Funchal

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira.  An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed.  First of all the weather is really splendid.  Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds..  Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm.   

Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs.   In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill.  It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town -  completely over everybody's house...  So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty backyards....

We got off the cable car and mooched around the top of the hill we decided not to go to the Botanic gardens but just to enjoy the fantastic view right across the bay and the city.   We could even see the boat In the distance. You can descend the hill in a 'tobogan'.. We watched a few people be launched down the road in what looked like  over sized whicker laundry baskets on wooden runners - apparently its quite a bit slower now as it used to be a shiny cobbled road but now its tarmac. Each basket has a seat for two and is accompanied by a couple of drivers / steerers...  It did look like quite good fun I think next time we come to Funchal we might try it. 

We took the cable car back down and walked through town - deciding it was a coffee time and as usual Fred and I can never quite decide where to go but eventually we settled on a nice coffee in a market square type place.  So nice to sit in the sun knowing its January... after a reviving coffee we then we headed for the gardens that we'd seen from the boat. They were gloriously verdant and still had loads of vibrantly coloured shrubs growing... And all this is in glorious warm sunshine - don't want to rub it in like,  but it's really nice and warm and I'm just wandering around in a t-shirt and cotton trousers...  We sat in the gardens for a bit and then we headed off to The Mordern Art Gallery known as MAMMA. 

This art gallery was weird! Good weird - It was a very interesting space and it was a very interesting exhibition.  We hadn't realised but just about all of the paintings bar maybe six were by the same person... it was more like a private exhibition. It was very evident when you got there because they all looked the same and they were all kind of where weird semi-abstract, over painted, similar style - quite likley not everyones taste but they made for interesting figures.  I' m still thinking about it - which is a good thing I think...  I really like the way it was set out.. It was a very me kind of exhibition - A very 'slam it in Rubystarrs' look. 

Lots of colour, some collage,  Basically quite mad and very off the wall - its used as a music and performance venue.... (But most importantly We have Lays crisps.. at this point Dr Fred entered the room and the voice recorder got that last bit🤣🤣🤣)

A very thought provoking exhibition both in content and presentation.

After that we needed wine - and really what can be better than sitting outside the bar in the sunshine in the park drinking red wine. 

Did I mention it was sunny......