Cock-a-doodle-doo! "Dave, It's 7:00 AM, you're on vacation, so you DON'T have to get up!" Amen to that. In fact, I think I'll sleep til 8:00 AM. And that's exactly what we did. As it was hotel check-out day and our last day in Madeira, we decided to chillax and take it easy this morning. After breakfast at the hotel (sigh, I'm going to miss that omellette station!), we checked out and were on the road at 10:45 AM. The steep streets and traffic of Funchal feel almost old-hand now.
As the airport is in the southeast of the island, we decided to head up that way and explore a few towns, then head straight to the airport to return the rental car and deal with the Nazi car company that I referred to in my blog the other day. More on them to come -- but I will hold back for now.
Our first stop was in Santana, an inland town known for its traditional A-frame houses -- the floor of the bedroom beneath the eaves forming the crossbar of the A, and thatched roofs almost touching the ground. We envisioned a whole town of these things, but in fact, you have to search them out diligently. We found eight and felt pretty darn good about it, since a savvy couple from Lisbon we met had only found six. And their Portuguese is a LOT better than ours! 
A ramshackle, two-bit operation of a cable car operates from the cliff just outside Santana and takes you to an isolated beach below. It's mainly for use by the local farmers, but we took it anyway. It afforded some nice coastal views. And the ride back up with the couple from Lisbon was enlightening in terms of what to expect in the Azores.
Next stop was the small agricultural village of Faial, set high on a mountain. It has a nice church and offers amazing views of a cube-shaped mountain that stands almost 2000' feet high.
Porto da Cruz was the next stop in this whirlwind day. It's apparently a small fishing village, although we didn't see any fishing boats at all! Just a cool beach with a killer surf, which attracted a couple of daring surfers.
From there we made a brief stop in Madeira's "second city", Machico. But there was really nothing much worthy of mention. What IS worthy of mention is this: the airport runway. Yes, you read that correctly. When we left Machico, we went directly to the airport and drove under the runway. I'm not talking a tunnel here, I'm talking a road among the hundreds of massive pillars that hold up the runway. Only a picture can explain it. Madeira has hardly any flat terrain, so the airport had to be built mostly on pillars. Quite the engineering marvel.
And here is where things get nasty. Remember I mentioned our bad feeling about Goldcar Rentals on Saturday? The ole' gut instinct turned out to be correct. They said we scratched a hubcap and mercilessly charged us $560 CAD!!! Again, you have to look at the picture below: you decide whether that scratch -- which we we did not even make -- is worth $560 on a tiny Fiat econo-car. Gold-diggin', gold-robbin', evil mercenaries! That's all I have to say about them. Deep breath, Dave. 
Next we boarded our SATA International flight to Ponta Delgada, capital of the Azores. The 5:00 PM flight left early and arrived early -- sweet! Car-rental-company-wary after our experience with the GoldCar crowd, we went over our Nissan car rental in Ponta Delgada with a fine tooth comb and noted every nick and scratch we could find. We arrived at the Hotel Talisman in the heart of the old city by7:00 PM, enjoyed a hearty lasagna in the hotel restaurant, and I then did a run around the old town to scout out the scene for tomorrow. Here's a tempter from the air:
Lots to see here tomorrow, despite a forecast of rain. Can't wait.
G'night from the Azores!
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