May 13, 2011
Day 2 Funchal
I’m not going to lie. I was disappointed that it rained all day in Funchal. Of course. But we can’t complain about anything else, so complaining about the weather seems banal.
We left our hotel in Lisbon at 6:20 am and took a domestic flight on TAP airlines. The trip through security was so civilized. I had two helpers, one who placed all my items into bins for me, then there was another person to help me gather my belongings. “May I see your tripod?” Helper 2 asked. Okay. Now I felt extra crappy about being American, because 1. no one patted me down and 2. no one snarled at me, and 3. this Portuguese man knows how to say tripod in English, and, oh, 4. “May I help you put on your backpack?” he asked.
I learned some Portuguese for this trip, about 100 words. I just can’t manage to put them into any intelligible order. I also can’t use them consistently without adding in some French, English, and Spanish. At dinner last night I was lucky that the waiter spoke all 4, and we managed to converse at length using a ridiculous combination like a Saturday Night Live skit about the Atlantic rim of Europe. It reminded me of the time in Lima when the concierge laughed out loud when I answered his question “¿Dónde comprar el libro?” with “aux Estados Unidos.”
So, it’s raining. We’re at Reid’s Palace in Funchal, which is featured in my book of 1001 Places to See Before You Die, and now I know exactly why it is, although I tend to think the person who wrote it came here when it was sunny. We have walked the cliffs down to the water, roamed the gardens, had champagne and homemade cakes and madeira in the room. We’ve had high tea on the patio with finger sandwiches and petits fours. And my biggest dilemma of the day is which pillow I shall order from the “pillow menu.” There are 10 to choose from. Perhaps I’ll just ask for one of each.
