From Lisbon to Madeira

We arrived in Funchal on monday after a busy six days in Lisbon where Cathy did further research on Trant and we visited some of the attractions of the city. Lisbon is another hilly metropolis with a network of trams, some  of which are vintage plus late 19 century furniculars that one can use to help avoid some of the climbing.
Lisbon (like Coimbra) has a few lifts, one of which is also late 19C - it takes one to a platform from which to view the city.

We visited the castle and the cathedral from both of which there are excellent vistas of the city and the estuary.
We visited several museums including the Gulbekian and the fine art museum that houses Bosh's temptation of St  Anthony which we spent some time admiring.

It also has a 12C processional cross which at one point was pawned by an Abbot of the monastry that used to own it in orrder to pay for the education of his son. This was during the 15C as far as I remember. When redeemed, the item was missing a fragment of the "true cross" that had been fixed to the back.
The processional cross itself has nicely restrained decoration and is quite small. All the museums churches and monastries have many later crosses (and other religous hardware such as chalices) many of which are made quite hideous with overdecoration.
The distinctive local Portugese decorative element that recurrs in buildings is called Manueline - typically this includes rope patterns around arches.

We have now arrived at tbe apartement we have rented for the last two weeks. This is on a hillside overlooking the sea on the southwest side of the island of Maeira. Opposite, on the other side of the narrow, steep sided valley to us are terraces with bananas under cultivation, and below us ( hidden by the cliff) is a small village with shops and one restaurant. We can hear the sea, the occasional rooster and watch fishing boats that have set out from the small harbour (and separate protected swimming area) below. On thursday, we went for a swim which was very refreshing but the water is colder tban the Caribean!
On friday (yesterday) we went by bus to the westernmost point of the island for a trek. When we got off the bus, first we went towards the sea and the lighthouse on the point. Unfortunantly, the area had been cleared with the intention to build a golf course. The actual coast is spectacular but the walk itself scored low marks because the golf course area was a mess. Later on after getting some advice in a cafe we had a very pleasant walk among the ravines and pine woods. There are very few buses and we had a bit of a struggle to get up the final hill to the main road in order to catch the last bus but we made it. The hills can be very steep and indeed the path back to our apartment from the upper village is very steep in places. Fortunantly, the supermarket and a bus stop are in the lower village about 12 minutes walk. The upper village is at least 30 minutes downhill and probably 45 minutes uphill (but we have not tried this yet)  and has another bus stop which is the only stop for some buses. However there are plenty of taxis.
The steep inclines make for some strenuous walking. The preferred option is to follow artificial irrigation channels  called levadas that follow the contours though they can be vertiginous.
Today we are having a rest day.