It doesn’t seem like a week but, apparently it is, and this is our last day here. After a cloudy (still warm) start this morning the cloud has, as the afternoon wears on, cleared a fair bit and, as I write, it is really very nice.

Today was the day without a plan – no shortage of things to do but no real impetus for either of us to do much at all. We decided after our leisurely breakfast to walk to the eastern (oldest) port of Funchal along the ‘promenade’ towards the ‘Yellow Fort’. This building stands out (a0 because it is a fort and (b) because it is yellow. No further information is available as it was clearly permanently closed. The tidal defences here are quite something and we enjoyed our gentle stroll along the way. On arrival we discovered a nice bar & stopped for a drink and good views. It was only as we worked out exactly where we were that we realised it was the very bar recommended to us by one of Ally’s pals (a keen walker and frequent visitor to Madeira).

A slow stroll back to the hotel, including the walk up the hill for the first one only time (taxi, bus or coach every other time) As I write this we are on the hotel terrace sipping on a glass of wine after our light lunch.

Tonight dinner here, tomorrow our transfer minibus picks us up between 11:30 & 12:00 and I get to pick up my lost jacket before we fly home. If all goes to timetable it will be 9pm-ish before we get finally home.

A short selection of the few photos I took today follows.

Another very pleasant day today (which apparently is a Saturday!) all the better for being only lightly planned. It also helped that the weather remains warm, sunny and very calm.

Our first port of call was Blandy’s Wine Lodge in the centre of Funchal. It is no surprise that you can’t avoid Madeira wine on this island (my evening Negroni at the hotel has it substituting for the vermouth) and one of the recommended activities is the tour of the main producer. A very reasonable €15 a head gets you a 45 minute tour of the facility which covers all you will ever need to know presented, in our case, by an entertaining young woman.

Towards the end of the tour the museum had personal letters from Churchill, thank you notes from various European royalty (including Princess Margaret) and a bottle of 1954 Malmsey (as old as me but worth more probably!

Finally there was a tasting of the two extremes of Madeira – Sercial (the dry one) and Malvasia (or Malmsey). Both nice but still not to our taste.

Stage 2 of the day was a visit to Casa Museu Frederick de Freitas who was a collector of various things (including teapots & mugs!) and is pretty much as he left it.

Adjoining the house/museum is a museum of well…. tiles. Populat round these parts this was a collection from around the world. One of those supremely focussed & well laid out museums the do. One job really well.

Quite exhausted by our packed morning we decided to lunch out again and went back to the Italian where we ate yesterday. Having sampled the pizza we were keen to try the pasta for main course this time but started with bruschetta. Unexpectedly this came warm and with a melted cheese topping but was really very nice. Mains were lasagna for me & cannelloni for Ally and both were excellent. I decided to got the whole hog and have a dessert. Sobramesa de Casa (literally house pudding) was a curious (almost) trifle but topped with chocolate mousse. Sounds awful but it was very good. The picture is our chosen wine which was very good – mind you the Portuguese wine has been the highlight of this holiday for us.

You can see in the background that Xaramba is a simple place – the (tiny) chef working the oven, one young woman doing drinks and whatever else needed plus the waitress whose calm approach was outstanding. Shortly after we arrived a group of ten (unexpected) turned up and were taken the the stride of the small team. Even when each person wanted to pay separately!

Tonight we will have an evening tipple in the outdoor terrace bar here at our hotel and, since we stuffed ourselves earlier, the lightest of snacks.

Last day tomorrow and we have no idea of what we might do – probably not very much. One thing for sure is we will dine at the hotel since many places will be closed as it is Sunday.

The days fly by when on holiday don’t they? It is hard to believe we only have 2 more full days here. Day 4 was, as it often is in new places, the one where we applied the knowledge gained so far, sprinkled that with a little serendipity and went with our instincts. Today’s main plan was always going to be the other big garden in Funchal – the Jardim Botanico. Again it is up in the hills but this time access by bus through, it has to be said, some very (very) narrow streets and at high speeds! We walked down into Funchal, caught the local bus (the fare a massive €1.95 each) and arrived before the coach tours & crowds did.

The garden was full of delights really and also was a great vantage point for some fantastic civil engineering – the roads, bridges, tunnels, etc. are just breathtaking

One of the delights of travel is the huge variety of what forms a official botanical garden and this was an excellent approach – a lot of clever planting, an almost intuitive route round and some surprises along the way (buying ferry tickets up a hill is a new one on me)

The lake mentioned above by the way wasn’t all it was cracked up to be – see the next photo!

There was also a little surprise – those weren’t rocks but terrapins or turtles or something.

The garden was lovely and we just happened to arrive at the bus stop in advance of the 31A back down to Funchal – an even more hair raising journey down the hill (again at great speed). Once back in Funchal we meandered around some new(to us)” back streets, found an excellent café where hot drinks were taken and then set off to seek out lunch. The food in Funchal has been (a) overwhelming (massive portions) and (b) uninspiring so hopes weren’t high. This is where serendipity & instinct kicked in – we were heading towards a recommended place and passed an Italian place. We both liked the look of it but continued on to the original target. By then we had both decided – Italian it was! We went back, got a table inside and ordered. As we did and sipped on our wine it became clear that this place – a little off the beaten track – was very much a locals kind of place. The service was brilliant, well organised and friendly Italian style and the food was very good.

After lunch we walked a short distance to the park we have seen several times and parked ourselves on a bench to watch people browsing the craft market. On our way back to the hotel we ‘accidentally’ fell into the patisserie again and then tripped over the step into the wine shop. I am on our balcony having a glass while I write this.

We have no idea what we will be doing tomorrow and don’t intend to plan much of anything at all. Sunday we know will be a quiet one as most places will be shut.

Today was up the hill day for us when we visited the Monte Palace Tropical Garden. That we even attempted it was testament to the bravery of my beloved wife Ally who, once again, boarded a cable car for the ascent. The hotel courtesy bus dropped us at the ‘Telerifico’ base station and, after a minor confusion about tickets, we did the short (15 mins) journey to the top. No photos from within the cable car for 2 reasons – one was the windows being highly reflective and the other that Ally was clasping my hand to the point that blood circulation was endangered!

You may note the ‘impending’ weather in that latter photo and it did cloud over for much of the time we were up there but it was still warm and there was very little breeze today. Our first port of call ws a little chapel with lovely decorations and a bent crucifix behind the altar. Still don’t know anything about it.

We stopped for coffee at one of the many places to refresh oneself and basically then wandered around this little wonderland. All kinds of interesting things – art, music, plants, lakes, swans, flamingoes. Etc. What follows is a random selection of the many pictures taken

Having had a thoroughly pleasant moring in the garden we had to take a look at the alternate method of getting back down the (very steep) hill. Yes by sledge – 2 burly chaps at the back steering and braking as necessary. We weren’t tempted at all but it was a fun to watch.

Back down a sea level we had another late lunch and then back to the hotel. Tonight we are dining here for a change. It was acceptable on day one, the hotel is less busy (no groups) and we just fancy staying where we are. Another factor is that portion sizes, even for snacks, here are a little beyond acceptable levels for us and we had choice paralysis about where to go 😉

Yesterday (Tuesday) ended quite well really – our ‘Jet2Holidays Customer Helper’ Pedro turned out to be really helpful giving us tips on how best to do the things we wanted to do.

Following that there was the hotel’s “Welcome to our guests” event – again our expectations were quite low but a free drink and a chance to mix with other guests was really quite enjoyable. We struck up a conversation with Marie (a older solo traveller). The evening meal was as expected – for a restaurant called Beef & Wine it is fairly clear (although Ally had cod). Once again the friendly relaxed service was welcome and the food, while not epic, was perfectly acceptable.

Today dawned dry and sunny and we resolved to make use of the “hop on-hop off” tour bus as recommended by Pedro. The plan today was to head west to Camara de Lobos stopping off at various points on the way – the chapel of Sao Martinho and a viewpoint (looking inland for a change)

Finally we arrived in Camara de Lobos. Sadly the place itself was a disappointment and while having a quick drink at a bar near the harbour we managed to miss our onward connection to Cabo Girao. Ally seemed quite relieved because that involved the “highest cliffs in Europe” and becomes the 3rd such place we have visited that claims the title!

Faced with a long wait we decided to head back to Funchal on the next available bus. Much of the route was different to the outward one and it became very clear why the area immediately west of Funchal is called the hotel district.

All was not lost though – after a little debate we decided that a late lunch/early supper called and we ended up having a pizza at The Ritz which we passed yesterday. Good food, good service and eating outside made it memorable. Naturally we stopped by the patisserie to buy in a treat for tonight.

As I finish Ally is having a bath and I am out on our wee balcony just taking it easy. Tomorrow we use the 2nd of 2 days of our tour bus ticket and we head along to the eastern end of Funchal and the ‘telerifico’ – the cable car up to Monte. Ally is being brave (not a fan of cable cars) but it should be worth it for (a) the view and (b) the Monte Palace Tropical Garden.

Emboldened by the fact that my previous thing looked OK when I posted it to Facebook I will get right into today’s exploits.

The day has been shaped so far by the weather forecasts – all of which predicted rain varying from heavy to absolute deluge from lunchtime as I write approaching 4pm it doesn’t look so bad out there.

After a really quite good breakfast we set about discovering where we were and walked the 20 minute walk down to the port/town centre from the hotel. On the way a very pleasant garden (with statue of Columbus) and a fairly clear idea of weather conditions

From there we made our way into the centre – this is Portugal so ceramic tile decorations are compulsory! As are startling buildings and a nice church.

The highlight of our morning was the market hall – a fantastic place, busy and full of produce – dried fruit was very popular upstairs and the fish hall was stunning – big fish (tuna we think) and a man with a very big knife!

We stopped for coffee on our way to the pick up point for the courtesy bus and popped into a supermarket for some bits and bobs we needed as well as, of course, picking up some lovely patisserie items for lunch.

Next on the agenda is the meet with Pedro (our Jet2Holidays Customer Helper) – we aren’t expecting a great deal but will attend out of politeness. Later tonight we are invited to a ‘get together’ with other guests (a free drink is involved) – again we will attend to be polite but must then dash off to tonight’s choice of restaurant for dinner which is called Beef & Wine (a fairly clear indication of what we might get!) More on all that tomorrow.