Fun in Funchal

We are landing in places with no idea of what to expect. Docking in Funchal, I can't believe we haven't heard of this place before - it is just incredible! There is so much to do here – the cable car, the wicker basket toboggan ride down the hill, fishing villages, Reid’s Palace hotel...a day does not seem long enough. On walking to the cable car we saw a yellow bus doing a ‘hop on hop off’ tour. We have seen the Red Bus in lots of different cities before but resisted. This time we decide, 'what the heck let’s catch it'. Funchal is breathtaking. I briefly fantasise about, one day, buying a little apartment and living here for a while (the real estate is very reasonably priced by Australian standards; new apartments with glorious views for well under two hundred thousand Aussie dollars).

Despite it being mid January everywhere we go Christmas decorations are still up and floppy Santa's hanging over balconies. We see an old man on his balcony fussing with tinsel around a Christmas tree. Frank comments, ‘Looks like someone in Europe has finally got around to taking down their Christmas tree'. I add, ‘…or maybe he’s just lazy and he’s just got around to putting it up.’ An hour and a half of amazing scenery later we miss our stop at Reid’s Hotel and decide to stay on the bus for another round trip. This time the bus takes a different, scarier route; travelling up narrow, steep, steep roads with sheer drops, other equally large busses coming towards us…this travelling thing can be hairy!

We miss our stop again, knew where it was, just had no button to press to request the driver stop. We end up walking back to Reid’s, a regal hotel with one of the most amazing outlooks I have ever seen and its history seeps out of the walls. Last year Reids celebrated it's 120th birthday ( Franks jokes, 'it should be on the cruise').

Lunch for all of us was very reasonable but I think we have the Euro/AUD exchange rate to thank for that. After lunch we slowly made our way back to the ship. I pick up a local paper, in English and it has a couple of fabulous jokes in it (smutty and totally politically incorrect). Frank has a good laugh at them and I say ‘You’d never get away with those in the West Australian’. Back on board the ship I get a text message from my Mum to be alert because a Cruise is sinking off Italy. Little did we know about what was unfolding.