Funchal, Madeira, Day 1

May 14^th, 2024

On our visit to Funchal in January we spent a wonderful day exploring the island with my friend Ruth and her husband Joseph. Unfortunately Ruth and Joseph are not in Funchal at the moment, so we were left to our own devices.

We decided to take the cable car up to the Monte Palace Tropical Gardens. From the upper cable car station, you can also take an additional cable car to the extensive Botanic Gardens, but we decided to leave that for another visit. It turned out to be a good decision as that cable car wasn’t running due to the high winds.

The shuttle bus from the ship took us very close to the Funchal cable car station.

We had been warned that the queues for the cable car could be long, and they were right. After waiting to get tickets we were finally in the line to take the cable car,

but when we eventually got into the building, there was another wait to get to the cable car.

Finally we boarded the 6 person car for our 15 minute ride over Funchal to the Monte station.

Up we climbed over the blooming jacaranda trees

red roof tops

and abandoned buildings

looking back down at our little ship in the distance.

It is a short walk to the Monte Palace gardens

The gardens are on the hillside, and we decided that we wouldn’t see all of the gardens as it would be a long walk back up to the top again. We would just focus on the upper levels.

We were delighted to see Zimbabwean stone sculptures in a display called African Passion.

This may not have been the best time of the year for seeing colourful flowers, but there was certainly a lot to see.

My favorite part was the oriental garden

Despite our plan not to go all the way down to the lowest level of the garden it was so enticing, we gradually made our way down, loving the sights we saw on our way.

We had a good view of Queen Anne as we sat on a bench drinking a pina colada.

Unfortunately the orchids were beyond their prime, but there were still some magnificent specimens there

There were even swans and flamingos.

It was a magical place, and before we knew it we were right at the lowest level of the garden. It was a steep walk back up to the cable car again, but with all of the beautiful greenery around us, we didn’t mind. It had taken us most of the day to see the garden, and it was time very well spent.

You can take the cable car back down to Funchal, or if you are more adventurous, you can go part of the way in a wicker toboggan. Although this sounded like a lot of fun, we  decided to play it safe and ride in the cable car.

Of course as soon as we got into the cable car, I regretted my decision. Oh well, now I have an excuse to come back to Funchal again so I can ride in the toboggan.

We got another good look at Queen Anne as we rode down to the Funchal station.

Ruth had recommended a couple of restaurants to us and we went to check them out and decide where we wanted to go to dinner.

One was in a fort – Restaurante do Forte. The restaurant looked interesting, and was in a lovely setting, but when we walked to the other restaurant, Armazen do Sal, the menu posted on the wall of the alley where the restaurant was situated had just what we were looking for, so Armazen was the chosen one.

We then took the shuttle bus back to the ship, and met up with friends who were joining us for dinner.

Armazen do Sal was lovely, with beautiful old beams. I was happy with our choice.

However, when we looked at the menu it looked very different to the one posted on the wall outside of the restaurant. When we questioned this, we discovered that the menu we saw was the one for the restaurant on the other side of the alley to Armazen do Sal. Sure enough when we left the restaurant, the Armazen do Sal menu was posted on the wall next to the other restaurant. One could be easily confused.

Anyway, I had a very tasty mushroom risotto – although not particularly Portuguese. Yet another reason to come back here and try the restaurant across the alley.

We had a lovely evening out with friends, I do like it when the ship has an overnight stay in port, you really get to do so much more.

Brian had a Zoom call at 10:00 PM, so on getting back to the ship he returned to our stateroom, and our friends and I went to the Commodore Club for a night cap. We were surrounded by the twinkling lights of Funchal. It was so pretty. Yes staying late in port or having a overnight visit is a really good thing!

Another good think id Cunard chocolates on you bed in the evenings 🙂