Getting around Funchal and Madeira
When talking about transport in Madeira, I have to start with airplanes, and let me stop here for a while. Our flight to Madeira was our first flight after literally decades and when our tour guide heard that, she laughed, telling us that we chose a great flight to start with. As we understood and later experienced, the landing is not easy on the island as the planes have to manage a sharp turn at low altitude just before landing and then they face quite unpredictable windy conditions.
One day we were watching the planes and we saw one of the planes bump quite significantly before fully landing. We also saw a plane that could not land at all and had to go back up and make one more turn. Fortunately, our landing was fine. On the way home though, we were told that the captain of the plane decided to put smaller suitcases not into the cabin but into the luggage storage, probably for better balance of the plane. I had to repack my camera suitcase on the spot while wondering what we could expect from the take-off.
Yellow taxis and orange buses are well noticeable transport means in Funchal and they were catching my eyes repeatedly. I love the idea of the prominent and unified colours helping you to distinguish the vehicles from afar.
We had a small bus with a local guide at our disposal for some of the trips, which was really convenient. Nevertheless, several tours were arranged based on using local public buses starting in Funchal and taking us to our destinations. As the public buses were bigger, the driving was more eventful.
Driving in Madeira may be tricky as there are many narrow streets and roads, winding through the towns and countryside. Many times the drivers heading towards each other had to stop or significantly slow down and agree on who would go first, eye contact was very important. During one of the rides in the public bus, our driver made a cross over his chest before going down the hill; that felt a bit scary. I was immediately trying to guess what experience made him do it, good or bad, or whether it was just some religious precaution.
Warm weather and narrow streets must explain the many motorcycles we saw. Motorcycles of so many colours and shapes — they looked lovely.
There is the cable car that we took one morning from the centre of Funchal to its suburb Monte; that enabled us to see the ocean across the roofs of the houses. I would not want to miss the ride.
What made me feel especially sentimental and touched were the many boats anchored in the city marina. Motorboats, speedboats, catamarans, ferries, and also a replica of a historical ship. One of the many offers for tourists was a cruise on such a replica but we were warned to participate only if we really, really wanted to experience what such a historical adventure involved, because one could get easily seasick during the cruise, and that would definitely spoil the fun.
I particularly appreciated the elegant modern boats waiting to be taken out onto the ocean as they symbolized the freedom to go out into the open, beyond the limits of daily routines and thoughts settled in a rut. That might be how the ocean makes me feel, and the boats looked like a way to get there.
