Images: Faces and Places Visit to Funchal Island of Madeira (click on Images to enlarge)

Funchal was our next port of call, from the upper deck of the ship we watched the ship come along side the dock and we amazed to see so many Taxi's lined up below, We counted well over 80. Here we go again, the haggle and hassle started as we walked the line. prices started from euro 145 for 5 or 6 hours for the car to euro 20 per person for a similar amount of time.

We had walked by about fifty taxi's when one driver (who spoke English good) baled us up, he wanted our business and was prepared to pay for it. He showed us maps and photos of where he would take us and his price worked out at euro 20 per person that's if their was four of us, but, with only the two of us it all looked out of the question. As luck would have it Milo (as we called him) and his wife Anna, a couple who were first time cruises, that we had met in Cape Town as we were boarding the ship came along and were also interested, so we struck the deal. Anna loved flowers and we had seen pictures of the botanical gardens a decision was made to include a visit to the gardens for a extra euro 5 each. The Island of Madeira is very hilly and the gardens are situated high in the hills. The entry gate (euro 5 per person) is at the top and you wander through the gardens as you walk down following in a zig zag path. What a fantastic display of every kind of flower and plant you can think of. Just fabulous, you really need a day to look ,but, with limited time we only had one hour. Anna rattled the name of flowers and plants and just made all these sounds of joy as we walked through, it really made her day.

Back in the Taxi again and back down the hill the off up another hill to see Monte the church and the men with the sledges who take you for a white knuckle ride down the hill for euro 15 per person. Milo did say he would do it with me if I wanted to go, but, I was not sure if DU insure covered that activity so I said no. We then travelled through the Island to the second largest sea cliff in the world (were told the largest is in Japan) Once again a very interesting place to visit. They have built a viewing platform that juts out from the cliff face 580 meters above sea level it is made with a glass floor and takes some courage at first to step out on it, to my surprise Teresa was wandering around with not a worry in the world, she had her pano camera as was going to get some good shots.

we stopped at a few other viewing points and then a small fishing village for a look, here I noticed a cafe called Churchill and the driver told us that Winston Churchill spent a lot of time here painting and that the art he did here was worth a lot of money nowadays.

Back in the city area we left Milo and Anna to go and buy wine while we had a look around the place then headed back to the ship. yet another great day spent on a great Island.