9th February
Today is our final port of call on this wonderful Caribbean Cruise – Madeira. Funchal is the capital of Madeira and has an abundance of natural delights with a picturesque backdrop of imposing mountains and deep valleys. The island is famed for its scenic spendours, stunning cliff top waterfalls, verdant pine forests, and of course the famed Madeira wine.
The Madeiran archipelago lies in the Atlantic Ocean, west of Morocco and north of the Canary Islands. The largest of these Portuguese islands, some 600 miles southwest of Lisbon, is the Ilha da Madeira (Island of Timber) and the only other inhabited island is the tiny Porto Santo. Some important facts:
Madeira is roughly twice the size of the Isle of Wight
Pico Ruivo (6,106) the island’s highest point is 1,700 ft higher than Ben Nevis
The Encumeada road tunnel (1.9 miles) is the longest in Portugal
Madeira is especially famous for flowers and wine
The total population is about 280,000
Madeira is well known to us, having spent two holidays in recent years, so we had decided to re-visit parts of the town we had visited previously. Also Doreen’s sister Elsie and her husband John were currently on holiday in Funchal, so we had arranged to meet them on our arrival.
After catching up on the news we sauntered through the town shopping area to the Mercado dos Lavradores, a fascinating market in an open-roofed building, with stalls selling meat, cheese, fruit, vegetables, fish, clothes, wicker articles and flowers. Here we sat on the roof garden in the sun and had our morning coffee. After this we caught a local bus to take us to the west side of town for a leisurely walk along the promenade back towards the town centre. En route we stopped for a quick snack and were fascinated to watch six paragliders landing on a small patch of grass, with varying success. After reaching the Lido area we again jumped on a bus to drop us outside the Presidential Palace, where we had a pleasant hour wandering around the well kept gardens, including a number of aviaries housing exotic birds.
We than did a slow wall back through the municipal gardens and arrived exhausted back in the centre of town, where we said goodbye to Elsie and John. We then jumped on a shuttle bus back to our ship for our final sailaway.
Next stop Southampton via the Bay of Biscay!!!!!!!!
Today is our final port of call on this wonderful Caribbean Cruise – Madeira. Funchal is the capital of Madeira and has an abundance of natural delights with a picturesque backdrop of imposing mountains and deep valleys. The island is famed for its scenic spendours, stunning cliff top waterfalls, verdant pine forests, and of course the famed Madeira wine.
The Madeiran archipelago lies in the Atlantic Ocean, west of Morocco and north of the Canary Islands. The largest of these Portuguese islands, some 600 miles southwest of Lisbon, is the Ilha da Madeira (Island of Timber) and the only other inhabited island is the tiny Porto Santo. Some important facts:
Madeira is roughly twice the size of the Isle of Wight
Pico Ruivo (6,106) the island’s highest point is 1,700 ft higher than Ben Nevis
The Encumeada road tunnel (1.9 miles) is the longest in Portugal
Madeira is especially famous for flowers and wine
The total population is about 280,000
Madeira is well known to us, having spent two holidays in recent years, so we had decided to re-visit parts of the town we had visited previously. Also Doreen’s sister Elsie and her husband John were currently on holiday in Funchal, so we had arranged to meet them on our arrival.
After catching up on the news we sauntered through the town shopping area to the Mercado dos Lavradores, a fascinating market in an open-roofed building, with stalls selling meat, cheese, fruit, vegetables, fish, clothes, wicker articles and flowers. Here we sat on the roof garden in the sun and had our morning coffee. After this we caught a local bus to take us to the west side of town for a leisurely walk along the promenade back towards the town centre. En route we stopped for a quick snack and were fascinated to watch six paragliders landing on a small patch of grass, with varying success. After reaching the Lido area we again jumped on a bus to drop us outside the Presidential Palace, where we had a pleasant hour wandering around the well kept gardens, including a number of aviaries housing exotic birds.
We than did a slow wall back through the municipal gardens and arrived exhausted back in the centre of town, where we said goodbye to Elsie and John. We then jumped on a shuttle bus back to our ship for our final sailaway.
Next stop Southampton via the Bay of Biscay!!!!!!!!
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