Madeira trip day 1 - My Actifit Report Card: November 5 2024

Hey Actifitters,

Yesterday was our first day of vacation with a group of childhood friends, the only ones I actually kept in touch with, the very same ones that visited us in Detroit last year. I'm pretty sure I had kept the mystery and hadn't revealed the destination yet, so here it is: Madeira, a Portuguese island.
Getting up at 3am (after going to bed at 2am) wasn't fun but already forgotten once we started from the airport with this nice sunrise. The flight was a little less than 4 hours and although the weather forecast wasn't great for the first day (we indeed flew through some thick clouds at some points), it was all sunny when we landed in Funchal.

For our first day, the plan was to not have a plan and mostly relax. So after getting our rental car, we decided to just go for a random walk in the city. We started at this interesting market place full of huge fishes and exotic fruits. A bit of a rip off though: they're very good salesman, tempting you into tasting all these delicious fruits, but the prices were extremely high, 4 or 5 times more than other places in the city.

We randomly walked these narrow streets, many of them pedestrians only, and with beautiful cobblestones.

We made a quick stop at the Cathedral of Funchal, and another church. None of us are religious but it was beautiful inside.

After a late lunch (these prego sandwiches are really good, and pretty cheap compared to what we're used to), we went to Cristo Rei da Madeira. We weren't even really sure what to find, but the first views already convinced us it was a good choice.

All of this natural beauty completely overshadowed the supposed main attraction. Pretty cool too though:

We followed the trail, going down to the very end.

Guess what we found? Of course, more amazing views of the ocean and surroundings.

Then the first sunset colors appeared. And you know I can't resist a sunset.

We started going back up, so we could enjoy drinks at the bar up top. Sunset, drinks and good company, what else can you need?

The clouds spoiled the very end of the sunset. But at this point, nobody really cared anymore, we already had our dose of amazing beauty.

We finished the day in a restaurant eating some of the local specialties: picados. I won't go into details and just say it was very good and the portions were huge! All with local wines and beers of course.

Well, for a day we kind of took it slow, just to warm up for the next few days, it ended up being really good. This is a very good sign for the rest of this short trip. A lot more on that in the next few days.
As always, thanks for stopping by and see you tomorrow.

[//]:# (!pinmapple 32.66154 lat -16.9138 long d3scr)
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Daily Activity, Walking