Madeira Day 1:Exploring Funchal

Sunday
After a delicious breakfast at the hotel, we set out to explore Funchal, our hotel is very central, just a block away from the main square, shown in the main photo. I love the Portuguese traditional paving art of squares and pedestrian areas, with small pieces of black and white stone - you can see another example in extras. On the left of the main picture is the Igreja do Colegio, a Jesuit built church, and to the right is the town hall. Being a Sunday we couldn’t get in the church to see it properly, just have a peek from the back while a service was going on. From there, we walked on down to the waterfront, passing the cathedral on the way, and walked along there for quite a distance. This was where the Madeira sign was. We came across a fairly small but beautiful park, with a couple of painted benches - centre right. We then continued into the historic Zona Velma (Old Town), centered around the old cobbled Rua de Santa Maria, now lined with cafes and restaurants, and where local artist have painted many of the neighbourhood doors in a variety of subjects and styles. See extra) As you can see it was a beautiful day, and there are flowers and flowering shrubs everywhere! Late afternoon we headed back to the hotel, and went up to the rooftop bar for a drink before dinner.