TR: Exchanging to a Rock in the Ocean
- Thread starter 4Pluto
- Start date
Loving your trip report!!
Thank you all for reading along. I'm having fun sharing the trip.
Love your report so far, love the photos, and I find it refreshing to hear that someone other than myself seems to colapse into bed at the end of the day of sightseeing. I never can quite make it out at night!!
Cheryl
I know I want to be that person that can drop by the room after dinner, change clothes and then head back out again to hit the bar scene or casinos or dance clubs, but the naked truth is that I hobble back to the room, flop onto the bed, crack open the netbook (I used to bring paper journals on trips, but now I keep an electronic journal) and then, mustering all my strength, flip off the lights and fall into deep sleep.
Oh...the airport....That is NO JOKE!!! Do they have alot of incidents there, or is it fairly and incredibly safe?
I'm pretty sure that there have been no recent incidents. I saw that a few years ago a pilot turned back. In bad weather they land at a neighboring island with a really nice landing strip and take the ship back to Madeira.
I just have problems with all island landings. I remember looking out the window at night during another island landing and seeing the little dot of an island in the distance with lights around it and thinking there is no way the pilot is going to hit that tiny spot in that great big ocean. Completely irrational, since that landing strip was no smaller than the one we left in the States, but somehow all that ocean was intimidating.
.
That is a great photo. I didn't realize what the bottom of the runway looked like until a couple days later when I passed by the airport by boat. That is one reason to land at night . . .
The two full service restaurants were located in that building. The opposite side faced the street and had a set of stairs that led up to the building's entrance. Immediately inside was a beautiful lounge and bar. Down a half flight of stairs was the Miramar restaurant. A second restaurant was on the floor below. If I had to guess, there was probably a private banquet room upstairs.
One note: shorts and shirts without collars were not allowed at dinner.
The balcony was big enough for three chairs and a decent size table. It was very functional.
Well, since I hate flying and it is a job just to get me on a 2-1/2 hour flight from Chicago to Orlando, there is no way in heck I'd be landing on that!
I think I was more bothered by having to cross the tarmac and climb the stairs to get into and out of the plane. I'm very slow . . .
debbieandroo
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2008
- Messages
- 2,085
Great report - the pictures are marvelous. How cool is it to visit a place you would have never imagined, all because of those DVC points! I am definitely interested in looking into that someday.
I had to laugh about your steamed milk....when I was in England a few years ago, I would hear stories about the tea served in the US. The Brits would say....'your tea is not nice at all and some restaurants even put ice in it.' Horrors!
Perhaps the steaming of your milk showed that the server believed you to be much more refined that your ice-loving compatriots.
I wondered what kinds of activities there were to do in a place like Madeira....yay for folks like those 'owner representatives.'
I had to laugh about your steamed milk....when I was in England a few years ago, I would hear stories about the tea served in the US. The Brits would say....'your tea is not nice at all and some restaurants even put ice in it.' Horrors!
Perhaps the steaming of your milk showed that the server believed you to be much more refined that your ice-loving compatriots.
I wondered what kinds of activities there were to do in a place like Madeira....yay for folks like those 'owner representatives.'
laura-k
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2008
- Messages
- 497
I am loving your trip report
Thank's for sharing it -
I used to fly stand-by ,so I can definitely relate to
your expieriance at the airport -
KLM is very nice -I have also heard exellent things about Virgin
but havn't had a chance to fly them -
Thank's for sharing it -
I used to fly stand-by ,so I can definitely relate to
your expieriance at the airport -
KLM is very nice -I have also heard exellent things about Virgin
but havn't had a chance to fly them -
Sammie
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Aug 20, 1999
- Messages
- 22,130
So sorry for the delay. I've been traveling for work and couldn't get back to my trip report. I'm holed up at an airport hotel, heading home tomorrow, so I promise more detail tomorrow, but I can at least give you a report on the morning half of the full day tour of Madeira.
The resort had arranged for me to join a small group in a van with a guide/driver. To be honest, I am always a little skeptical about whether I can fit into foreign vans, but this was pretty easy and we had an extra seat, so I was excited to get going. My travel companions were two couples from Belgium (who hadn't met before this tour) and an older pair of ladies from Kent (England). The guide gave the tour in english, french and german, which was pretty impressive, although we all sometimes forgot and starting talking amongst ourselves when she was translating answers into other languages.
Madeira's economy is based on wine, bananas and fish. Sometimes all in the same meals.
Not far from Funchal (the "big" city), is Camara de Lobos, a town with a fishing harbor, banana plantations and grape vineyards. According to the guide, Winston Churchill used to come here to paint (which is probably not like saying Renoir or Monet came here to paint, but I guess for all the British tourists, it makes an emotional connection).
As you can see, we hit pockets of rain through out the day.
Next we drove to another oceanside town (Riberios), where we had an obligatory stop for a drink etc. In these photos you can see the clouds hovering over the mountains, but the blue sky over the ocean.
Ok. This one was a bit of a tourist trap, but we are on the road again by 10:30 and headed for the second highest sea cliffs in the world (after Taiwan):
This gives you a little bit of a taste of the ledges that climb up the sides of mountains on this island (there are some better pictures later).
After visiting the coast, we headed up the mountains through eucaplyptus forests to an open area of spongy grasses. The clouds continuously dump rain on the top of the island where this spongy soil collects and stores water. The islanders divert the water to the vineyards and banana farms below through rock walled channels called Levadas. One of the most popular activities on the island (at least among the energetic) is to walk the paths along the Levadas through the forests and up and down the mountains. Our group looked out at the pouring down rain and decided we could skip that activity for now . . .
Next: Finding the Sunny Side of the Island.
The resort had arranged for me to join a small group in a van with a guide/driver. To be honest, I am always a little skeptical about whether I can fit into foreign vans, but this was pretty easy and we had an extra seat, so I was excited to get going. My travel companions were two couples from Belgium (who hadn't met before this tour) and an older pair of ladies from Kent (England). The guide gave the tour in english, french and german, which was pretty impressive, although we all sometimes forgot and starting talking amongst ourselves when she was translating answers into other languages.
Madeira's economy is based on wine, bananas and fish. Sometimes all in the same meals.
Not far from Funchal (the "big" city), is Camara de Lobos, a town with a fishing harbor, banana plantations and grape vineyards. According to the guide, Winston Churchill used to come here to paint (which is probably not like saying Renoir or Monet came here to paint, but I guess for all the British tourists, it makes an emotional connection).
As you can see, we hit pockets of rain through out the day.
Next we drove to another oceanside town (Riberios), where we had an obligatory stop for a drink etc. In these photos you can see the clouds hovering over the mountains, but the blue sky over the ocean.
Ok. This one was a bit of a tourist trap, but we are on the road again by 10:30 and headed for the second highest sea cliffs in the world (after Taiwan):
This gives you a little bit of a taste of the ledges that climb up the sides of mountains on this island (there are some better pictures later).
After visiting the coast, we headed up the mountains through eucaplyptus forests to an open area of spongy grasses. The clouds continuously dump rain on the top of the island where this spongy soil collects and stores water. The islanders divert the water to the vineyards and banana farms below through rock walled channels called Levadas. One of the most popular activities on the island (at least among the energetic) is to walk the paths along the Levadas through the forests and up and down the mountains. Our group looked out at the pouring down rain and decided we could skip that activity for now . . .
Next: Finding the Sunny Side of the Island.
When I left off, we all decided to stay on the van rather than take a short "Levada walk". That was kinda lazy, but in our defense it was raining.
Descending down the slopes of the north side of the island, our guide must have felt bad (or needed to run the clock), so she stopped by a really easy Levada walk, looking down over the ocean.
This stretch has a railing--most of the canals are very primitive and its easy to lose your step.
Both the highways and the walks here were lined with blue and white agapanthus (lily of the nile).
This photo gives a little better picture of the terraces that run up the sides of the mountains. I have no idea how they get from one to the next, but I'm guessing they are in a whole lot better physical condition than we tourists.
From here, we headed to the northwest corner of the island for lunch. The clouds disappeared and in their place were bright blue skies over bright blue waters.
This is a popular spot for swimming. There are several pools created by placing cement between sea rocks, with the waves constantly refreshing the water. This photo was taken just next to the pools.
This is not a popular spot based on the food. We were dropped off at a hotel that had a dozen tables set for tour groups and as each bus unloaded, guests were shown to their designated spots. Lunch was a fish soup, followed by a forgettable chicken and/or steak, followed by flan for dessert and washed down with table wine. Totally skippable except that it gave me a chance to visit with the Belgians. We talked politics, economics and world events. Always fun to see how others view the world.
After lunch (and time to stock up on souvenirs), we headed east along the north coast to a set of waterfalls.
Technically, this is the dry season (no you couldn't tell it from the mountain photos) and the waterfalls are not as spectacular as during the rainy season. On this day, it looked more like a spigot draining water from a sink (but I believe it is called bridal veil falls).
We spent a little time visiting the oldest village on the north side of the island (the north side is exposed to the wind and waves and is much harder to cultivate for crops and much more difficult to harbor ships so it is the "wild" side of the island). From there, we drove back up the mountains to a point where, theoretically, you could see both the north coast and the south coast.
Today, we saw clouds.
However, it did give me a chance to take one of my favorite photos from my trip:
Tomorrow: Dolphiins
Descending down the slopes of the north side of the island, our guide must have felt bad (or needed to run the clock), so she stopped by a really easy Levada walk, looking down over the ocean.
This stretch has a railing--most of the canals are very primitive and its easy to lose your step.
Both the highways and the walks here were lined with blue and white agapanthus (lily of the nile).
This photo gives a little better picture of the terraces that run up the sides of the mountains. I have no idea how they get from one to the next, but I'm guessing they are in a whole lot better physical condition than we tourists.
From here, we headed to the northwest corner of the island for lunch. The clouds disappeared and in their place were bright blue skies over bright blue waters.
This is a popular spot for swimming. There are several pools created by placing cement between sea rocks, with the waves constantly refreshing the water. This photo was taken just next to the pools.
This is not a popular spot based on the food. We were dropped off at a hotel that had a dozen tables set for tour groups and as each bus unloaded, guests were shown to their designated spots. Lunch was a fish soup, followed by a forgettable chicken and/or steak, followed by flan for dessert and washed down with table wine. Totally skippable except that it gave me a chance to visit with the Belgians. We talked politics, economics and world events. Always fun to see how others view the world.
After lunch (and time to stock up on souvenirs), we headed east along the north coast to a set of waterfalls.
Technically, this is the dry season (no you couldn't tell it from the mountain photos) and the waterfalls are not as spectacular as during the rainy season. On this day, it looked more like a spigot draining water from a sink (but I believe it is called bridal veil falls).
We spent a little time visiting the oldest village on the north side of the island (the north side is exposed to the wind and waves and is much harder to cultivate for crops and much more difficult to harbor ships so it is the "wild" side of the island). From there, we drove back up the mountains to a point where, theoretically, you could see both the north coast and the south coast.
Today, we saw clouds.
However, it did give me a chance to take one of my favorite photos from my trip:
Tomorrow: Dolphiins
I wasn't expecting that kind of help, given my experience at Disney. Since the "entertainment" in Orlando is pretty obvious, the concierge desks probably spend more time arranging for tickets and reservations than suggesting itineraries. These folks had lots of ideas lined up in addition to doing individual itineraries. Almost like a travel agent.
Haven't tried Virgin. Flew Continental to Europe last year; it was very cramped and unpleasant, so I was really grateful for how nice KLM was (not just business class going, but plain old economy class coming home).
Used to be a lot easier to get to Europe cheaply. However, I was surprised that it wasn't much different than trying to fly to the Caribbean during spring break!
Thanks very much for following along.
Thursday September 1
I was lazy Thursday morning. It was raining. I needed to buy some souvenirs for my nieces, so I took the hop on/hop off bus into town (not the cheapest way to get in town, but there weren't seats on the public buses and as I said, I got lazy).
In town, I found the post office, so I could buy stamps to send the nieces Greetings from Funchal. I knew I would beat the cards home by a good week or two (mail in Chicago is molasses slow), but they get a kick out of it anyway.
So after stamps, I found my way to the old government plaza and stuck my head into the old church for a look around. Every surface of the walls was covered in tiles, with saints and scenes from the bible. It is quite impressive.
After finding some dolls, some embroidery and a metal rooster for my brother, I headed back to the resort.
After a nap (did I mention I was lazy today), I got ready for my raft excursion. I booked with Wildbirds over the internet after reading reviews on TripAdvisor and after surfing their site (lots of cool videos).
The company is run by a young and very earnest husband and wife. They are experts at bird watching, particularly sea birds, and people come from all over the world for their 3 day ocean trips. That's a lot of time on a motorized rubber raft.
Me. I was sure I would capsize the boat, so I joined this adventure with some reservations. They were both so nice, and made room for me at the back of the boat (which was a lot more stable than the front) and even the life jacket fit. That just never happens (at least not without some jiggering).
the front end of the raft:
There were about 9 of us on the raft. We launched into the ocean south of the island and headed off in the direction of Isla Desertas (where there is a sea lion colony--it is off limits to tourists). Soon they spotted a whirl of seabirds. When dolphins feed, they force fish to surface by circling them; the seabirds tag along to steal fish from the air.
Not more than 15 minutes out of port, we were among a pod of 20 to 30 common dolphins.
A little backstory. Growing up, one of our family "inside jokes" were nature pictures. We had a collection of dots (this one is an eagle and that one was an owl), and rear ends of animals escaping from our cameras (the back ends of deer, moose, elk, coyotes, bison, you name it). I'm not sure we ever had any pictures of any forward facing animals.
So I get really excited when I'm able to take pictures where people can actually identify the subject without a lot of prompting and explanation. but we got close enough to the dolphins that I got pictures and one really bouncing video. Here are some photos:
Our guides had a microphone that they put into the water to record the dolphin clicks to play back to us, which was pretty cool as well. We followed the pod for a while and then headed out to deeper waters.
We found several species of birds and then sailed (motored?) around the end of the island. I suddently realized, as the boat lifted 20 feet into the sky, that the south side of the island was sheltered from the sea waves, but here just off the last of the rocks, we were in deep ocean swells. One minute you could see the island, the next, just a wall of water. I'd like to think I would float my way back to shore, but this was a wild ride.
We headed back to shore after about 3 hours on the water. I don't know how anyone does this for days on end; its like riding a bucking horse. But it was exhilerating to track and find the dolphins and seabirds, and the guides were amazing. If you ever go to Madeira, do check them out!
Next: Sands of Time
I was lazy Thursday morning. It was raining. I needed to buy some souvenirs for my nieces, so I took the hop on/hop off bus into town (not the cheapest way to get in town, but there weren't seats on the public buses and as I said, I got lazy).
In town, I found the post office, so I could buy stamps to send the nieces Greetings from Funchal. I knew I would beat the cards home by a good week or two (mail in Chicago is molasses slow), but they get a kick out of it anyway.
So after stamps, I found my way to the old government plaza and stuck my head into the old church for a look around. Every surface of the walls was covered in tiles, with saints and scenes from the bible. It is quite impressive.
After finding some dolls, some embroidery and a metal rooster for my brother, I headed back to the resort.
After a nap (did I mention I was lazy today), I got ready for my raft excursion. I booked with Wildbirds over the internet after reading reviews on TripAdvisor and after surfing their site (lots of cool videos).
The company is run by a young and very earnest husband and wife. They are experts at bird watching, particularly sea birds, and people come from all over the world for their 3 day ocean trips. That's a lot of time on a motorized rubber raft.
Me. I was sure I would capsize the boat, so I joined this adventure with some reservations. They were both so nice, and made room for me at the back of the boat (which was a lot more stable than the front) and even the life jacket fit. That just never happens (at least not without some jiggering).
the front end of the raft:
There were about 9 of us on the raft. We launched into the ocean south of the island and headed off in the direction of Isla Desertas (where there is a sea lion colony--it is off limits to tourists). Soon they spotted a whirl of seabirds. When dolphins feed, they force fish to surface by circling them; the seabirds tag along to steal fish from the air.
Not more than 15 minutes out of port, we were among a pod of 20 to 30 common dolphins.
A little backstory. Growing up, one of our family "inside jokes" were nature pictures. We had a collection of dots (this one is an eagle and that one was an owl), and rear ends of animals escaping from our cameras (the back ends of deer, moose, elk, coyotes, bison, you name it). I'm not sure we ever had any pictures of any forward facing animals.
So I get really excited when I'm able to take pictures where people can actually identify the subject without a lot of prompting and explanation. but we got close enough to the dolphins that I got pictures and one really bouncing video. Here are some photos:
Our guides had a microphone that they put into the water to record the dolphin clicks to play back to us, which was pretty cool as well. We followed the pod for a while and then headed out to deeper waters.
We found several species of birds and then sailed (motored?) around the end of the island. I suddently realized, as the boat lifted 20 feet into the sky, that the south side of the island was sheltered from the sea waves, but here just off the last of the rocks, we were in deep ocean swells. One minute you could see the island, the next, just a wall of water. I'd like to think I would float my way back to shore, but this was a wild ride.
We headed back to shore after about 3 hours on the water. I don't know how anyone does this for days on end; its like riding a bucking horse. But it was exhilerating to track and find the dolphins and seabirds, and the guides were amazing. If you ever go to Madeira, do check them out!
Next: Sands of Time
Wow, Great pictures, great report!
I'll forward this link to my DSis, who's honeyis from the Azores!
Bobbi
Thanks for following my report. I'm guessing the feel of the Azores is not too different from Madeira, or its sister island Porto Santo.
KatMark
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2007
- Messages
- 42,443
Jim, your photos are stunning. Your favorite picture is spectacular.
I love the dolphins. As you know, Mark and I have been to Marco Island two Septembers in a row and I have yet been able to get a picture of the numerous dolphins we see either while at the beach or from the patio at the condo. Perhaps I need to go out on a boat.
Looking forward to more (I'll have my laptop with me when we get to Disney at the end of the week and will check for updates).
I love the dolphins. As you know, Mark and I have been to Marco Island two Septembers in a row and I have yet been able to get a picture of the numerous dolphins we see either while at the beach or from the patio at the condo. Perhaps I need to go out on a boat.
Looking forward to more (I'll have my laptop with me when we get to Disney at the end of the week and will check for updates).
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