I'll just continue right where I left off last time...
Tuesday, Aug 10
We took an early shuttle to Funchal and boarded a catamaran to try our luck at seeing some dolphins or whales. Unfortunately all we saw was a lonely sea turtle. When we got back to the hotel, we chilled by the pool for a few hours. In the evening we had some drinks at the hotel bar then played some ping pong and billiards.
Wednesday, Aug 11
This was definitely the most exhausting day of the trip. We went on our own excursion by bus to the town Caniçal (not to be confused with the town our hotel was in Caniço), then hiked to the Eastern most tip of the island called Ponte de São Lourenço. You can see from linked map that Google maps is not very accurate for Madeira which proved quite frustrating when trying to find street names or restaurants in Funchal. The hike lasted all day, from around 9 to 4:30 and after we got back to the hotel, it was the most satisfying swim of the whole trip. We were pretty dusty and tired so it felt fantastic to jump in the pool then just lay in the sun for a bit. Then we went to the hotel's free steam bath and sauna for further relaxation. That night we stayed in and mixed our own cocktails since we found the hotel bar overly expensive. We determined everything in the hotel was overpriced compared to a bakery and bar right outside resort's walls.
Thursday, Aug 12
We took a shuttle to Funchal for our last day because Marlene wanted especially to visit Reid's Palace for a coffee or afternoon tea. We decided we were feeling lethargic so we went there right away for a coffee. The place was magnificent on the inside, if you scan through the history page on their website you'll see they've entertained guests like Winston Churchill and Gregory Peck. We wandered aimlessly around Funchal for the rest of the day. I halfheartedly attempted to find soccer-related sights so we went to a spot on the map marked Estadio which turned out to be a pretty pathetic looking pitch. It definitely didn't belong to one of Funchal's two Portuguese first division clubs. Then we shuttled back to the hotel and relaxed with some reading, some cocktails, and later packed up our bags.
Friday, Aug 13
Ooooh scary, Friday the 13th... Luckily our plane didn't crash and nothing unlucky happened. We made it back to Vienna and back to the apartment to assess the damage. We hadn't seen it since my brothers and friends who were staying there returned to the USA. It was better than I'd been expecting but it wasn't tidy enough for Marlene's standards so we've spent the last couple days cleaning it thoroughly and doing a lot of laundry. I'm very relieved that it's all finished including Marlene's Ikea wardrobe which had been sitting in an unfinished state for almost a month. I wouldn't say I'm as happy as her that it's complete though, I bet she'll have written something about it on Facebook by the time I'm done writing this.
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