. The cars have slowed down since the cobble stone streets were converted to asphalt, but it was still a fun ride. Enjoy the video.