Quinta Do Sol Funchal

... Portuguese flag. It’s a very mountainous city with steep hills and hardly any shore line, all of the highways are built along cliffs and have bridges to connect them. The temperature is a steady 70-80’s and tropical with beautiful flowers growing all year long. It is a vacation spot for Europeans especially when Continental Europe has its winter. Carla and I went for a shopping trek today but didn’t find much of anything but we did something that I ...

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.

We arrived outside Funchal at about 12:30 and because Independence of the Seas had taken our berth, the ship anchored outside the docks and we went ashore in the ships tenders. Had a couple of hours wandering around the lovely town of Funchal and went back ...

... at cloud level. That is quite a site. Then we went down into Nun&#8217;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<br><br>Then the part that I waited for&#8230;riding the toboggan down the mountain. First we rode the cable car to the top of Monte which takes about 10 ...

... local speciality "Espetada" which was like little cubes of leather marinated and burnt ready fro serving. In short if &#8220;The Story of Scotland&#8221; is hanging on the wall (an actual wall hanging) , avoid.<br><br>The &#8220;Taj Mahal&#8221; yes I know it is a curry house, but we were on our way to the &#8220;Fleur De Leis &#8221; for a bit of a treat, but as the Savoy was closed for renovation we walked around and finally settled ...

... at a good 4 star if possible.<br><br>Incidentally the room was passable but the rubber under sheets was a little disturbing on other levels. Also the concept of "two singles pushed together does not a double make" also seems to have escaped them. It could be said that we should have requested another room to solve the bed issue, but having unpacked and settled in we were willing to put up with this as we would be tired from hiking and should have slept quite well.<br ...

Start<br> Time 10:08:10 <br> Altitude 2922 ft <br> Location 32°44'6.09"N 16°53'10.45"W<br><br>End<br> Time 14:45:37 <br> Altitude 2086 ft <br> Location N 32.74654° W 16.82567°<br><br>By far the best of the walks that we did and the most enjoyable, following the lavada as it remained cool and particularly easy walk. The way is easily found and there is only one point to watch out for, after the foresters hut, but this is easily corrected if ...

... are few taxis that will go out there on the off chance of picking up a fare.<br><br>Finding the starting point is easy and following the route is simple. There are a number of offshoots to the way and most of them are worth the detour. <br><br>About an hour into the walk you reach a folk in the trail from here on there is a circular route including a fairly steep ascent, (N 32.74489° W 16.68618°). Check ...

The start of the trail to nuns valley is not very well marked, see photo.<br><br>From the terminus near the cable car take buss 81. Check the timetable as these busses are infrequent but they are on time. (GPS Location 32°38'50.67"N 16°54'10.13"W)<br><br>The fare we paid was &#8364;2.20 each, with the return journey coming in at &#8364;2.70 each.<br><br>The buss 81 was diverted due to landslip and rescued ...

... each evening as well - compliments of the wonderful buffet in the Solarium - which we had a private little staircase from our zone of the ship leading us up there each evening. We arrived in Funchal - on the Portuguese island of Madeira - to a water spray display in the harbor and the sun shining on the homes on the steep hillsides of this picturesque island. This was our second visit here. We were last here in December of 2008 when the city was ...