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You can drink the tap water, but it smells of chlorine and is better used for washing hands. The hotel's breakfast buffet is excellent and through the large panorama windows we watch the sun rush from the sea to the sky. Down here it doesn't rise with dignity. We can see some distant islands - that must be Ilhas Desertas, the uninhabited islands.
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The weather looks really good, so we stick to our plan of going by cable car to the village Monte, high above Funchal. Well, it is called a village and probably once was, but it is more like a suburb today - Funchal has climbed high up the mountain slopes.
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Madeira part III.

Eric
2005-12-08 20:11:39

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You can drink the tap water, but it smells of chlorine and is better used for washing hands. The hotel's breakfast buffet is excellent and through the large panorama windows we watch the sun rush from the sea to the sky. Down here it doesn't rise with dignity. We can see some distant islands - that must be Ilhas Desertas, the uninhabited islands.

The weather looks really good, so we stick to our plan of going by cable car to the village Monte, high above Funchal. Well, it is called a village and probably once was, but it is more like a suburb today - Funchal has climbed high up the mountain slopes.

The cable car is new, from 2000, and the price for a return ticket Funchal-Monte is no less than 13,50 Euro. You could go by bus instead, but the cable car offers an exceptional view over Funchal, so we want to try it at least once. At the top, in Monte, the temperature is a few degrees lower, but the sun is generous today and it is truly pleasant.

Monte was once a mundane holiday resort for the rich, in particular the English upper class. With no need to work they had nothing better to do during winter than to move their household to Madeira's pleasant climate. In those days there were no cars - with or without cable - and everything including the lazy Brits had to be carried up and down the steep mountain.

That was when someone invented the chair-sledge, a chair on wax-treated runners. Instead of carrying the lazy Brits to high tea in Funchal, two "sledge-drivers" could transport them in gliding chairs - at least down. Today tourists can go for a shorter trip - not all the way down. Two white-clad "chauffeurs" with straw hats and special shoes steer, the speed is fairly high and it looks pretty risky.

Monte is still a mundane resort, and it also has a pompous church with twin towers. We're not particularly interested in churches and instead we seek out refreshments with ...