The hung quarter-hour
City and ocean beneath your feet, rising.
CC BY-SA 3.0 · Michael Gaylard from Horsham, UK — CC BY 2.0 · Michael Gaylard from Horsham, UK — CC BY 2.0 · Michael Gaylard from Horsham, UK — CC BY 2.0
Monte is Funchal's complete rite: the cable car lifts you from the old town 560 metres over city and ocean in a hung quarter-hour — to Monte village with its pilgrim church (the exiled last Austrian emperor Karl I lies there) and gardens. And the descent is the island's legend: the carros de cesto — wicker sledges on wooden runners driven by two straw-hatted men in wide rubber boots who run, steer and brake by rope down two kilometres of asphalt — genuine transport since 1850 become earth's most amusing street ride (Hemingway rode and wrote it) — ten minutes of pure laughter resembling nothing. The full equation: cable car up, Monte church and gardens (with Monte Palace the great neighbour), toboggan down to Livramento — taxi or walk to the centre. Go early: the sledge queue after cruise-ship landfall runs a full hour.
City and ocean beneath your feet, rising.
The sledge's runners and ropes — a 170-year trade.
Austria's last Karl in Monte church.
Caminho das Babosas 8, 9060-291 Funchal
Casa da Luz Electricity MuseumFunchal's electricity museum, inside Madeira's first power station, preserved wi6 minutes walk4.5
Henrique and Francisco Franco MuseumA museum devoted to two Madeiran brothers, the painter Henrique Franco and the s8 minutes walk4.3
Funchal Old Town & the Painted DoorsFunchal's old town is Madeira's beating heart: the Zona Velha fishermen's quarte8 minutes walk4.5
The Farmers' Market (Lavradores)The Lavradores is Madeira's coloured stomach: a 1940 Art Deco market behind a bl9 minutes walk4.0
Funchal Cathedral (the Sé)Funchal's Sé is the Age of Discoveries' oldest surviving daughter: a 1514 cathed13 minutes walk4.7Its record is excellent across a century and a half: two professional drivers, their boots and ropes the brakes, the lane traffic-closed in working hours — and children over three usually ride in parents' laps. The nervous can simply watch below the launch: half the joy is the riders' laughter anyway.