Das ilhas, as mais belas e livres: Madeira

I was going through my blog-posting-plan another day (yes – I have a “plan”... it’s just a bunch of notes scattered over my planner cause of my tendency to forget things) and realised that I haven’t blogged about Madeira... it’s time to correct that :) 

A friend of ours went to Madeira two years ago and when he came back he was thrilled with everything there: food, wines, nature... So, last year, when the question of our honeymoon location emerged, Madeira popped to my mind and stayed there.

Madeira is located 1,000 km from the European continent in North Atlantic Ocean so it took us forever to get there. We were situated at Funchal (which we practically saw only at night time because every day we went on a different tour):   

On our first day trip we passed through Câmara de Lobos, traditional fishing village which inspired Sir Winston Churchill to paint:

Our next stop of the day was Cabo Girão – highest cliff in Europe. At the cliff’s foot, we were amazed to see a very small area of cultivated land. We learned later on that till 2003. it was accessible only by boat (in August that year a cable car was installed for easier access): 

The site that left us speechless was Ponta de São Lorenço at eastern part of the island: 

Can you imagine waking up every morning and seeing this? I can...

P.S. This is our way of taking pictures “of us” on our travels – it is called “method of right or left hand” – you never know which part of you will be cut of :) 

We also went to Porto Moniz were natural bathing pools are situated (I have forgotten to take my bathing suit (of course) so I watched Tomislav swimm...). They are filled by the tide with crystal clear sea water every day: 

Did I mention the excellent food at Madeira? If I had to choose one thing, it would be Bolo do Caco - their traditional bread with butter and garlic and herbs... 

I think Tomislav's choice would be espetada:

If you wanna know what it feels like to sail on a 15^th century boat, you can take a half day trip on Santa Maria – replica of the Columbus’ ship. Since I have “an issue” with boats and open sea (and refuse to go on them if not absolutely necessary) we watched it from the shore: 

Since we love to hike, we went on an 11 kilometres long walking tour called “Rabacal and the 25 fountains” along the "levadas". “Levadas“ are open canal system that where developed from the early 16th century with a purpose to distribute water from the rainfall heavy and wet regions on the north of the island to the drier sun parched regions of the south. The water is so clean and so cold in “levadas” that trout lives in them:

  

Every town on island has a church and a walking trail along the coast (this was taken at Ribeira Brava):

On our last day we went on a day trip to island of Porto Santo to enjoy 9 kilometres long sandy beach. It took us 2 and a half hours to get there with ferry but it was worth it:  

If you ever have the opportunity to go to Madeira – grab it... You won’t be sorry... 
I know I wanna go there again one day...