Hotel Savoy Gardens Funchal

Day three;



Hello everyone and greetings from Funchal, Madeira Islands, we are about 300 miles off of the coast of Africa in the Atlantic ocean.


We had a wonderful sail away from Malaga on Monday, got to see the Costa del Sol and waive good bye to my home for the last week in Benalmadena. We passed the Rock of Gibraltar about 830p just as dinner started but since it was dark you couldn't really see it. The straights of Gibraltar is ...

On Sunday we got up, had breakfast and we went off on a tour organized by P&O to the top of the second highest cliff in the world, and very spectacular it was. On the way we saw all sorts of plant life, including banana trees and the very colourfull South African trees, with very large red flowers. We passed through Camara de Lobos and on to Pico da Torre where a magnificent view over the cliffs down to the sea showed how beautiful Madeira is.

... the ship on the tender for a bite to eat in the Aquarius Grill. At about 18:00 we watched Independence maneuver very slowly away from the berth and out into the open sea. Once she had gone our ship was gently maneuvered into the berth being secured by 19:00

... at cloud level. That is quite a site. Then we went down into Nun’s Valley where we got to buy some chocolate, Madeira wine, and special Rum with Honey and Lemon. That chocolate was excellent. The use a lot of chestnuts and that made the chocolate very tasty

Then the part that I waited for…riding the toboggan down the mountain. First we rode the cable car to the top of Monte which takes about 10 ...

Generally of a high standard, despite the occasional tourist trap, below are a few that are worth remembering.

Venture forth into the old fisherman's quarter, but be wary as there is at least one restaurant I would not deem suitable, forgetting the name not wanting to remember the experience and having left so fast. Distinguishing factors are a luke warm soup, congealed butter on the garlic bread fish dish that looked like puke and ...

... br>
From the rusted and paint flaking spa showers and the grimy steam room, the self service pool area (due to lack of attendants), the dirty corridor carpets complete with dead cockroaches and the veritable cross country over the building works to the sky high bar prices (the only thing that is 5 star, the prices that is) and the conspicuously labeled "tip" box, the three day old bird droppings on the balcony and its accompanying ant infestation, this guest ...

... for a few yards and then take the path up to the old ice house.

For those of you who are tall be wary of the next section as at a point the path is cut into the mountain side and the overhang is just about 5' 6" which would be of no import, except that it is precisely where you are concentrating on the 1’ wide path with the near vertical 500’ drop to the left.

Just over half way the path folks just after what looks ...

East coast, a good and satisfying walk.

Take water as there is little or no facilities, only a small trailer which occasionally arrives. It was hot and sunny even though there was a fresh sea breeze and Funchal was under cloud. A good trick is to take a small amount of water out of a water bottle and put it in the freezer overnight.

Finding the SAM busses is not easy so allow time to locate the ...

... all be it a little lower down.

The start of the trail is to the right of the place name, in the car park just below the tea rooms. See photo. It is not marked in any way for whatever reason I do not know.

A point of warning: most of the path is laid to stone which has been smoothed with the passage of time and when wet can get very slippery, even when rain has not fallen for some days ...

... Indian curry (Tikka Masala) with Tiger beer. Of course after that we needed a siesta. Because of the long day and the large Indian Curry we decided to have room service in the cabin. We had an excellent evening with fresh fruit, Baguettes, Apple pie, cheese and biscuits and a bottle of wine. It was a good decision to stay in the cabin. Clocks go back 1 hour tonight. DAY 5 Woke up to a beautiful sunny day and had another healthy breakfast in ...