The End of Madeira Levada Wandering

We had a day off. What a recovery day for my sore legs! Reidun and I took the bus to downtown. We began with a Sangria - before noon! It must be vacation. We had a relaxing wander. Afterwards, there was the pool.

Alina would not let us have a day without an interesting adventure, though! We had a Fado evening in 'old town' Funchal. "Fado" means "fate", and the songs are about love and loss. At Sabor a Fado, the dinner was served while singing. The mandolin and guitar playing was Wow.

My video of the strings players

Sunday was our most strenuous hike: Ponta de São Lourenço.  This one was more like a Norwegian trail, with rocks and lots of up-and-down. We were on the farthest east point of Madeira, which has exposed lava and low-lying plants, wind and waves. We were lucky with the conditions, because if the trail had been wet, we would have had to turn around.

The waves from the north were powerful

The oasis at the end of the journey

We took our tired bodies to Machico afterwards, and some of us jumped in the water! This is Madeira´s only sand beach. The sand is imported, and feels soft underfoot.

Synnøve, Hege, Reidun and me

Today, the 23rd, is our last Levada hike. We drove all the way to the northwest side of the island, to Lamaceiros near Porto Moniz. First stop, Alina wanted us to know that it is illegal to fall in. Or swim. Just in case.

The walk was nice, mostly smooth, alongside an aquaduct which had trout. We spotted a few. The levada goes through a bay leaf forest.

Admiring the views

This was built way back hundreds of years ago, and is maintained completely manually - no horses, no helicopters. It is right on the side of a cliff, so don't go here if you have a fear of heights.  

We walked through water dripping through the ferns. We admired grottos or lava tubes. The whole way out and back took three hours.

Now we got to eat and buy tourist stuff at Porto Moniz. Then, Alina had arranged a wine tasting for us. The ambience was rustic. They had spread out toast and jam, cheese, and meats for us. We tried dry Madeira, and white, rose and red wines. I loved the Justino's fine dry Madeira, so am coming home with a bottle. They say that you can keep Madeira for 5, 10, or more years after you open it, if you store it vertically with the cork in it. 

Goodbye to the northwest coast

For our last evening, we had an incredible goodbye dinner at Goya Restaurant, only 5 minutes walk from the hotel. The food was to die for! The decor featured wall and ceiling paintings, and collections of signed plates. The restrooms had a less refined decor, even titillating, featuring handsome young men. The men's room was apparently also titillating, based on the smile as one of our men returned. We 15 Norwegians (counting Alina) enjoyed ourselves immensely. There were speeches. There was applause. There was singing along to piano playing by Synnøve. We were there until closing.

Now it's time to say farewell. The plane to Oslo leaves this afternoon, and then we spread out to all of our home towns, with new friendships and good memories.