Madeira 2024
- Alex
- May 12, 2024
- 7 min read
our Honey Moon Trip to the beautiful island of Madeira.
27.04.2024
We woke up early and prepared the apartment. Thereafter we left at 09:00am for the Trainstation in Schwetzingen and took the subway to Mannheim and further from Mannheim to Frankfurt Airport the ICE (train). At 13:50pm we took off with 20 minutes of delay. We arrived quite late in Lissabon and so we thought we had only 15 minutes for our change. But luckily our next flight was even further delayed by 40 minutes. We had a beautiful arrival into Madeira with a welcoming sunset on the horizon. Our rental car is a Opel Astra, the car is completely new and we are the first one to use it (9 km at the tacho). We went to a short grocery stop and headed to our airbnb in the mountains. We arrived at 10pm and went straight to bed.
28.04.
We slept in, made ourselves breakfast and drove to a small Farmers Market. We had a shot of Madaira's famous fruit shot which was pretty strong. We stopped at a viewpoint along the way to the Airport because I wanted to spot some planes at one of the most famous Airports in the World. Unfortunately the weather was quite nice. At the spotter point was a small truck where we had ice and cake, before we went to another view point. Here was a small restaurant where we had Fries with a view directly at the runway to watch planes take off and land. Later the day we went for a small walk into a town and did some more grocery shopping for the next few days. In the evening we had dinner (wraps) at home in front of the fireplace. We planned our next days around Madeira.
29.04.
We woke up at 06:00 am and had a quick breakfast before we drove to the Northern point of Madaira for a sunrise walk. We hiked for around 3 hours in an area that looked like the moon. Some viewpoints on the way to Santana (village) where we had lunch and visited nice little houses with only a roof. Afterwards we did some groceries (again…) and drove home early. We enjoyed the rest of the day in the sun in front of our airbnb. After sunset we had dinner and enjoyed the fireplace and some local wine.
30.04.
After Breakfast we drove a bit to one of the many Levada Tracks in Madeira. (Levada Verde Track 12 km) we hiked along the Levada for about 4 hours up and down with amazing views and beautiful nature. On the way home we stopped at an old and lost sugar farm, walked around a few minutes and continued home. Here we chilled again in the Sun for the rest of the day and made dinner later in front of the Fireplace (cosy) early night because weather for the next day looks good for our big hike along the Pico aero.
01.05.
Our alarm went off at 04:15 am. We got up and drove to the weather station at the top of the Pico Aero.some very small and steep streets in total darkness. It's pretty busy up here. Everyone wants to see the sunrise from up here. We left the car at the parking spot and started our hike. It was freezing cold but just stunningly beautiful. with an amazing view over Madeira we saw a lovely Sunrise. The hike had some steep, narrow and busy parts. I think it took us about 6-7 hours to hike the complete trek to the end where we went into a small restaurant to celebrate our hike with drinks and cake. since we still had some time until our pickup. It took us 1 hour to return to the Parkingspot and another 30 minutes back to our accommodation. Here we had a shower, dressed ourselves up and drove to machico to have dinner with an old friend of Janina. after a nice evening. We went to bed late.
02.05.
After Breakfast we packed our luggage and headed to our new home. On the way we stopped at the little Jesus figure with a nice few. Later we stopped in a small fisher village where we walked around for some time and had lunch. Thereafter we went to the Banana Museum. What was super interesting to learn about bananas. The last stop is our Fancy Glamping dome for 3 nights. We made some pasta for dinner and watched the Stars from the jacuzzi later that night.
03.05.
First thing after breakfast we walked around the small Coast village. From here we drove to the most westerly point of Madeira where we had cake and coffee with an amazing few. A few salamanda tried to steal some of our cake.A bit further we stopped at the lighthouse and had some ice cream from a German ice truck. from here we had to follow steep streets and a lot of serpentines to get into Porto Moritze
We stopped at some lookouts on the way. in Porto Moritze are natural pools where we stopped. I went for a swim and Janina enjoyed the sun for some time. We followed further around the island and enjoyed a nice cheap dinner with an ocean view. The last stop for the day was the Sao Vincenca Church, one a clock tower without a real church in the mountains. Already refueling the car and back home we enjoyed quite some time again in the Jacuzzi looking into the stars.
04.05.
We enjoyed a lovely breakfast outside in the sun. The first stop today was the High plato. Here we did the 25 Fountain walk about 6km long. A beautiful hike with some nice waterfalls. From here we drove a little further to the Fanal forest and walked some time around but we did’t had much luck with the fog (Clouds). The rest of the day we chilled in the Jacuzzi and had some pasta for dinner.
05.05.
We woke up early and had breakfast again outside in the Sun with the beautiful view. Then we drove through the whole island to Funcheal (Main City) and went to the Botanical Garden. We left the car downhill in a parking garage and took the Cabelcarlift to the top. The botanical garden was beautiful and quite big. We had a drink over Funcheal and in the Park and after 3 hours we had lunch just outside the Park.
After we took the cable car back downhill we watched the Flower Parade which was beautiful to see all the colourful dresses from all the dancers. I think the Parade was about 1-2 hours long with hundreds of people. For our last night at the Glamping dome we enjoyed the Jacuzzi again.
06.05.
We slept in and enjoyed our last Breakfast at the Dome outside.
Thereafter we packed everything together and drove to the mountain close by to go paragliding. I had a 20 minute flight with some thermal uplifts and landed back at the departure place. Janina had a bit longer flight but unfortunately she didn't make it back to the Takeoff area. But she landed at the beach which was pretty nice too. but she had to return by Taxi. For lunch we went to a local restaurant and checked in in our new accommodation. a beautiful apartment with an ocean view and big terrace for sunbathing. We did some small grocery shopping and had dinner. relaxed on the Terras before we went to bed.
07.05.
We had quite some sleep and a relaxed breakfast before we drove some time into the mountains for Canyoning for beginners. Luckily we were only a very small group. We managed to walk along some canyons and waterfalls. Jumping into ice cold water was pretty fun. Since we had nothing else planned we stopped at a grocery store and drove home and chilled.
08.05.
After Breakfast we drove to Funcheal to do a free walking tour which was for the first time only okay. The guy was nice but the whole walk was ok. We stopped at a Puncha Bar later to check out the famous Puncha. Afterwards we walked through the Funcheal Market for Fresh Fruits. In the evening we sailed with a small boat around the coastline. We saw some dolphins and a beautiful sunset. Janina didn't feel that good due to some waves on the way…after this long day we went to a typical Portuguese Madreira Restaurant and had local food.
09.05.
our alarm was ringing at 04:00 am in the Morning. we drove up again to the Top of the Pico Aero to see the Sunrise. just stunning and beautiful. Thereafter we did another Levada Track for a few km. The rest of the day we went to one of the few real sand beaches on Madeira and chilled there for some time. ourDinner we enjoyed back home on our terrace with this amazing Ocean coast view.
10.05.
Today we started with the famous Levada Mohino track. a beautiful Levada track along very high mountains through some tunnels and along some waterfalls. a 8 km long beautiful hike. afterwards we stopped in Pon de Sol (a small village) for Lunch. From here we walked along the old ring street around Madeira until a waterfall onto the street. The rest of the day we took a sunbath at our apartment.
11.05.
our last day on Madeira. We slept in and had a delicious breakfast on the Balcony. The next few hours we spent down on the beach in Calith. even Janina went into the water 2 times. We enjoyed lunch at the beach bar before we went home at around 3pm. Packed our luggage and drove to a Restaurant in the mountain for some last Typical Madeira food in the evening. the Steak spear. Then we went to bed early and set our alarm to 1 am.
12.05.
We woke up at 01:00 am and drove 1 hour to the Airport.
The airport was pretty empty at this time. We took off on time at 04:20 am.
After the direct flight back to Frankfurt we took the Train back to Schwetzingen and arrived at 3pm back home tired but happy.
our Honeymoon trip to Madeira was beautiful and relaxing. We drove nearly 2000 km around the Island.
Comments