Three pints of lager and a packet of crisps

Friday actually started with me visiting - and using the Gym - where I managed to run off sufficient calories to enable me to have a second rasher of bacon with my breakfast!

It was yet another hot day and we decided to do a little more exploring in and around Funchal. We took the courtesy bus from the hotel into the centre of Funchal - (where the driver seemed to take the "alternative" route!) and then went in search of the local market -Mercado dos Lavrodores. The market was truly "local" with wonderful traditional produce - fruit, vegetables, flowers and fish - being sold to locals and visitors alike. The fish market was amazing, especially the razor-sharp teeth and large staring eyes of the scabbard fish and the hugh tuna fish being gutted and filleted with consumate ease by the local fishermen.

After the market we went on the cable car (14 Euros round trip) to Monte where the we visited the Monte Palace Tropical Gardens set out in 6 hectares (whatever a hectare is) of the hillside - very impressive!

However before (and after) visiting the gardens, we found a small bar at the top of the cable car and decided to have two lagers. Teresa almost had a small altercation with the woman behind the bar where she tried to haggle over the price of the beer. The woman was trying to charge 3 Euros for both beers, Teresa was trying to pay 3 Euros for each, and she can be quite insistent. Eventually, Teresa gave in and we sat in the sun, enjoying fantastic views over Funchal drinking our beer and I sat pondering how cheap it was in comparison with our hotel. (Where we pay about 8 Euros for two (small) beers - and the more we drink, the happier we are to do so!!) I was able to work out - although the alcohol may have started to impede the operation of my brain cells - that if we sat and drank 3 pints of lager (and ate a packet of crisps) each, we would have saved sufficient to pay for the cable car, when compared with the amount that we would have been charged in the hotel. Well here goes.....

On returning to Funchal later we visited the Cathedral and then a wine lodge. Possibly should have done that in reverse order - (with a quick visit to the "Confessional") - before returning the hotel where Teresa had a long swim in the sea, and I had a short splash in the pool.

We then had a visit to the sauna/steam room/spa before an evening meal - seafood buffet of every kind of sea food you could imagine....I wonder if the Gym is still open?