Madeira Day 1 - Exploring Funchal

Direct BA flights to Funchal from Heathrow leave at stupid o' clock in the morning, which isn't ideal from the point of view of a good nights rest beforehand but does mean that you get there well before lunchtime and have more or less a whole day of holiday the same day as you arrive, which isn't always the case when  you go on holiday. Once we had arrived, unpacked and caught our breath, we decided to walk into Funchal, partly for a bit of an explore, and partly in search of lunch. 

Here are some pictures of some of the nicer bits. That's not to say that it isn't  mostly a charming town but it is busy and built up and you have to look harder here than in some other places for history and interest. But there's lots of green and some lovely buildings 

This last one needs some explanation. We were booked in on  a half board basis which included a buffet dinner, but we had the option to opt for an a la carte dinner in the hotel's sister establishment next door any night we liked.  We did that on the first night as the buffet was a Paella Special and given that I don't eat seafood and I'm not that keen on saffron rice it sounded a bit of a non-starter. We had a lovely dinner, and as always struggled with which dessert to choose. I opted for what was described as 'a small caramel cake with ice cream' and this is what I got. When you put a spoon in that thing in the middle that looks like a dumpling it oozed golden caramel. The whole thing was delicious.