My plan was to get to the Cable Car as early as possible to avoid the queue, but that was impossible because of all the crowds from the cruise ship and other pre-booked tours. I saw that Mein Schiff had gone and been replaced by another, called Aida. They both had about 10 decks and 100’s of tiny balconies.
View of the ship from the Cable Car:
I found a better view on the website:
We reached the top of the mountain without incident and I went straight to the Monte Palace Garden. I had been advised by an English girl that this was the best garden to visit, rather than Funchal Botanic Garden (which required another Cable Car ride, and had not so much in bloom just yet).
Monte Palace Garden was not easy. Like everything in Madeira, it was all up and down and on winding stony paths. It was mostly downhill at first, and my worry was that I would have to climb up again. What goes down must come up. I should have brought my stick! But the sub tropical vegetation was worth all the hard slog:
And it was not just plants. We came to a large hall displaying minerals:
There was also a kind of open air art gallery, displaying examples of different styles of tiles through the ages. Tile work is a Portuguese specialty. Many of their buildings were clad in tiles to keep them cool.
Great excitement, especially from the little kids, as we came upon the flamingos, clacking and parading around to be photographed:
Finally, I came to the Blue Cafe, where I could fortify myself with a mug of coffee and a Portuguese Custard Tart, while admiring the view down to the Marina:
This beautiful flower was the first I spotted on the way back up: in the Laurissilva Garden:
There were numerous examples of Australian Tree Ferns:
Other examples of tile work showed events from Portuguese History, right from earliest times. This one was about Vasco da Gama’s voyage to India:
There most prolific flower by far were the rhododendrons:
Hooray, you made it. The geodes look fascinating.
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