April 3, 2022 - Funchal, Madeira, Portugal

Our beautiful sunny weather and calm seas have deserted us.  It was very rainy when we arrived in Madeira.  In fact, Scott, the wildlife speaker, said it was the worst he had experienced in Madeira.  Great.

 

We had a driving tour that took us to several overlooks.  The first one was pretty fogged in but yielded some interesting photos. 

And we could see a bit of a nearby valley village.  And hear the church goers singing hymns (it is a Sunday), even though it was a long way down.  

We were able to see a bit of the island from lower levels of the drive.

One stop was to take us to the top of the tallest cliffs in Europe (and second tallest in the world)...Cabo Girão at 1,900 feet.  However, per a Google, it appears that height and “cliff” is all in the definitions.  Regardless, the cliffs are extremely high.  Unfortunately, it was so bad that no one got out of the bus except one person needing to use the bathroom.  And the cliffs were totally hidden in the clouds.

We also got a nice view of the small harbor and colorful boats. 

We were back on board for a late lunch.  Everyone we talked with enjoyed the island but pretty much all got soaked and were frozen through.  The island does appear very pretty (what we could see of it) and would be worth another visit if we could time it for good weather.