Sites of Globalization. Tentative WHS.
Levadas of Madeira Island. Tentative WHS. A levada is an irrigation channel or aqueduct specific to Madeira where they originated out of the necessity of bringing large amounts of water from the west and northwest of the island to the drier southeast, which is more conducive to habitation and agriculture, such as sugar cane production. They were used in the past also by women to wash clothes in areas where running water to homes was not available. The idea of this style of water channel was brought to Portugal by the Moors during the time of al-Andalus. Similar examples can still be found in Iberia, such as some Acequias in Spain.
In the sixteenth century, the Portuguese started building levadas to carry water to the agricultural regions. The most recent were made in the 1940s. Madeira is very mountainous, and building the levadas was often difficult. Many are cut into the sides of mountains, and it was also necessary to dig 25 kilometres (16 mi) of tunnels. Today the levadas not only supply water to the southern parts of the island, they also provide hydroelectric power. Hiking. There are more than 1,350 miles (2,170 km) of levadas and they provide a remarkable network of walking paths. Some provide easy and relaxing walks through beautiful countryside, but others are narrow, crumbling ledges where a slip could result in serious injury or death.
Levada do Caldeirão Verde (continues as the Levada Caldeirão do Inferno). Altogether it is about 23 miles (37 km) long. Several tunnels require flashlights and helmets
Levada do Caniçal. Much easier, it is 7.1 miles (11.4 km) from Maroços to the Caniçal Tunnel. It is known as the mimosa levada because acacias (commonly misnamed mimosas) are found all along the route.
Levada da Ribeira da Janela, a 13km hike out of Porto Moniz (need light for tunnels).
I saw several lavadas (Risco, 25 Fontes and Caldeiro Verde. They are quite different for qanats which are used in arid climates. These channels are open as evaporation is not so important here.
Our flight was late arriving at 01:00 and I finally got to sleep in the completely empty departures section of the airport.
As a result, I had only a few hours to see all the NM sites on my NM list.
FUNCHAL. (pop 111,892; sixth largest city in Portugal) Is the largest city, the municipal seat and the capital of Portugal’s Autonomous Region of Madeira, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. and has been the capital of Madeira for more than five centuries. Because of its high cultural and historical value, Funchal is one of Portugal’s main tourist attractions. It is also popular as a destination for New Year’s Eve, and it is the leading Portuguese port on cruise liner dockings.
Quinta das Cruzes Museum. This decorative arts museum has a world-class collection of 15th to 19th century furniture and art. There is some lovely carved ivory. Chapel and archaeological site in the grounds. €1.5 reduced
Universo de Memorias. Don’t miss this eclectic lifetime collection of Joas Carlos Abreu (b. 1935, he still visits regularly to add objects to the collections), a past Minister of Culture of Portugal. Some of the more interesting are 1005 men’s ties, goose ornaments, silver snuff boxes, horses, and jewelry. See by guided tour. €2 reduced
Casa Museu Frederico de Freitas. A NM House Museum, Frietas (1914-1978) was a lawyer and collector. This magnificent house was his and holds his furniture, art, religious icons, a great kitchen full of copper pots, and a good tile collection from all over the world. €1.5 reduced
Museu de Historia Natural do Funchal. The usual stuffed animals (I dislike most natural history museums (I learn little from most). €1 reduced.
Madeira Optics Museum. A private collection of cameras, telescopes and projectors. €5 no reduction.
Jesuit’s College (Church of Saint John the Evangelist). The college was closed but the magnificent church was open. The walls are completely tiles, the ceiling faux painted wood and side chapels and altars full of gilt.
Military Museum of Madeira. The fort Palacio de Sao Lorinenco, has all the usual stuff – cannon, guns, swords, maps, military uniforms, all not of much interest. €2 reduced
Sacred Art Museum. I dislike religious art – how many Mothers and Bambinos can one see? To see the tower and both collections was €8, a waste of money.
Se Cathedral. Not very imposing from the outside, it has plain white walls and a lot of gilt in the chapels and apse.
Museu A Cidade do Açúcar. This is the municipal museum. The exhibit had been abbreviated to a few small rooms in the basement. Free
Museu CR7 (Museu Cristiano Ronaldo). Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos (DOB 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward for Serie A club Juventus and captains the Portugal national team. Often considered the best player in the world and widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Ronaldo has won five Ballon d’Or awards and four European Golden Shoes, the most by a European player. He has won 32 major trophies in his career, including seven league titles, five UEFA Champions Leagues, one UEFA European Championship, and one UEFA Nations League. Ronaldo holds the records for most goals (134) and assists (42) in the Champions League, most goals in the European Championship (14), and is currently tied with Ali Daei for most international goals (109). He is one of the few recorded players to have made over 1,100 professional career appearances and has scored over 780 official senior career goals for club and country.
Born and raised in Madeira, Ronaldo began his senior club career playing for Sporting CP, before signing with Manchester United in 2003, aged 18, winning the FA Cup in his first season. He would also go on to win three consecutive Premier League titles, the Champions League, and the FIFA Club World Cup; at age 23, he won his first Ballon d’Or. Ronaldo was the subject of the then-most expensive association football transfer when he signed for Real Madrid in 2009 in a transfer worth €94 million (£80 million), where he won 15 trophies, including two La Liga titles, two Copa del Rey, four Champions Leagues, and became the club’s all-time top goalscorer. He also finished runner-up for the Ballon d’Or three times, behind Lionel Messi (his perceived career rival), and won back-to-back Ballons d’Or in 2013 and 2014, and again in 2016 and 2017. In 2018, Ronaldo signed for Juventus in a transfer worth an initial €100 million (£88 million), the most expensive transfer for an Italian club and the most expensive transfer for a player over 30 years old. He won two Serie A titles, two Supercoppa Italiana, and a Coppa Italia in his first three seasons with the club.
Ronaldo made his senior international debut for Portugal in 2003 at age 18 and has since earned over 170 caps, including appearing and scoring in eleven major tournaments, becoming Portugal’s most-capped player and his country’s all-time top goalscorer. He scored his first international goal at Euro 2004, where he helped Portugal reach the final, and assumed full captaincy of the national team in July 2008. In 2015, Ronaldo was named the best Portuguese player of all time by the Portuguese Football Federation. The following year, he led Portugal to their first triumph in a major tournament by winning Euro 2016 and received the Silver Boot as the second-highest goalscorer of the tournament. He also led them to victory in the inaugural UEFA Nations League in 2019, and later received the Golden Boot as top scorer of Euro 2020.
One of the most marketable and famous athletes in the world, Ronaldo was ranked the world’s highest-paid athlete by Forbes in 2016 and 2017 and the world’s most famous athlete by ESPN from 2016 to 2019. Time included him on their list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2014. He is the first footballer and the third sportsman to earn $1 billion in their career.
Museum €5, no reduction.
Belmond Reid’s Palace (a.k.a. Reid’s Palace) is a historic hotel located to the west of Funchal Bay in an imposing position looking out over the Atlantic Ocean. The hotel has beautiful sloping gardens.
William Reid, the son of a Scottish crofter, originally arrived in Madeira in 1836. He hired out quintas to wealthy invalids and moved on to hotels, but died before his Reid’s hotel was completed.
The hotel opened as the New Hotel in November 1891 and later became the New Palace Hotel, then Reid’s Palace or just “Reid’s”. The hotel was acquired by Orient-Express Hotels Ltd., which changed its name to Belmond Ltd. in 2014. and changed its name to Belmond Reid’s Palace.
The pioneer colour photographer Sarah Angelina Acland (1849–1930) stayed at the hotel during the early 20th century and took many photographs in and around the location of the hotel.[5] The hotel had a darkroom for use by guests.
Famous guests over the years have included General Fulgencio Batista, Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, David Lloyd George, deposed emperor Karl von Habsburg, Roger Moore, Gregory Peck, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, the missionary Albert Schweitzer, and dramatist George Bernard Shaw.
Reid’s is particularly known for its tradition of serving afternoon tea on the terrace.
Madeira Botanical Garden. This is lovely with a wide variety of succulents and palms. €6
Museu do Brinquedo. This toy museum has an impressive collection of 8000 toys from Portugal and all over the world. I have seen many toy museums and this is one of the best. €2 reduced.
Henrique and Francisco Franco Museum. It houses an extensive collection of the works of these two brothers, from their early works to their period of creative maturity. From Henrique Franco (painter, 1883 – 1961) oil paintings, drawings, engravings and small frescoes and from Francisco Franco (sculptor, 1885 -1955) sculptures, drawings and engravings.active participants in Portuguese modernity. Free
Madeira Story Centre. Shows the history of Madeira using wax figures in dioramas. Not very interesting. €5 no reduction.
Madeira Cable Car. This is a waste of time. I expected it to go to the top of the mountain but ends in a suburb of Funchal, easy to drive to and with free parking. The view from the top is not great, but the views going up are nice. €16
Next door is the Monte Palace Gardens. It is a short walk to the top of the botanical garden funicular and is often combined with the garden and funicular.
Jesuit’s College (Church of Saint John the Evangelist)
Jardim do Mar. This NM village sits well below the highway on the west coast. I missed the first turn-off from the south and then Google Maps made several typical errors taking me 10kms further and directing me back to the missed turn (Google Maps is unable to say “make a U-turn”). That road was closed due to construction so I returned and continued to the turn down to Paul do Mar down a switchbacking road with several tunnels. A new 3km long tunnel connects to Jardim do Mar. I ate at Joe’s Bar, the local hot spot. I had Trinchado, chunks of beef in a sauce, very good.
I then returned to Paul do Mar and camped at the far north end of town at an abandoned complex. Early the next morning I drove to the lighthouse at Ponta do Pargo..
Walk down a paved road 1.8 km to a restaurant. The two trails diverge along 2 parallel levadas on two different levels. Many minivans ply this road ferrying clients on tours up and down the road.
At 1.5kms is the PR6.2 trail to Lagoa do Vento 1.6kms which continues to Levada do Alecrim at 1.9kms.
Risco Waterfall. PR6.1 trail. 1.2 km from the restaurant. Descend a short stone path to the flat trail that follows the Levada do Risco. The waterfall falls in several levels to the bottom waterfall, the highest.
Fontes 25. PR6 trail. 2.5 km from the restaurant. The 25 Fontes Levada was built between 1835-55 and appears mysteriously behind a stone wall. 25 springs fall into the pool, Lagoa das 25 Fontes. 250m elevation loss.
Madeira Natural Park. This is the most dramatic landscape on the island – high, rugged peaks with sharp pinnacles.
The drive down to Santana was on a long windy road through a wonderful landscape of cliffs. Many tunnels are traversed. There are some great miradors with panoramic views.
Santana’s typical houses are one of Madeira’s signatures. The straw from cereals, such as corn and rye was then put to use to cover the houses.
These houses were owned by humble people, and in former times, this type of construction was spread around the island.
Despite being made simply of straw, its sharp angle of inclination causes rain to drain, preventing it from soaking in, ensuring it is impermeable. They ensure pleasant temperatures, both in summer and wintertime.
The houses have an attic, where agricultural products are kept. The ground floor was divided in two areas by a partition wall/ frontlet.
There are several in Santana but most are around the municipal hall.
Levada do Caldeirão Verde is above Santana. See a lavada in action as it winds through a mature Laura forest but slowly transitions to exotic trees.
Altogether it is about 23 miles (37 km) long. Several tunnels require flashlights and helmets, but any part can be walked.
I slept above Santana at a nice mirador. Views down to the town were awesome.
Museu de Baleia. Canical. Has a nice history of whaling in Madeira (hunting, processing, the fleet). There are life-size models of whales, dolphins and other cetaceans.I flew to the Canary Islands on Binter later in the day.
Porto Santo island. I didn’t go here but include this for completeness’s sake. The Porto Santo Line ferry from Funchal is two hours long. The waters between Porto Santo and Madeira are incredibly deep, descending for almost 4,000m between the two extinct volcanic islands. The ferry moors on the western side, a 2.5km walk to the centre of Vila Baleira,
Porto Santo has deforestation and erosion. When settlers first arrived in the 15th century many of the trees were cleared for farming and heavy rains washed away the nutrient-rich topsoil. The poor sandy soil is all that remains today, giving the distinctive yellow appearance to the island, and is difficult to grow on. Its porous consistency quickly drains away the meagre amount of rainfall.
Vila Baleira has white-washed houses, historic buildings and Portuguese character, perfect for lunch or coffee.
Igreja Matriz church
Porto Santo Beach. 7km long sandy beach that extends along the entire southern side of the island. The only natural sandy beach of the Madeira archipelago and is formed of soft golden sands.
Miradouro da Portela, to the east of the island, overlooks the harbour
Pico Castelo Trail, (PR2-Castelo) climbs to one of the highest summits.
Branco e Terra Cha path (PR1-Branco) follows the remote but dramatic northeastern coast.
Calheta Beach. A small beach at the far eastern end of Porto Santo, next to the Ponta da Calheta headland, and overlooks the small uninhabited island of Ilhéu da Cal. The unpredictable sea currents are too strong for swimming, but the setting is magical.
Ponta de Calheta beach
Casa de Cristovao Colombo, the small house that Christopher Columbus lived in between 1479 and 1484, with his wife Filipa Moniz before his epic voyage. Now a museum (€3) and includes historical artifacts and items salvaged from sea wrecks off the coast. Columbus’ time in Porto Moniz was significant to him, as it provided him his early ideas of sea currents, movements and westward travel, based on debris from winter storms.
Get In
Visa. Same as the rest of Portugal, part of the Schengen Area.
By plane. Cristiano Ronaldo Madeira International Airport (30 minutes from Funchal): TAP Portugal, Portugália, SATA, British Airways + many more.
Porto Santo Airport (PXO) is a 15-minute flight from Madeira.
By boat. Cruise ships port here. There is a car ferry between Porto Santo and Madeira, two hours one way. Ferry Service Funchal-Porto Santo
Get Around
By bus. Bus timetables are confusing. Tickets are bought from the driver.
By car. A small number of main routes marked “Via Expresso” or “Via Rapida” (VE and VR on maps) are well-maintained, reasonably straight and level – thanks to a large number of tunnels, bridges and viaducts. Most other roads are narrow and with many hairpin bends
Language. English is common. The Portuguese here tends to be heavily accented.
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Experiences: I had all three of these experiences in Madeira, two at one meal on my last day.
Cozido. Portuguese stew is a type of cozido, a traditional Portuguese boiled meal. Numerous regional variations exist throughout Portugal, and the dish is considered part of the Portuguese heritage, as well as one of the national dishes of Portugal. Cozido à portuguesa is prepared with a multitude of vegetables (cabbages, beans, potatoes, carrots, turnips, rice), meat (chicken, pork ribs, bacon, pork ear and trotters, various parts of beef), and smoked sausages (chouriço, farinheira, morcela, and blood sausage), among others. It is traditionally spiced with a fair amount of red pepper paste, white pepper and cinnamon.
Francezinha. A Portuguese sandwich originally from Porto, made with bread, wet-cured ham, linguiça, fresh sausage like chipolata, steak or roast meat, and covered with melted cheese and a hot and thick spiced tomato and beer sauce. It is typically served with french fries.
Daniel da Silva, a returned emigrant from France and Belgium, tried to adapt the croque-monsieur to the Portuguese taste when he moved to Porto. He first made the sandwich with local meats and his special sauce in 1953 at ‘A Regaleira’, a restaurant in Rua do Bonjardim, Porto; the francesinha quickly became a very popular dish and deeply associated with the city, although it can sometimes be found elsewhere in Portugal. A classic francesinha meal would include the sandwich, surrounded on a bed of chips doused in the famous sauce, and complemented with a fino, a draught beer.
There is no standard recipe for the francesinha. Different restaurants in Portugal have special variations, such as: Café Barcarola (Porto): Francesinha à Barcarola – A Francesinha Especial with prawns and shrimp; Café Ábaco (Porto): Francesinha de carne assada – A Francesinha Especial with roast pork; A Cascata (Porto): Francesinha à Cascata – A Francesinha Especial with mushrooms and cream; Restaurante Cunha (Porto): Francesinha à Cunha – Extremely large Francesinha.
The francesinha especial (special francesinha) is a francesinha with egg and/or potato chips. Other variations of the original include fillings such as pork, chicken, pastrami, tuna, cod and vegetarian options.
Sauce. Francesinha sauce varies, with each establishment having its variation. The only common ingredient is beer. Most, though not all, sauces are tomato based and vary in their degree of spiciness. The colour is usually red or orange.
Regional variants: Francesinha poveira – from north of Porto uses different bread and sauce to form a sandwich that can be eaten by hand. Pica-pau is a breadless variant in which a steak is cut into bite-sized pieces and covered with sauce eaten with small skewers or toothpicks—making the diner “peck” at the dish.
I has Francesinha Cataplana with layers of white bread, a thin pounded steak, ham, proscuitto, mushrooms, bread, fried egg and a thick layer of melted white cheese with a mild tomato sauce. The cheese was too thick, I peeled it off and ate little. With fries ¢8.50.
Poncha. A traditional alcoholic drink from Madeira, made with aguardente de cana (distilled alcohol made from sugar cane juice), honey, sugar, and either orange juice or lemon juice. Some varieties include other fruit juices.
It is mixed together with a mixing tool created in Madeira officially called a mexelote but more commonly known as a caralhinho (little cock), a type of muddler. Caipirinha is based on poncha. It is said in Madeira that poncha cures the common cold and people are encouraged to drink it if they have cold-like symptoms. It is a strong alcoholic drink. People from Madeira tend to point this out frequently to tourists who visit the island.
l agree, it has a very strong alcohol taste. Mine was with lemon and very good. This is not a daytime drink if you have something important to do (like drive). I am not much of a drinker and felt quite impaired after 2oz. €2
The drink may be based on an Indian drink called pãnch/panch. In Hindi pãnch/panch means five and the drink was originally made with five ingredients: alcohol, sugar, lemon, water, and tea or spices. This is also where the English drink punch originated from.
