Today an all day tour of the west of the island The mini bus picked us up at 9am. We were lucky to be first so we had choice of seat. Most of the other passengers were French. We had mixed weather, on the Funchal side it was again warm and sunny but as we crossed to the other side it became cloudier and cooler and at one point it rained. The first part of took in parts we had already visited. However, we continued along the coast to Ribo Brava before crossing ove...

After a bus ride into town, on another warm sunny day, we caught another local bus for an exciting ride to the Botanical Gardens. These were much more interesting than yesterday's with many colourful flowers still in bloom. Also the slopes didn't seem to be quite as steep. In the afternoon we donned our "posh" clothes and headed for "Reid's" hotel for their cream tea experience! Wedgewood china, silver cutlery, a variety of finger sandwiches without crusts etc, i...

Another lovely sunny day. Walked along the promenade to catch the cable car up to Monte. However a very long queue so we decided to catch the local bus up the mountain which was far more interesting ! We looked round the church and then visited the tropical gardens. These were extensive and had some nice water features. However, being winter there were very few flowers so they were rather boring, also they were built into the side of the mountain which was ok goi...

Hopped on a bus to Camera de Lobos, a picturesque fishing village. We changed buses and went to Caba Ciero the highest cape in Europe with a drop of 550m. There was a glass platform we could walk on see down. Back to the fishing village and lunch on the quay. Back to the hotel and made a reservation the "famous cream tea" at Reids.