Monday
We had tried to check in online the night before, but it kept giving us an error, I tried last thing before bed and again in the morning, still no luck so we would have to check in when we got there. Stuart had kindly let me charge the car overnight, and after a cup of tea and a chat we set off to the airport. We parked up and jumped on a bus to the terminal where I missed the electronic check-in place and we queued up for 50 minutes to check in in person with a grumpy person, So much for British Airways.
We grabbed a coffee and a cake before boarding and had a pretty smooth flight to Funchal. We had booked a transfer to the hotel and met a nice couple on the way who gave us some good hints. We checked in the hotel and we’re very pleased with our room as it has a lovely view up to the mountains with a little patio outside next to lush greenery of the garden near the pool.
We went up to the restaurant for our buffet dinner. Just before we went Sue had been reading the reviews most of which for five star apart from some people who hated the buffet… I like the hotel I like the room but I agree with them about the buffet. So there will not be any pictures of food from there.
The hotel Wi-Fi is pretty good and as I brought my laptop and an HDMI cable we are able to watch all of our favourite telly as we slob about in the evening, as getting chilled in the bar is not really an option.
Tuesday
We had a very slow start to the day. Breakfast in the hotel was followed by chilling on the terrace with Dave editing a rope flow video and me reading and relaxing.
(Dave) I was quite excited to try eSIM’s out. I was thinking it would be great to be able to keep your UK number and just use data on a Portuguese eSIM, lo and behold you can do exactly that. Very exciting. Also, the 5G coverage here is three times faster than anything I’ve ever seen in the UK, I do not understand why our data networks are so rubbish.
We then strolled down the hill into Funchal, being assaulted on the way by hard sellers trying to get us to sign up for their tours. He was so annoying that we now cross the road to the other side when we walk along that stretch.
We went as far as the cathedral and then found a nice little restaurant in a nearby backstreet called Fernando’s. Dave had sardines and I tried the typical Espetada meat skewer and we shared cod croquetas to start.
We then sorted back via the front with massive cruise ships in the distance and then cut up through Santa Catarina park. As we had not had any pudding, we had some Brazilian natas and a very nice coffee.
We got back to the hotel room and chilled out and went for a small dinner at the buffet.
