So we finally decided to go for a walk.  People keep telling us how lovely the walks are in Madeira but the main problem I have with them is that they are usually outside and inevitably involve hills.  I’m not a great walker for 3 main reasons 1) I have bad knees 2) I’m overweight […]

Ok, before we get started, lets do some Parish announcements – I know some of you also had birthdays yesterday and weren’t mentioned, but you never asked.  Quiet bairns get nowt, as Karen would say. – I have now fixed the previous blog titles so they read Day 1-9 (sorry Tessa, that was confusing having […]

Well dear reader I left you last night with some breaking news. When I was writing last night’s blog, the phone in the apartment went, which surprised us as we had forgotten that we had a phone.  It was our host who informed us that tonight was Fiesta night in Machico.  He suggested if we […]

The forecast for today was overcast and when we woke up the planes flying over our heads looked as though they were flying into a misty haze, so we decided that it was time to head off to Funchal.  We drove on the VR1, exited through the gift shop, and picked up our photo.  Karen […]

Apparently there is more to Madeira than the beach, so we decided that it was time to explore the centre and North of the island. As you know if you read day 2 blog we have a hire car.  So far though we have only really used it to get from the airport terminal building […]

Karen really loves the beach.  She grew up less that 5 miles from the beach and would spend many an hour there walking (other peoples) dogs and generally doing beachy stuff.  Admittedly this was Seaburn beach (the name derives from the effect that the wind that comes off the North Sea has on your face). […]

It’s fair to say that we are staying in a well weird place.  Nice, but well weird.  The apartment block we are staying in was obviously built in the 60’s, but its surrounded by overgrowth and you wouldn’t know it was here.   You know how on I’m a Celebrity, it looks like they are […]

You left us having just got settled into our apartment.  Our host had very kindly left us a bottle of wine and some bread, ham and snacks.  He also told us that that nearest supermarket was “10 minutes walk” away.  Now I have put “10 minutes walk” in speech marks, but can I suggest for […]

So we land.  Well it was a Boeing it was more of a thud followed by a shudder followed by being thrown back into our seats.  When will a Boeing ever be able to land like an Airbus?  Moan over.  We alighted (as that is what you do from a mode of transport.  What’s wrong […]

Hey, hey, Summer is finally here!  Bring on the long evenings, sitting in the garden, BBQ’s.  Oh hold on…apparently it’s the 2nd October.  I think I missed Summer.  Still today is the first day of my Summer holiday and according to all the fashionable magazines October is the new July.  Just to explain I have […]