Cable cars, gardens and toboggans

Another day and more cloud. Our bad run of holiday weather looks set to continue for at least another day, although there is hope that the sunshine might be along tomorrow. Having explored the centre of Funchal yesterday, we were keen today to visit the gardens high up on the outskirts of town. But we needed a head for heights...

Several years ago whilst in Vienna, we did what many tourists do and visited the big wheel made famous in the novel The Third Man. The pods were little more than wooden sheds which swayed erratically and then stopped altogether for 10 minutes part-way round and Carole was petrified.

Ever since then she has steadfastly refused to leave solid ground (except by plane), so I was taken aback when she said she'd risk the 15 minute journey to the gardens at Monte via the cable car.

It's fair to say that our journey up to the gardens wasn't full of conversation, and the colour had drained from her face by the time we got to the top. And having reached the top, we would eventually have to make the reverse journey down again (unless we took the toboggan ride, which will be explained later).

Having recovered sufficiently from our journey uphill, we walked up the road to the gardens entrance and then inside. Maybe it was the threat of rain, but the gardens, whilst very pleasant, didn't live up to their billing in the brochures. The paths had become slippy in the drizzle and the slope of the land made exploring hard work, but more than this there simply wasn't very many flowers to see - just lots of trees and foliage.

The gardens had a strong east asian feel, with an impressive array of Chinese terracotta soliders near the entrance and a pergola set in a Japanese garden complete with coi carp.

On the way back uphill we explored the main lake in the garden, where the water cascades down impressively over a walkway. Whilst there we encountered a bride and groom, who were being photographed in a number of settings throughout the gardens.









On leaving the gardens, we walked a little further to visit the church at Monte, famous these days for being the starting point of the Monte toboggan ride downhill into Funchal. We'd been watching tourists hurtling down the streets bordering the gardens earlier and weren't inspired to give this a go - the two guys 'steering' the toboggan at the back didn't look at all in control and it made the cable car feel like a much better option!

Whilst descending back to Funchal via the cable car, the clouds were starting to lift and the sun finally began to shine. With the improved weather to spur us on, we headed straight for the open-topped bus nearby and took the tour around the city. The tour took us through the old and new city, past the historic Blandy's wine shop and the harbour, then up out to the west of the city to a wonderful viewpoint at Pico Dos Barcelos, not far from the sea yet over 1000ft high.


At night, after enjoying cocktails in the hotel bar, we headed out but away from the town centre and in less than 100yds from the hotel, found a number of excellent restaurants to choose from. We opted for a chinese banquet in keeping with the oriental theme from the gardens earlier and enjoyed an excellent meal to round off the day.