Surprising (and delightful) Funchal

So you'll recall that a storm pushed us south and east toward Africa (instead of north and east toward Portugal), and we landed in Funchal instead of the Azores.  We had a tour planned in the Punte Delgado (Azores), but didn't like any of the new offerings in Funchal.  We didn't need one!

The ship kindly provided a shuttle bus from dockside into downtown; it ran both directions all day long.  So we hopped aboard and were delivered into a nice little shopping area across from a beautiful park.  It's only April (how in the hell did THAT happen?), but the flowers here are in full bloom and absolutely lovely.

We strolled from the park on down the street and came across Blandy's - THE Madeira wine producers in Madeira.  Remember in Gone With The Wind when Scarlet went to Atlanta (before it burned) to stay with Aunt Pittypat.  While they were having dinner to wish Ashley a Merry Christmas, Pittypat pulled out some Madeira wine for them to drink, saying it was the last of her father's wine.  Ashley's a lucky son of a gun...that's some damn good wine!!!

Anyway, we talked to the guy in the shop, and he gave us a great education about Madeira and the lovely grapes produced for this special wine.  He suggested we book a tour of the winery and then have a tasting.  And, that's what we did.

Since the tour wasn't until 2:30 and it was only 10:30, we thought about boarding the hop-on-hop-off bus, but now with a 2:30 commitment, we were afraid we might not get back in time.  So, instead we did a bit of shopping in old town/downtown.  They have beautiful plazas and parks here.

In one of the leather shops, we struck up a conversation with the owner, told her we were on the ship in port and that we didn't really have an agenda for the day. She asked it we'd heard about the farmers' market.  No.  She showed us on our map where to go, and then sent us happily in search of this grand indoor/outdoor plaza/market full of flowers, produce, fish, and crafts.  We found it easily.

Of course while we were in the market, we also found a beer bar!  Imagine that.  So we settled in to sample the local beers.

Just about time for lunch, so we walked back to one of the streets we'd seen earlier filled with canopy-covered cafes and a lovely view of the bay.  CafeApolo was the winner.  Joe had a giant tuna steak (that I'm sure came from the market) and I had grilled shrimp with pineapples.  Yummy.  I usually hate pineapple, but these were juicy, buttery, and delicious.

Time for the Madeira tour.  Madeira is like Champagne in that it can only be made from grapes grown on Madeira, just like champagne can only be made from grapes grown in the Champagne region of France.  There are six special grapes - four of them are the names/types of wine: Sercial, Verdelho, Bual, and Malvasia.  These grapes result in dry, medium dry, medium sweet, and sweet wines.  And man are they delicious.  Not as dry as Sherry, not as heavy as Port.  So good!  The oldest known bottle is on site in a safe.  It's from 1748.  It's priceless.

After the tasting, we wandered back down to the bay and sat at a little cafe across from the docks.  It was a bluebird day, and we hated to have to leave...Funchal deserves much more than a day, and we'll come back sometime and pay it a much longer visit.