Old Town...

Not sure which is kookier: the mural...

...or our girls.

The Painted Doors Project started in 2011 to convert a decrepit part of town into an open-air art gallery, which we really loved.

This wasn’t one of the doors, but rather a mural in the garden at the Santa Maria Hostel and Restaurant, which served some amazing sushi, both regular and vegan versions.

At every restaurant someone tried talking us into eating there, but few had vegan offerings so the choice was actually easy.

The Fort of Sao Tiago was built in the early 1600s to fend off attacks from pirates.

We loved the bright and vibrant colors throughout Old Town.

Exploring Funky Town...

We spent the following day exploring.

As it was Sunday, many of the stores were closed.

Along the way to Zona Velha (Old Town), we saw some unusual statues.

Here’s some more walls that went well with our outfits.

Dinner Out in Funchal...

As we walked down the hill from our apartment, we caught sight of our building above a bunch of banana trees.

We took a nice walk along the waterfront while searching for a restaurant for dinner.

Ironically, we ended up at the very first restaurant that we visited, where we enjoyed the view from our table.

After dinner we went to the grocery store at a modern shopping center near our apartment. We expected island prices to be inflated, so were surprised that prices were even cheaper than our Dutch stores. The mall was very nice and provided some fun photo ops. Here is Veronica looking terrified while sitting on a carrinhos (wood and wicker sled) while two imaginary guides in traditional costumes pull her down the mountain; unfortunately, due to poor planning on our part, we never did make it to the village of Monte to partake in this crazy activity.

Ashlynn enjoyed pretending she was little enough to actually fit in this cool stroller that the mall offers for rent.

I’m sure it’s no surprise that we ended the evening with a drink on our terrace where we never grew tired of the view.

Funky Town...

We were all impressed with how nice our apartment was and the incredible views of the hills and ocean from every room. We especially loved the rooftop terrace with its amazing views over the capital city of Funchal, which we quickly and affectionately renamed Funky Town.

Funchal, named by the first settlers due to an abundance of wild fennel, is home to nearly half of the island’s 280,000 inhabitants. We had a nice view of Pico Fort, built in the late 1600s, although we never ventured up there.

The drive to Funchal was pretty easy with a few tunnels through the hills to keep the main road relatively flat. Once we were parked at our apartment, we could walk everywhere so didn’t need the car.

We all loved the subtropical climate, and us girls appreciated the ability to wear the long dresses that Ann gave us. 

We couldn’t have picked a better backdrop for some photos as the colors were a perfect match on this wall near our apartment.

Veronica took this one just a little further along the road. 

Down to the Beach...

After our short hike, we hopped on the cable car down to the beach. What we assumed would just be a tacky snack bar at the bottom turned out to be a nice café with a lovely terrace.

Although there are a few black-sand beaches on the island, Garajau Beach consisted of grey pebbles and black basalt stones, but that didn’t stop Veronica and Ashlynn from swimming, sunbathing and taking photos.

Jimmy and I went for a walk on the footpath along the bottom of the cliff. 

It was nice, but we couldn’t go very far before we it got too wet and slippery as I really didn’t want to go swimming.

Geologists would have surely loved this beach with its unusual rock formations. 

Finding Jesus in Madeira...

A taxi picked us up bright and early on July 21 to catch our 6 a.m. flight to Madeira. While I had previously thought Madeira was simply a type of wine, more importantly it’s an autonomous region of Portugal located in the north Atlantic 620 miles southwest of Portugal. After seeing photos from a friend’s vacation, we decided it would be the perfect place to celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary, Veronica’s 21st and Ashlynn’s 18th and high school graduation.

Since we couldn’t check into our apartment until the afternoon, we had several hours to kill. Jimmy asked the rental car agent if she had any suggestions of places where it would be easy for us to park and she suggested that we head to Garajau to see Christo Rei (Christ the King), a 49-foot statue built in 1927. Although we aren’t usually drawn to religious statues, we figured it was as good as any place to start exploring the island.

The views were lovely...

 

...and we had our first glimpse of the capital city of Funchal. 

At the bottom of the trail was a giant boulder which Ashlynn just couldn’t resist climbing.

Veronica hung out with me and took photos while Jimmy eventually joined Ashlynn.

Sailing with a Baby...

Jimmy had too much work to join us, but I couldn’t resist Austin and Hannah’s offer to go sailing again. It was already two-month-old Emma’s second time on the boat.

Emma was clearly happier in her mother’s arms...

...than in her life jacket.

Dixie, on the other hand, proudly wore her life jacket, but then she has had a lot of practice.

Hannah caught me napping with the baby and dog.