Funchal - Gardens, Food Market and Wine Tasting

Today we had an excursion.  We started by climbing very high (in a coach - some amazing tight and very steep bends in the road - glad I wasn't driving) and a the top were the Botanical Gardens.,,,, just beautiful

The drive up

and first views of the gardens

One of many incredible road building achievements

 And then, onto the Food Market - never seen such a selection of fruit and vegetables. Mostly locally grown

Then a wander through the old part of the town,,,  Once neglected it was decided to smarten it up to attract tourist.. and many of the house doors are now painted with pictures. 

The oxen below is pulling a Madeira wine barrel on a sledge.  Before the roads were built an before there were brakes on carts, it was much safe to pull the wine casks on sleds to stop then rolling down the  steep hills and losing them

And into to taste some Madeira - we sampled MerdiumDry, Medium Sweet and Sweet. The sweet I declined - far too sweet for me

Some of the bottles date back to the late 1800s.. and are still drinkable.. could cost you about £500 per bottle though!

After this the coach was taking everyone back to the hotel.  I decided to go in search of lunch and spent the afternoon having a leisurely wander through a different part of the town

Adding the Christmas lights - a different aspect!!

Four huge cruise liners in today.. their size dwarfed almost everything near them!

And then back for a wander around the hotel... Fido hadn't come out today... he had a pool day it seems!!

Enjoying the view from the hotel garden wall..

Another incredible day and sunshine all day long.  This after a very very windy storm during the night - we were benefiting from catching the edge of a passing hurricane apparently.