14th January 2011 6th and 7th Dresses and Maderia

Madeira and sixth and seventh dresses
we are havuing difficulties inporting pictures at the moment so are keeping to a minimum will try again next blog to keep up with the scenic wonder shots

14th January, 2011 we left Madeira last evening about 6.30pm. It was a beautiful sight; Funchal the capital and the evening lights spreading up the hillside. Funchal is so named after the wild Fennel which was found growing in abundance when the Island was first discovered. We saw many things here but no fennel, although we could smell it in the cooking and in the market along with rich paprika chillies and an abundance of ‘Mediterranean’ type herbs. The streets and shops still had their Christmas decorations and nativities, we should not have been surprises as they also celebrate epiphany (12th night) as the final day of the Christmas celebrations and like the Spanish this is the day of exchanging gifts and of course that was only last Thursday. They have a major firework display for ‘ano novo’ New Year which if the postcards are anything to go by must be pretty spectacular. We thoroughly enjoyed our day, including of a tour of the area on an open top bus. As for the history we picked up a bit but are intrigued to learn more, we saw a Jesuit church and the Cathedral and just enjoyed the general atmosphere. Funchal is beautifully clean and tidy the gardens and all public areas are colourful and proudly maintained. This is even more impressive considering the catastrophic floods last year. We definitely would like to come back for longer, they are doubling the size of the Port area and it may be finished by our next visit. We saw the beach where Churchill painted the fishermen – Camara de Lobos - they were drying their catch in the sunshine. We saw Cabo Girao the 2nd highest sheer cliff in the world the highest is in Vietman apparently.
The dresses for today are, Umbeline do Correos. Umbeline works in the Central post office of Funchal and is responsible for the philately department, David always enjoys visiting post offices wherever we are in the world to view and perhaps buy stamps. Umbeline explained (she in Portuguese me in Spanish) that the post office provide a selection of uniforms and employees are allowed to choose exactly what suits their style. You can just about see on her jumper that she has an appliqué postman with his horn on his horse delivering the post. The quality of the stamps was good too and David bought several excellent examples.
The other dress is worn by one of the Ladies of the Mercado do Lavadores. She is wearing the traditional red dress and blouse of the flower sellers. Her birds of paradise were E0.50 each and top quality. The presentation and pride in the ladies stock is inspiring. The Mercado is crammed with smells and sounds; fruit, flowers, fish, wine, wickerwork – and - on the 13th a group of traditional singers.
The temperature is 20C and last night we put the clocks back one hour and therefore got an extra hour in bed.
At the time of writing – Friday 14th January, we are crossing the Atlantic towards Recife, The Atlantic covers 23% of the earth’s surface, as I look out of the window it’s a deep azure blue with tiny white tops on the waves, the horizon is clear and very far off, and I’m glad the captain knows the way.