Tag Archives: blogger

Islets on the island

Posted on by
Reply

MANY PEOPLE VISIT Madeira to improve their health or to retire. Some of these people die on the island and are buried there. Today (5th of May 2023), we took a look at the small English Cemetery in central Funchal. This well tended burial ground, founded in 1770, contains graves of British and some Portuguese people – Protestants mainly. In addition, there are graves of men and women born outside Portugal in places including Germany, Finland, Romania, USA, Holland, Sweden, and Poland.

One of the Americans buried in the cemetery is Harry C Stone “Late Captain Cavalry USA”. His simple yet moving gravestone bears the date 1972 and the words:
“He believed in God”

Three graves particularly intrigued me. One of them marks the burial place of Lady Sarah Bonetta Davies (née Forbes). She was born in Ogun State in 1843 and died in Funchal in 1880. The gravestone informs that she was: “Princess of the Egbada Omoba people, West Africa. God-daughter of HM Queen Victoria.”
She was born an aristocratic member of the Egbada clan of the Yoruba people and was enslaved by King Ghezo of Dahomey, who ‘gifted’ her to Captain Frederick Forbes of the British Royal Navy. She became a god-daughter of Queen Victoria, and later married the Nigerian businessman James Pinson Labulo Davies of Lagos in West Africa. She died of tuberculosis in Funchal.

Another black African, George Oruigbiji Pepple, also lies buried in the cemetery. Between 1866 and 1883, he was the King of Bonny which was a small state in the Niger River delta. He was deposed in 1883 and restored to the throne in 1887. Why he was buried in Funchal , I have not yet discovered.

The third grave that interested me greatly is that of Paul Langerhans (1847-1888). This German pathologist and physiologist is best known for his discovery of the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. Although he was unaware of the function of these distinctive cells, they have been named in his honour as The Islets of Langerhans.

Langerhans came to Madeira in 1875, having contracted tuberculosis. He recovered a little, researched marine worms, and practised medicine. In 1885, he married the widow of one of his patients. They lived together until his death. According to his wishes, he was buried in the English Cemetery in Funchal.

The cemetery is a lovely place to visit. It has plenty of flowers and is peaceful. On a future visit to Madeira, I would like to spend more time investigating the biographies of those whose remains lie there.

Blooms with a view

Posted on by
Reply

I AM ALWAYS WARY of ‘must see’ attractions because I dislike crowds and waiting in queues. So, last year when we visited Madeira, I thought it wise to avoid seeing the famous Botanical Gardens. In any case, most of Madeira’s capital, Funchal, is full of exotic plants and flowers – a veritable botanical garden in itself.

This May (2023), we decided to ‘bite the bullet’, and visit the Botanical Gardens high above Funchal. Getting there and back by local bus was easy. At the entrance to the Gardens, there was hardly any queue for tickets. And despite plenty of large tour buses parked nearby, the Gardens were not at all crowded.

Although I once owned a house with a 180 foot long garden in Gillingham, Kent, I am no gardener, and can hardly name any plant accurately. However, I love visiting gardens. The Botanical Gardens of Funchal are on the slopes of a hillside. All of the plants or groups of them are labelled. There are several terraces from which you can enjoy superb vistas of central Funchal, the sea, and the mountainous countryside.

The Gardens, which were opened to the public in 1960, are on land previously owned by William Reid, the founder of Funchal’s Reids Hotel. A bust in the garden commemorates Rui Vieira (1925-2009), a botanist who contributed much to the development of the botanical Gardens.

The highlight of the Gardens for me was a collection of mostly huge cacti, many of them bursting into flower. Everything else was also worth seeing in this well-kept, beautifully arranged garden. I am very glad that we visited this ‘must-see’ attraction on Madeira.

In search of WC on Madeira

Posted on by
Reply

IN JANUARY 1950, the famous writer, painter, and politician, Winston Spencer Churchill (‘WC’) paid a short visit to the island of Madeira with his wife and his eldest daughter. They were accompanied by various British officials.

WC arrived on the island by sea, and stayed in the luxurious Reid’s Hotel in Funchal, which continues to flourish today. He left by seaplane a few days later to attend to affairs connected with an upcoming election in the UK.

While we were visiting the excellent photographic museum in central Funchal, we saw some photographs of Churchill, which were taken during his excursion to the picturesque fishing port of Camara de Lobos, which is a few miles west of Funchal. The photographs show WC painting a picture of the lovely bay surrounded by serried rows of houses. I have yet to see the picture, which I hope still exists.

We took a local bus to Camara de Lobos and disembarked close to a small bar named after WC. This is located close to a terrace overlooking the bay and its fishing boats. It was from here that he painted. A monument records this episode.

In 2019, a new hotel opened, the Churchill Bay. Outside its entrance, there is a sculpture depicting WC with cigar held between his lips. He is shown seated at an easel. Within the hotel’s lounge and bar, there is a fascinating collection of Churchilliana – photographs; letters signed by WC; a portrait by Felix Topolski; and contemporary artworks relating to WC.

Whether or not you are a fan of the Great WC, Camara de Lobos deserves a visit. Although there are plenty of tourists there, it manages to retain the feeling of a traditional fishing village.

Water from on high

Posted on by
Reply

WHEN THE PORTUGUESE first landed in Madeira in the 15th century, the area that they settled – the southeast corner of the island – it was not well watered. Using slave labour, they constructed a series of irrigation channels to bring water from the mountains to the drier area, where they later planted valuable crops such as sugar cane. These channels that snake their way gradually downhill along the mountainsides are called ‘levadas’. The construction of these channels continued into the early 20th century, when they were built by Salazar’s political prisoners.

Today, the levadas continue to carry water and are well maintained. Paths run alongside each levada. Walking along them is a popular pursuit for tourist. Some of the paths are quite hazardous, and there are guided tours to shepherd groups of walkers safely along these waterside pathways.

We do not enjoy group tours. So, we had to find a levada that is not too hazardous and was easily accessible from Funchal. I homed in on the Levada dos Tornos, which passes under the hilltop village of Curral dos Romeiros – the terminal of bus number 29.

When we reached Curral, we asked the bus driver about the levada. He suggested where we proposed to walk was not good for us. We returned downhill in his bus, and he dropped us off at a staircase that led up toa section of the Levada dos Tornos, which he told us was not too narrow and led to a tea house.

We had a pleasant 3 mile walk along the levada, which wound its way gently downhill. All along the rout, lizards darted across the footpath as we approached them. Our way was lined with flowers and trees, many of them eucalyptus. Short stretches of the levada were shaded by bushes and trees. Other stretches provided views down wooded valleys. Sometimes, the port of Funchal could be seen far away and far below us. Most of the pathway was without hazards, but short lengths of it ran alongside sheer drops. Eventually, we reached the compound of the Jasmine Tea House, which caters for British tastes (cakes, scones, etc.) We did not have time to sample its wares because we did not want to miss the next bus (route 47) back to central Funchal.

Although we walked along a tame stretch of levada, we were able to gain an impression of Madeira’s remarkable network of irrigation channels.

Standing on a bench in Funchal, Madeira

Posted on by
Reply

ON THE FLIGHT FROM Stansted to Funchal, I sat next to a young man who was born in Madeira and now lives in the UK. He told me that we were just in time for the grand parade of the island’s annual flower festival. It would be happening on the afternoon of Sunday, the 30th of April (2023) at 430 pm, and that it always attracts large crowds.

At about 2.50 pm on the Sunday, we found an empty bench on the Avenida do Mar. This is a wide dual-carriageway that runs close to the seafront. Our bench was beside one of the carriageways. The parade was due to proceed along the other carriageway. By as early as 3 pm, people were gathering on the grassy divider that separates the two carriageways. They were between us and the route to be taken by the parade. More and more people assembled there, and we wondered how we would be able to see the proceedings.

At about 3.30, an elderly English couple joined us on the bench. We did not speak with them until a few minutes before 4.30. Then, the rather frail looking old lady said to us:
“We’re going to stand on the bench to watch the floats pass by.”
I had thought about doing this but had been concerned about the stability of both the bench and me. But when this older lady and her even older husband climbed on the bench we joined them.

The colourful floats covered with floral decorations and lively girls and ladies moved a little faster than snail’s pace. They were separated by crowds of girls in folk costumes, who were singing and dancing as they proceeded. From our vantage point, we could see the floats easily, but the dancing girls were mostly hidden by the crowds on the grassy divider; only their headdresses could be seen.

After three floats had passed, the lady hopped off the bench, and said to me:
“We’ve got to go now. We don’t want to miss our team, Liverpool, playing.”

All this goes to show that one should never judge people by how old they look. Even some the oldest members of our species can be surprisingly full of life.

Places called London

Posted on by
Reply

MANY YEARS AGO, I used to visit Yugoslavia frequently. I stayed with friends in both Sarajevo and Belgrade. During almost every stay in Belgrade, several friends and I used to travel to the town of Novi Sad to eat good Chinese food in a restaurant called Szećuan. We used to order, and consume everything on its menu. This food was washed down with copious amounts of alcohol.

After one if these boozy lunches, we began walking to the railway station and as we passed a pub called Bar London, my friend Miša said to me:
“It would be surrealist if you take us for a drink in this bar”.
We had one or more ‘for the road’, and then staggered towards the station.

This memory was aroused by coming across the Restaurante Londres in central Funchal (Madeira). We ate dinner there. The food was excellent. For the first time in my life, I ate limpets. These aquatic snails were grilled in their shells with butter and garlic – they tasted wonderful. The other dishes we tried were so good that we have booked there again.

Returning to the past, if I recall correctly, there was also a restaurant or bar called London in central Belgrade, but oddly I never entered it.

Looking familiar in Funchal

Posted on by
Reply

THEY STAND SIDE by side on a pavement outside a post office on the sloping Avenida Zarco in central Funchal. There are two sets of them. In each pair, one is painted red, the other is blue. They are postboxes (letter boxes). These cylindrical mailing boxes have a familiar look about them, especially if you live in England.

Having seen several old British style post boxes in various places in India, seeing these boxes in Funchal aroused my curiosity. I looked at their bases. The two red boxes had no manufacturer’s marks. However, both the blue ones had the following on them in English: “Cooperative Industrial Society”. This suggests that at least these two boxes were made in the UK. It appears that many Cooperative Industrial Societies have existed. So just by looking at them, it cannot be said exactly where these boxes were made. In any case, it seems that these items were imported from the UK.

As for the two colours – red and blue – there are two postal methods/speeds in Portugal. Red boxes are for normal mail, and blue for priority or express mail.

Where the Portuguese landed

Posted on by
Reply

A GUIDE BOOK to Madeira suggested that before the Portuguese set foot on Madeira, there had been others from different places. Some of these earlier settlers are said to have been travelling on an English ship from England to Portugal. However, the boat was blown off course and ran aground on the shore of Madeira, near where the town of Machico stands today. Two of the passengers on the ship were the English lovers Robert Machim and Anne d’Arfet, who were fleeing England where their relationship was not approved of. They are supposed to have died on the island. Later, their (?) graves were discovered. Fascinating as this is, the veracity of the story is questionable.

18th century fort in Machico

What is most certain is that the Portuguese Joao Goncalves Zarco and Tristao vaz Teixeira landed on the beach at what is now Machico in July 1419, and in so doing helped initiate the erstwhile worldwide Portuguese empire.

In 1440, Teixiera and his descendants were awarded the Captaincy of Machico – the first on the island of Madeira. In the middle of the 15th century, the settlers on Madeira began growing sugar cane. In those days, sugar was a valuable commodity, much desired in Europe. The prosperity of Machico increased.

Today, Machico is a pleasant town with a promenade running along the seafront. Three churches survive from earlier times. We visited the Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Conceição, whose construction was completed by the end of the 15th century. Between it and the sea front, there is a small fortress – Forte de Nossa Senhora do Amparo, which was constructed in about 1706. We saw a few market stalls next it. One if them, a florist, was selling gorgeous pink proteas.

Machico is a 50 minute bus ride from Central Funchal, the city that replaced it as Madeira’s capital by the early 16th century . The journey is spectacular with great views of the sea and the mountains, but because of the incredible windiness of the roads, it is not ideal for those prone to motion sickness.

An amazing bookshop in Madeira

Posted on by
Reply

I AM ADDICTED to visiting bookshops. In the heart of Madeira’s capital, Funchal, not far from the cathedral in a steep narrow street stands the Livraria Esperança. Founded in 1886, this bookshop is the largest in Portugal, and maybe one of the largest in Europe. It is housed on three storeys of an 18th century Palace. On each floor, there is a veritable warren of rooms, each filled with books and magazines.

The unique feature of this well stocked bookshop is that each book is displayed so that its whole front cover can be seen. This differs from many other bookshops in which most books are shelved so that only their spines can be seen. Many of the books in the Livraria are held between the jaws of clips hanging from pegs on the bookshelves.

Although books are arranged according to subject matter in different rooms, within each of these rooms the books seem to be randomly arranged. For example, a book about Salazar might be hanging between one about Roman archaeology and another about East Timor. I am not sure how the salespeople lay their hands on a particular volume that a customer requires.

More than 99% of the books are in Portuguese. There is a small collection of books in other languages. I do not understand Portuguese sufficiently well to read a serious text in that language. So, sadly I left the wonderful shop without having made a purchase.

Flying with Ryan

Posted on by
Reply

THE FIRST TIME I flew with Ryanair was to and from Friedrichshafen in Bavaria. On the return journey, I asked a lady at an information desk whether our flight was on time or running late. She replied:
“Ryanair never runs on time.”

Since November 2022, we have made 13 flights – some domestic and others international. Of these, the majority did not run on time and many of them had aspects worthy of criticism.

Today, the 27th of April 2023, we flew yet again. We flew from London’s Stanstead Airport to Funchal in Madeira. Both the ground staff and the crew on board were both friendly and efficient. The flight departed two minutes early and arrived at exactly the scheduled time. And the airline was … Ryanair!