Month: May 2018

So, back home and all the washing to do, garden and allotment to sort out and then pack again for a trip to Devon!!

Mal had the goose egg for breakfast. It was huge!

Mal came back from the allotment with some asparagus. I love it. It may be mis-shappen but it tasted delicious.

It was a lovely warm day but I was too busy to really make the most of it.

Thought for the Day – “Be thankful for what you are now and keep fighting for what you want to be tomorrow.”

It wasn’t windy when we left Madeira but it was raining. That was the first rain we had. Taking off was OK and the flight was good.

Made it…taking off!!

It was very clear skies, once we had left Madeira, in fact good views of the islands off the south coast of the UK.

Rhys collected us from Gatwick. I have to say it is now an easier airport for us. Previously we flew from Stansted so that we could spend time with Torin each trip. Sadly no more. Rhys took us to his house and we collected Ellie. Rhys also gave us a goose egg, some ducks eggs and chicken eggs.

Thought for the Day – “The magic thing about home is that it feels good to leave and it feels even better to come back.” ~ Wendy Wander

Our last day and the sunniest so we went to look for the promenade. It used to run in front of the hotel but the “Beast from the East” destroyed it in February but along the road slightly and you can join it again.

It was a really nice walk until we found another part had been shut off owing to storm damage.

We were back at the hotel for lunch and I have to say the French are so rowdy.  They also push and shove in queues. The hotel had been quiet until they all arrived! The fresh tuna for lunch made up for it, well, almost. Mal and I moved tables in the end as I couldn’t even hear what he was saying to me!

The afternoon was spent in the peace of the hotel gardens with a couple of G&T’s!

This afternoon we were talking to a guy who came to the island last Monday too. The cross wind was so bad that the plane before theirs was blown so that the wing scraped the tarmac and so their plane was diverted to the Canaries for the night!

Last Supper!….

Fingers crossed it won’t be windy for the take off in the morning! A member of staff came to our room and gave us a pack for breakfast to put in our fridge ready for the morning as we are being collected just before breakfast starts.  That was thoughtful.

Thought for the Day – “No one ever injured their eye sight by looking on the bright side.”

We had breakfast and then used the hotel bus to go into Funchal. I guess because it was Saturday there was a lot going on. We had a long walk along the promenade. There was music playing and also local dancing. Plenty of flower arrangements too, some of them so stunning.

We then found the market. Fish on the ground floor and then vegetables on another floor and then fruit.  How I wish we had self catering I would have bought a chunk of the fresh tuna! However I think from now on I will give the scabbard fish a miss.

The fruit sellers were very pushy trying to get us to taste all the fruit. Thankfully the rep warned us they had charged someone 25 euros for a couple of custard apples, so we steered clear of buying anything. A shame really.

The people selling the flowers, by law have to wear national dress.

By this time we had enough and so headed for the bus back to the hotel and a late lunch.

The evenings entertainment wasn’t the best of the week. It was karaoke.

Thought for the Day – “Don’t treat people as bad as they are, treat them as good as you are.”

Happy Birthday to Sol who is 20 today – they do make you feel old!

We had breakfast and then tried to work out how to walk to Forum Madeira. It is a shopping centre west of Funchal. We both decided we brought too many shorts with us and not enough trousers…….it has been rather windy and a maximum temperature of 20 degrees. It really does suit us as we had too much sun in Cyprus and this is such a nice temperature to walk around in. We discovered instead of going the long way round to the main road we could walk up 150 steps and very steep paths to make a short cut. The views were nice on our walk up and we did manage to buy some trousers in Zara and Pull and Bear (never heard of that one before!)

We passed the statue of the Fallen Angel (Anjo da Praça da Assicom) on the way back. It was erected in memory of the workers who lost their lives building the road tunnels across the island. There are over 200 tunnels. They didn’t want to spoil the landscape. Not the most picturesque of statues!

Back to the hotel just in time for lunch and then we sat by the sea playing cards.

In the evening it seems as though a whole load of French had just booked into the hotel. It had been quite peaceful until then!

Thought for the Day – “Time is free but it is priceless. You can’t own it but you can use it. You can’t keep it but you can spend it. Once you have lost it you can never get it back.” ~ Harvey MacKay

We had booked one of the trips , “Hidden Vistas” and today was the day. We were due to be collected at 8.20. Us and another couple were still waiting at 8.55. Mal went in to ask reception if they had any messages and only then did they tell us that our rep would be late!

Suffice to say that the rep was so good, passionate about Madeira and also her job so she was easily forgiven. Amongst our visits were a trip to Santo da Serra , the fishing village of Canical and Christ the King statue of Garajau. We also went to Machico which used to be the capital before they changed it to Funchal. She told us so much about the island. There was a huge fire in 2016. Up until that time all the rivers were covered with bougainvillea as this one still is, the only left that is!

We never realised how diverse the island is, growing different fruits and vegetables depending on the climate of each area. It really was so interesting and it made us want to come back to Madeira another time to find out more and to see more of the island. 87% of the Flower Festival flowers are imported. As she said, there would be no flowers left in their gardens if they didn’t!

Madeira is treated as the poor relation to Portugal, a little like North Cyprus is to Turkey!

We also watched a plane taking off. One of the couples with us who also arrived on Monday, their pilot had two attempts at landing. This often happens because of the cross winds and also the shortness of the runway, straight into the sea! As our rep said “most planes do a dance before they can land”!

We even managed to see a few whales/dolphins.

We also lit a candle for Torin in one of the churches , all electronic now!

It was a really interesting day. In the evening we had a booking in the Italian restaurant. It was nice considering Mal likes neither pizza nor pasta!

Thought for the Day – “Waking up to see another day is a blessing. Don’t take it for granted. Make it count and be happy that you are alive.”

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We decided to get the hotel bus into Funchal. We went outside at the allocated time, sat on the bus only to discover, just in time thankfully, that we were sat on the wrong bus!  A quick change over and then on to Funchal. It is right at the end of the flower festival, but still some stunning flower displays around. The statue of Cristiano Ronaldo looks nothing like him!

In the evening there was a Madeiran folk band and dancers. They kept us entertained for the whole evening and very good they were too.

Thought for the Day – “The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration but its donation.”