Funchal – day 4

The days fly by when on holiday don’t they? It is hard to believe we only have 2 more full days here. Day 4 was, as it often is in new places, the one where we applied the knowledge gained so far, sprinkled that with a little serendipity and went with our instincts. Today’s main plan was always going to be the other big garden in Funchal – the Jardim Botanico. Again it is up in the hills but this time access by bus through, it has to be said, some very (very) narrow streets and at high speeds! We walked down into Funchal, caught the local bus (the fare a massive €1.95 each) and arrived before the coach tours & crowds did.

The garden was full of delights really and also was a great vantage point for some fantastic civil engineering – the roads, bridges, tunnels, etc. are just breathtaking

One of the delights of travel is the huge variety of what forms a official botanical garden and this was an excellent approach – a lot of clever planting, an almost intuitive route round and some surprises along the way (buying ferry tickets up a hill is a new one on me)

The lake mentioned above by the way wasn’t all it was cracked up to be – see the next photo!

There was also a little surprise – those weren’t rocks but terrapins or turtles or something.

The garden was lovely and we just happened to arrive at the bus stop in advance of the 31A back down to Funchal – an even more hair raising journey down the hill (again at great speed). Once back in Funchal we meandered around some new(to us)” back streets, found an excellent café where hot drinks were taken and then set off to seek out lunch. The food in Funchal has been (a) overwhelming (massive portions) and (b) uninspiring so hopes weren’t high. This is where serendipity & instinct kicked in – we were heading towards a recommended place and passed an Italian place. We both liked the look of it but continued on to the original target. By then we had both decided – Italian it was! We went back, got a table inside and ordered. As we did and sipped on our wine it became clear that this place – a little off the beaten track – was very much a locals kind of place. The service was brilliant, well organised and friendly Italian style and the food was very good.

After lunch we walked a short distance to the park we have seen several times and parked ourselves on a bench to watch people browsing the craft market. On our way back to the hotel we ‘accidentally’ fell into the patisserie again and then tripped over the step into the wine shop. I am on our balcony having a glass while I write this.

We have no idea what we will be doing tomorrow and don’t intend to plan much of anything at all. Sunday we know will be a quiet one as most places will be shut.