As is usually the case, our first day was a long travel day! We got up early at Liza’s house and Matt graciously drove us to Logan along the beautiful scenic highway known as “Rt 1” 😳. Many crazy drivers, insane interchanges, and alleged roadside crack junkies later we arrived at SATA Azores in Terminal E. Not a well-signed location btw, not mentioned on any of the airport signage.

We entered tourist mode as soon as we arrived, welcoming “Masshole” looks I’m sure..

We were all ready for breakfast at the airport, only to find that the breakfast restaurants were all either closed or.. out of breakfast food?! Weird. We had dumplings instead and at reasonable prices no less!

On the plane of course they fed us again.. but it was prison food. We ate selectively. As you can see, the entrée du jour was.. “meat”.

The plane was older, with remnants of ashtrays, retrofitted screens that didn’t all work, and bathrooms with soap OR water working. Overall a good flight though, 6 hours went by quickly. Liza was THRILLED to show off the 2+4+2 seat configuration!

We arrived at the Madeira Airport (FNC) in Santa Cruz around midnight. Let the Portuguese tiles begin!

We took a Bolt (the Estonian cheaper-than-Uber equivalent that’s becoming very popular in Europe) to our apartment in Funchal (Foon-shall). Our driver, José, was super friendly and helpful. He recommended two restaurants- Beerhouse at the marina and Abrigo do Pastor up in the mountains. He also recommended that we try the local espada (scabbard fish).

We put our stuff in our beautiful two-story modern apartment before heading out on the town.

By then it was 1 am so Funchal was pretty empty and quiet, and that’s a great way to see things. We walked along the large canal in front of the apartment a few short blocks down to the coast. Funchal has canals of varying sizes and.. wetnesses.

It was the perfect temperature for walking. The streets were very clean and everything was on pause for the next day..

The food truck/tuk tuk plaza near the marina was funny without people.. or food. We’ll definitely be back!

We were hungry again of course and wanted a true taste of local cuisine. At 1:45 am that translated to.. McDonald’s.

They do a great job of keeping the streets clean, and at least in the most popular areas we didn’t see any graffiti.. even on inviting statues..

One of our photographers (who will remain anonymous and suspiciously absent from the following gallery..) likes to surprise unsuspecting subjects by getting right up in their grills!

Back at the apartment, even the ornamental mini-stools.. plant holders? aren’t safe from an onslaught of silly American tourists.

All-in-all a great first day. The late night walk really capped it off and gave us a low-key preview of the city. We all got to bed some time between 3 and 4.. zzzzZZZZZ