Madeira: Funchal - September 18

After a night's sleep uninterrupted by blinking lights, TV's coming on or any other electrical phenomenon, we were on the bus at 9:00 for a tour that included the cable car up to Monte, a sled ride down and a trip to botanical gardens / arboretum.

It was fun to go up to Monte again by cable car.  Once there we visited the church which this time was open. 

 

 

On the way to the church we passed a group of sled-men(?) playing cards.  We were hopeful that if playing for money the two men who would control our sled (and lives) had either won or at least were not despondent about losing. 

We boarded our sled, second in line in a  procession of ten.

The descent began with our two-man team getting the sled moving down the slope by pulling a rope attached to the front of each runner.  Once the sled was in motion, they hoped on a rung at the back of the sled, from there pushing with their feet to move the sled left or right as we zipped downhill. 

 

While the sled moved right along and rounding some turns required some skill by our handlers, in reality the sled ride was about as risky as Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at an amusement park.  This is not to say that it was not fun, because it certainly was a hoot.  And descending from Monte in Madeira is allegedly the only place in the world where you can experience this type of ride.

In years-of-yore the sled-men would carry the sleds from the bottom of the hill to the top on their back.  These days the sleds go onto a truck and the sled-men into a bus for the ascent.

Having thanked our handlers verbally and with a remuneration, we boarded the bus for the trip to the botanical gardens / arboretum. Once there, our first stop was a modest natural history display that if in name did not in fact rise to the level of museum. 

 

The thread of a sprinkle having passed while we were inside, we wandered around the gardens, arboretum and aviary. 

 

 

 

 

We returned to our hotel, concluding the half-day tour.  From here Pam & I headed out in search of some lunch.  We settled on The Deck at the Pestana Promenade Ocean Resort Hotel.  We had a number of inquisitive little lizards scurrying around by our table.  

 

 

  

We wandered back to the hotel, stopping for a gelato along the way.  Once there, we started preparations for decamping early tomorrow morning, breakfast being at 6:00 and the bus to the airport at 7:30.

This evening our entire group boarded the bus to go to an "authentic" Madeira dinner festival. It was the usual artificial, contrived tourist trap event.  When returned to the hotel, virtually the same show was going there.