We met our new Dutch friends at breakfast and mosied on down to negotiate a deal with a taxi driver. His name is Enio.
Well if you want another amazing place to come on holidays I suggest Funchal-Madeira. Stunning, stunning, stunning. Is all I can say. From the terraced hillsides full of bananas, cabbages, tomatoes, sugar cane and just about every other type of fruit and vegetable to the multicoloured houses that cling to the hillsides, this is an amazing place.
We went up to a lookout which has a 380’ view of Funchal, and another which has a 580 meter drop to the sea and we stood on a glass platform which was a little scary.
We saw minis of all colours and ages lined up to take people on rides.
We visited a gorgeous church and then went into a little fishing village where we were treated to a local drink called Poncha. This bar has been visited by many high profile dignitaries and my favourite footballer ‘Ronaldo’. The owner of the bar gave me an autographed photo of ronaldo. I had my photo taken with the owner and the taxi driver. Enio had played football (soccer for the uninitiated)with Ronaldo when he was a child in Madeira.
He dropped us off in the ‘old town’ where we had lunch, looked through some souvenir shops then strolled over to the taxi rank.
The first taxi we jumped in told us that it would cost €20 to go the three minute drive to the port, but we’d been told by our new friend Enio that it should only cost €7.50 flat. I grabbed the door handle before he could capture us, but hadn’t needed to worry as he jumped out of the car as if he was on fire when we said we wouldn’t pay that.
The next guy was a lot more reasonable and did it for €10 flat. He gave us his card, told us more about Ronaldo. Plus he looked like George Clooney so the other two women had their photos with him. Crazy!
With only an hour before we were to go to dinner it was back to the room to make an attempt to come up with outfits for the theme night. 60’s and 70’s was a little more difficult but we did our best. After dinner we checked our pile of photos. Can we kill any more trees??
Then off to the theatre for a strange magician act that included very little English. This whole trip has been listening to the entertainment director speaking five different languages so fast that I doubt anyone knows which language he’s speaking until it’s over. It’s hilarious.
After that we needed a drink so we had some, had yet more photos taken and then it was finally time for bed.
Sea day tomorrow and a sleep in……
Lady Boomer 