Year: 2018

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.”

Well, what a good nights sleep we had! We left our balcony door open and we listened to the waves on the shore below our window.

I wonder why so few countries have taken the same stance as Madeira? ………

“Conscious of the biological wealth of its natural ecosystems, in 1982 Madeira’s Regional Government declared two thirds of the island as natural reserve, with the creation of the Natural Park of Madeira. For the visitor this means that you are not allowed to pick, damage or disturb in any other way the native species.

Classified as Biogenetic Reserve, the protected area of this park includes the Laurissilva Forest, the Natural Reserves of the Desertas and the Selvagens Islands, the Natural Reserve of Garajau, the Natural Reserve of Rocha do Navio and, of course, the Natural Park itself (Ponta de São LourençoNatural Reserve).”

A lazy day around the hotel. We met a really nice couple, Barbara and Joe from Manchester, the conversation started with us feeding the lizards!

We saw the Tui rep and booked one of the less energetic trips. We were going to book the dolphin and whale watching but she said there were so many dolphins around the coast this time of year, you didn’t need to go on a trip to see them!

We also played cards and read books, such a nice way to spend our day.  The food is so good, we had mussels and smoked salmon for starters in the evening and then they had so much fish for the main course, which included one of their national dishes, scabbard and bananas. It’s a bit bony!

Thought for the Day – “Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is relax.” ~ Mark Black

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We arrived at the hotel way before checking in time but they told us we could go straight to our room and lunch was served from midday.

We have a lovely room, quite huge and a balcony and sea view. Lots of fish choices for lunch, so I was happy. Of course we had to sample Madeira wine. I chose medium dry and it was still very sweet! We went for a walk in the afternoon and sat on our balcony for quite a time watching the boats going by and playing cards. The hotel seems one endless round of food and drink which of course Mal loves. Meals are eaten out on the terrace overlooking the sea. We did go to the sister hotel in the evening which is much quieter, in fact we couldn’t even see that the bar was open. Back to our hotel and they had a band on.

In spite of high temperatures in the UK, it was about 20 here and overcast. We didn’t come for the sun, we had more than enough of that in Cyprus!  We just came for a complete ‘unwind’. The pool water was quite cold and of course the sea is the Atlantic.

A combination of little sleep the previous night, sangria, madeira wine and g&t’s, we slept very well! A lovely relaxing day.

Thought for the Day – “Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.”

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