Monday 2 February

Well, we’re back home – to wonderful snowy weather! As we were coming into land at Stansted, we could see the snow storms blowing in but got home before the bad stuff really hit.

Anyway, just to finish off our holiday blog – on Saturday, the weather was still very cloudy and a bit windy. The Atlantic was a bit more choppy than we had seen it on this side of the island, but, as we were sorting out all the papers we had collected during the last 3 weeks, then packing, it wasn’t too much of a problem. We did have a walk down to the nearest shopping area to purchase some souvenirs, but Madeira lace, which is exquisite, is so expensive it was out of the question, and other things are so tacky on the whole that we decided that our memories (and the blog of course) would have to suffice! (Just to give you an idea of the price of Madeira lace – we looked at a tablecloth, which would have fitted our dining table and it was over 2,000 euros! And this was by no means the most expensive!)

On Saturday evening, we had just returned from having dinner, when the power failed. The storm had been steadily worsening during the afternoon, and the winds were really high. Luckily, Tom had a couple of torches with him, so we could see enough to read by until the power returned 15 minutes later. We heard the next day that we had been lucky as some places had been without power for several hours. All night we were aware of the wind howling and when we went down for breakfast, we saw all the pool furniture had been blown into one corner and several of the sun loungers were at the bottom of the pool! However, the sun was shining and the wind had dropped which boded well for our flight.

We arrived at the airport to check in at 9.45 along with half of the island, it seemed! Funchal is not a large airport but there are quite a few flights daily. We left pretty much on time and landed at Stansted slightly ahead of ETA. David was waiting for us, and after a quick cup of tea with him and Liz, we drove home to our lovely warm house! Bruce, bless him had put the heating on full during the afternoon! So that was that – the end of a not particularly memorable holiday. We’ve decided that we’ll stick to home at the beginning of the year in future – we always seem to have a bug of some kind about then and, although it is nice to get away from the cold English weather, it’s no good if we spend time being ill.

Overview of Madeira.

The island has many attractions for the walkers and gardeners and probably the sun lovers during the summer months. Perhaps because we weren’t at our best, we found it hard work. It is very steep in most places and you certainly need a good level of fitness to get about. Away from Funchal, most of the villages and towns are suffering from varying degrees of poverty and this is quite apparent. The island depends on tourism for the major part of its income, and with the recession and the present exchange rate against the euro, the number of holiday makers is down and everyone in business is desperate to persuade the tourists to buy. We found the constant pressure, from restaurants especially, very annoying. Going into shops was also a trial as you were leapt on as soon as you stepped through the door and followed around. You couldn’t just browse, even if you said you were just looking.

On the plus side, if you want scenery and like walking and climbing, the views are fantastic. There are many walks which you can do yourself although some of the books showing routes are not as clear as they could be. But, as most of the walks are constantly used, the routes are clear on the ground. Following the levadas is interesting, and we only did easy ones but the access to them can often be far worse than the walks themselves and this is NOT made clear in the books. There are many walks that are recommended only to be undertaken with a guide because of the degrees of difficulty and also because the weather can change very rapidly. Visibility on even the lower hills can come down to metres within minutes. Be wary of recommended levels of difficulty. For example, the walk down from Eira de Serrado to Curral das Freiras is described in different leaflets/books as being “Easy”, “Strenuous” and “Taxing” – you take your pick! I found it hard on my knees and hips as it is an unrelenting downward climb over sometimes slippery ground and at all times uneven.

As the weather on the days we did our trips was cloudy on the tops, we didn’t get to see the best views but judging by the photos and other peoples’ experiences, they are worth seeing, and those we did see were breathtaking. If you hire a car, the driver will NOT be able to see the views as he/she will be concentrating too much on the roads! I thought NZ roads were winding and hilly, but these left them standing! They are very rough once you get away from the main areas and the edges are breaking away on some. The buses are great although we’re sure some of the drivers have death wishes, but there don’t appear to be many recorded accidents with buses. Everyone seems to drive in a good tempered way and are used to giving way to other traffic, and pedestrians in towns.

The paths in many of the places we saw have these small mosaic patterns laid in basalt and limestone – these get very slippery when wet, even on the flat.

The gardens are many and varied, but the cost of entrance can be high, as I said for Palheiro. In the spring and summer, they’re probably wonderful, but in January they were rather uninspiring even though the books say there is colour all year. Yes, there is some colour – bouganvilla was flowering, the strelitzias are everywhere and flowers we only see in certain seasons were blooming together, but it wasn’t as colourful as I’d hoped.

There are very few beaches, in fact the only one we saw was small, although we’re told there are a couple of others, so it’s not a seaside holiday destination. We saw very little for children or teenagers although there were a few families in our hotel. We met people who return to the island many times so obviously enjoy it very much, but we felt it was not somewhere we would return to. It’s also quite expensive to eat out and certainly to drink. Even local wine was not to be found under £4 a bottle in shops and in one very average restaurant we paid 18 euros for a bottle of house red! The same bottle in a different restaurant the following night was half the price.

So that’s it! Been there, done that, NOT bought the T-shirt, but we’re home in one piece. Hope you’ve got something out of our “blog” and no doubt, well find somewhere else to write about in the future.
Bye for now!