The East Coast of Madeira

After having explored the west coast up to the north we also wanted to see the other side of Madeira, especially the land tongue.

We started right away from our hotel and drove to the direction of the airport. We tried to avoid the highway but to take the smaller roads instead so that we could drive through some of the romantic small villages.

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So first we arrived at Porto Novo which wasn’t that exciting. As we were hungry we stopped at the next snack bar which appeared at the roadside. That was a ‚padaria‘, which not only had a huge offer of snacks but also owned a parrot. It talked funny things and whistled some songs. As the shop assistant spoke hardly English we ordered one of each and tried everything. Everything was yummy and again quite cheap.

Additionally the planes fly by very near so that you get to see quite a show while sitting on the terrace.

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The next stop was Santa Cruz. Very romantic with climbing plants above the river. I would love to see them in full bloom. Unbelievable. In the center of the village there is a small garden with a cultural building there you can visit exhibitions.

Plane spotter – people that love to watch planes from a very short distance will love this place as the runway starts only a couple of meters away. The road to the land tongue passes also right beside the runway which feels very strange …

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We passed through the next place – Machico – and drove on to Ponte de Lourenco. Here the street ends and you can only walk further until the end of the headland.

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We only walked a short distance until the georgeous view. When we arrived it has been quite stormy and we had to be careful to get not blown away. At this part the island is very volcanic. You can see fossilised lava and hardly any plants grow there. That is quite rustic. The rocks show many different colors and at the steep coast you can see very clearly the different rock formations. It must be great to hike around here.

We went on to Canical. There is a whale museum which we have not visited as we wanted to explore the island. Therefore we drove towards Portela. Here you can find another viewpoint. But when we were there there was nothing to be seen because we have been in the middle of a cloud. That’s how it goes on Madeira. Sometimes you are below the cloud, sometimes above and sometime just in the middle of it.

The good thing is that you are in a couple of minutes in the bright sun shine again. We found another viewpoint in Camacha. Luckily there are quite a lot of those viewpoints. Dinner we had in Ponte da Cruz in a very nice fish restaurant directly at the beach and had a glas of madeira wine as a sundowner.