Maderia

The first day on our Olives and Old Towns cruise was a day at sea which was a great way to familiarise ourselves with Marella Explorer, our second day was in Maderia. 

Funchal is the capital of this Atlantic island and a beautiful location to dock. Our balcony cabin was shore side, one of my loves is being able to see ashore from our own room.

We previously visited Funchal on our Canary Island cruise. I'm not a cable car person so last time we wandered the town and visited Blandy's. This visit we decided to take one of the organised excursions inland to the Valley of the Nuns followed by a visit to the small fishing village Camara de Lobos.

The guide on the coach was brilliant, she told us all about the island and Funchal as we drove through the city. It's quite a steep place and doon got steeper with so many hairpin bends I do not know how our driver got round them. 

The view was stunning, high peaks surround a valley where nestled Curral das Freiras, the village of the nuns.

There was a steep walkway up to the highest peak, too many steps for me but Hubby walked up, I caught him coming down.

Our tour returned back down the twisty steep road, I would not have liked to drive it, before going through a tunnel to reach the village. It really was hidden in the valley with high peaks all around, it was amazing how high up we had been.

In 1462 João Ferreira and his wife Branca Dias settled here and records show the land passed to their granddaughter Branca. A few years later the land was sold to Captain-Donatorio who donated it to the Convent of Santa Clara and the area became known as the Valley of the Nuns. In the mid 1500s the nuns travelled from Funchal along the river bed to escape the French pirates who were attacking the island.

The church of Santa Clara was beautiful, quite small but highly decorated with amazing painted ceilings. Even with tourists wandering around it had a calming peaceful air, a lovely place.

Our tour's final stop was the small fishing village of Camara de Lobos. This was a favourite retreat of Winston Churchill, there's a statue of him painting the pretty harbour outside the Pestana Churchill Bay.

Everyone on our tour had a glass of Poncha, a Maderian traditional alcoholic drink. It's made from aguardente de cana (made from fermented sugarcane juice), honey, sugar and orange juice. 

It was a very unusual flavour, quite a mix of sweet and sour. It is always good to try local food and drink but I don't think I'll try this again.

We had a super day exploring more of Maderia, it's a beautiful island. The day we visited it was 18°C  with some cloud but it felt quite warm. 

One interesting fact as we cruised east from the Canary Islands to Greece was the change in sunset times ... especially as we changed our clocks twice too. 

In Maderia the sunset was 20.42 and we were still on uk summer time.