CABLE CARS AND MORE ON DAY 4


 A Prayer for those affected by coronavirus.

Keep us, good Lord,
Under the shadow of your mercy.
Sustain and support the anxious,
Be with those who care for the sick,
And lift up all who are brought low;
That we may find comfort
Knowing that nothing can separate us from your love
In Christ Jesus our Lord.
DAY 4 MONDAY

Today looks a bit overcast, but no worries! The temperature looks a very respectable 17C. The usual good breakfast, served by kind staff for whom nothing seems to be too much trouble. We get through as quickly as we can so that we can take the hotel minibus down to the sea front, near the harbour. We get down there about 10.15 and a short walk along the sea front brings us to the cable car station, where we buy tickets, but not before we are accosted by touts trying to persuade us to go with them in their hire car to the top. They are very persuasive and a little bit cheaper! But they are unlicensed and best avoided. So we buy our return tickets and very soon are in our cable car which takes us on a hair rising ride over the roof tops of Funchal, higher and higher until we reach the top station. From here it is a short walk to a small tropical garden, and also it is possible to make the return journey in a street basket sledge where “pilots”?! steer you down the streets to the bottom in the most hairraising journey of all time!  We did this on our first visit when we were considerably younger and fitter and is heartily to be recommended for the thrill seekers!

But that is not what we’ve come for today. We are off to the Botanical Gardens which is a bit of a trek, mostly downhill on a cobbled footway to a second cable car which takes us a shorter distance down another valley to the Botanical Gardens. We go inside and enjoy a real feast of colour. Its warm and there are plenty of places to stop, sit and enjoy, which we do for an hour or so before finding the café for a coffee and sandwich, before returning to the cable car to take us back to the top where we then have an uphill trek to the main cable car to take us back to the waterfront. I love cable cars as they are so eerily quiet as they swish through the air, giving
you time to peer down at people’s homes and be unobtrusively nosey!  The ride is over far too quickly, but we find somewhere for a cup of tea before seeking out a taxi back to the hotel.  Licensed Taxis by the way are all bright yellow, most of them are elderly Mercedes, so comfortable and roomy, and cheap. If you don’t want to hire a car A ride back from the harbour to the hotel costs about 2 euros.
It’s been a long, tiring day for a couple of oldies, but a quick swim has refreshed us before we make our way to the dinner table (after, or course, sampling the hotels range of delightful cocktails!
Tomorrow is the Nun’s Valley

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