Funchal - Blipmeet at last!

We were surprised to wake to a sunrise and bright skies after a bit of drizzle last night. A lovely sunny day feeling very hot.

Had breakfast by the pool and then set off to walk down into the old town and the Cathedral quarter.

Walked through Parque de Santa Catarina again where Chris took this picture of me above the Marina with the town in the back ground. You can see the tower of the Cathedral to the left above my head. Saw my second Monarch butterfly here - extra but the open wing shot I took was out of focus as it took off and this one was in the shade.

It’s funny how we remember some things but not others from 40 years ago. We remember Blandy’s but not the cathedral!
Made a good start to our wandering by calling in at Blandy’s for a tasting of Madeira wine. We tried sweet, medium dry and dry.
The medium dry had it for us and we ordered some for collection at the airport.

We went into the cathedral but didn’t stay very long as a service was starting at 11.00 am. The rich gold decorations was tempered by the white surrounding walls and the dark moorish style knot work ceiling.

Our next stop was the market which we certainly remember though I think there were more ladies dressed in costume selling flowers last time. What hadn’t changed was the wonderful fish market. I think this was the first place I’d seen fresh tuna being sold looking like huge joints of beef.

Since we were here there has been developed a street of Art Open Doors. The Rue Santa Maria in the Zona Vehla, old town, features some amazing street art on the old doors of shops and cafes. Too many to feature here but I did send the one in the extra of a mermaid to Eda. A great idea to build up a slightly run down area and attract people to use the businesses here.

A return to our hotel before the highlight this afternoon, a blip meet with Orchid 99 who is one of my longest standing followers. She took us to a wonderful bakery just across the road for coffee and local cakes. We will be returning there!
We had a great chat and found we had a lot of shared background.
 She has her apartment just across from us in a hotel that shares facilities with ours so we adjourned to her place for a glass of wine or two which was most kind of her. 

She has posted a lovely Monarch butterfly for her blip today. 
Hope fully we will see her again before we leave.

What a great first day of our holiday.