Our fun and informative island tour ended shortly after 1:00, and since we’d only had a few snacks since breakfast, so we were more than ready for lunch. Every time we’d left our home before, we’ve walked toward the city center, but this time we decided to walk in the other direction.
Our planned destination was a family-owned local restaurant which was recommended by both our go-to taxi driver and Nuno, during our tour today. However, it was about a mile away, and halfway there we saw Pizzaria Maramao on the right side of the road. After we quickly verified that the TripAdvisor reviews were decent, we decided to stop there for lunch. It was a good decision.
Cassy ordered their Spaghetti Bolognese, the kids shared a plain order of spaghetti, and Amanda and I each ordered pizzas. She had one with ham and mushrooms; mine was topped with vegetarian, with cherry tomatoes, green peppers, mushrooms, and onions. Our food arrived promptly and was across-the-board excellent – the kids and Cassy polished off their entire orders of spaghetti and Amanda and I ate our pizzas until completely full.
Noah thinks about his spaghetti as he sips his 7-up.
Emmie requested the caption: “Emmie is an olive-eating machine.”
Cassy poses with her spaghetti dish, a quasi-requirement when traveling with the McMillins.
Emmie ate every bite of her pasta with oil, butter, and Parmesan cheese!
At some point during the day, Noah and I decided we’d go on a date night to Restaurante Vila Alencastre, one of the handful of restaurants on my list for our Porto Santo visit. Amanda was on board with the plan as long as I brought back takeaway, and she and Noah could schedule a date night once we were back stateside.
Before our dinner, I took the older kids to the beach. We ran through the usual activities plus buried Emmie’s feet and built a volcano-like sand structure. The girls later made a trip to the beach while Noah and I had dinner.
Eilidh came along in the stroller for the takeaway purchase. (The stroller was among many things available for guest use!)
Our go-to takeaway spot, which was also the closest restaurant to our home.
Our dinner was approximately a half mile walk from our home, across the street from the mini market we’d visited several times during this trip. It was set back from the road and Noah got a kick out of the scenic walk to the restaurant. We didn’t have reservations which meant we had to sit outdoors. It was a bit breezy in the shade a couple of times but otherwise pleasant.
Pre-dinner selfie!
We enjoyed chatting about the meal about everything from ocean creatures to plans when we are back in Iowa to where our next vacation will take us. He also curated a list of his favorite activities from our trip:
- Berlin Aquarium and Lisbon Oceanarium (tie)
- Playing with Nola (New York City)
- Porto Santo Beach
- Lisbon Food Tour
- Walking down the steps in the Statue of Liberty
- Moorish Castle (Sintra)
- Porto Santo Line ferry ride (anticipated) and “spinning around in the boat” on the Lisbon Boat Tour (tie)
- Bottom of the Kerið crater and eating omelets at the A Graça Cozinha Portuguesa family restaurant in Lisbon (tie)
We started our meal with garlic bread which proved to be as good as we’ve had other places on the island. Noah was excited for a ham and cheese omelet, hoping it would be as good as the ones in Lisbon. I went with the golden-fried scabbardfish prepared with a tropical sauce, a typical Madeira dish.
Both meals were outstanding and while we didn’t finish the large portions of sides, we ate both of our main courses in our entirety. We chatted some more during the walk home before recapping our evening with Amanda and winding down for the night.
While Noah and I were eating dinner, the girls made the short jaunt to the beach. Little details are known about their visit but photographic evidence suggests many pictures of Eilidh were taken.
