We woke late......10.00 am…so spent a quiet morning sorting a few things and bought tickets for the tour bus which is a Hop on,. Hop off bus. We had some problem finding the bus stop as there are different stops depending on whether you bought tickets for the yellow or red bus.

Walk ing some distance up the road. to the bus stop, we passed craft shops, enjoyed wonderful views across to Reid's Palace and out to sea, and of course the ever stunning, colourful tropical gardens.

The bus  wound round the hills giving   birdseye views of the houses and their courtyards filled with pots of colour,  en route to  Camara de Lobos  - the famous fishing village where Winston Churchill apparently used to retreat to to paint Although the village itself was a little disappointing after similar villages we have visited. It was pretty....but perhaps a little over hyped.  Fishing boats dotted the small harbour and cafes, restaurants and shops hugged the cliff surrounding the bay.

There was a Soundshell on the foreshore and we were entertained by the performers having a practice run and sound check for what we assumed would be the evening entertainment.

As you can see, the hillside behind was covered in bananas and grapes. Camara de Lobos is the main wine growing region in the south of the island.

After a wander, we settled for a simple salad at outdoor tables,  overlooking the bay,  before taking the bus back. to Funchal. We stayed on the whole trip getting off at Blandy’s, but the wine tour we hoped to do was not on. Their wine tasting is rather expensive, so in preference we bought a 4 bottle sample pack to try ourselves at our leisure.

We had another  pleasant happy hour sipping pina coladas...yum! Then we tried dinner next door. We both went for the Espetada Beef skewers  with a huge salad, polenta, potatoes how you wanted....chips, sauteed or boiled, and sweet potato and were not disappointed. This time the meat was threaded onto the real laurel skewers.  We had the house wine which was actually a whole bottle and was very good!

After a rest at the Market Cafe we  wandered along to the Madeira Story Centre and had a quick look through – this is where you can learn the history of the island with interactive displays.

Next we went to Blandy’s Wine Center where we used our bus tickets for a free tasting. We started with a medium dry Madeira......5 years old which  was very pleasant and not too sweet. After  booking tickets for the tour we sat in the Jardim Sao Francisco Park just across a narrow road until 2 .00pm when the tour started.

The tour was extremely  interesting and informative. The wines are labelled by age and if white by the grape variety… but all red grapes are the same Tinto Nero. If it was a good year it will be marked with a letter.

We set off for Mercado dos Lavradores - the Farmers Market, by bus, which saved the feet as we knew it would be a long day with heaps of walking.

Fruit, vegetables,  flowers, embroidery, local woodware ...all were piled high on stalls set around the edge of the building with the fruit in the middle, beautifully displayed. There was an abundance of tropical fruits.

Day Two and we're feeling more refreshed . We did a heap of walking down through Funchal to the old town. We wandered through  the now famous street of “ 100 doors “ where artists were invited to paint a door. This was a really great idea. It was a way of improving the old town and attracting visitors to the area. Each door is an artwork in it’s own right and there are so many different themes and styles. The old cobbled streets have colourful flags draped across in criss cross style, and there is a good choice of restaurants to choose from.

It was rather an arduous trip from Marrakech to Madeira with two plane trips and a 5 hour stop in Lisbon. We had ended up on TAP the Portuguese airline, maybe we could have flown direct but almost certainly for a more expensive airfare.

Arriving late at night, the taxi driver drove like a bat out of hell with virtually no other traffic, over mountain roads and through numerous tunnels clinging to the cliff edges, which were a surprise. Tunnels at home seem to be so expensive to build they become a major talkfest causing much angst usually for a very short tunnel,  yet here on Madeira they have dozens, and some are quite long. I thought Portugal was a relatively poor country.....yet ( you will read more about this later), their whole roading system is one to be envied!