Funchal is the biggest town of Madeira and its centre was about six kilometers from our hotel which was walkable distance. There are many restaurants, shopping areas, museums and parks where you can spend lovely time. The only thing is that this town is a little bit noisy now, because they are building many hotels and block of flats everywhere. That was one of the reasons why to stay in a hotel in a quiet and peacefull place away from the town.
One way how to get known some part of this beautiful island is to go for a bus trip and travel across the mountains and along the coast. We saw so many beautiful things, untouched nature, traditional houses, completely different land in the north part and in the south. Once you go up through the layer of clouds after the forest, mountains appear before your eyes and you feel like in a paradise.
Since we planned to celebrate our wedding properly, we oganized barbecue one day before our big day. We started to drink as well to be in a good condition for the next day (i’m joking :) ). My lovely aunt took charge of preparing the meat (she is really good in it), but we couldn’t find the matches so Andrej’s father helped her with the fire (in not very traditional way, as you can see below, but it really worked).
We went out on a day trip to Poseidon gardens in the middle of the week. We were little bit afraid of the hot termal water in the swimming pools in such a warm weather and we had also sunburn more than it’s appropriate in the hot water :) We had concern about the weather when we saw first time the only hill on the island covered with the grey clouds in the morning, but after breakfast, swimming in the pool and reading on the sun beds we set off for the trip towards the Citara beach and Poseidon gardens.
You can make as many trips as you want on this island and you will still find some other places where to go. I can say that one week is not long enough for it. If you like hiking you need to see the vulcan which is responsible for all the thermal springs around the island. The name of the vulcan is Monte Epomeo and it is still active but it is not seen outwardly (except the springs).
We finally found the right place for our honeymoon. It is a wonderful tiny island in Atlantic Ocean, which belongs to Portugal. The island of Madeira is lapped by the waters of the Gulf Stream, so there is nice warm weather. There are beautiful botanic gardens, mountains and views of the ocean and many nice people with their own traditions. We spent there wonderful time in a hotel on a seaside near Funchal the biggest town of Madeira.
Here are our wedding announcements. The green one for boys and the pink version for girls :) Translation: We like each other, so we are simply getting married. 16th of August 2008 at 4pm in Virgin Mary’s roman catholic church in Senica (Slovakia).
After a long decision making we decided to stay in this hotel. We booked it even in a sale through the travel agency so the price was really good. After arriving to the hotel we met a nice lady at the reception, who was willing to explain us, where is our room, when the time for the breakfast and dinner is and she also gave us a little key from the gate to short private path towards the beach.
This is the town were we lived in a wonderful hotel Corona, which we can only recommend. It is said to be the most visited place by tourists on the island. It has several beaches (we saw and tried all of them), nice centre, several churches and countless streets, which are worth walking. This town is also famous by wine production and amazing thermal park Poseidon gardens.The most famous church is Soccorso’s church devoted to Santa Naria delle Neve, which can be seen in the movie Avanti!
We spent a wonderfull week in Italy last summer. We decided to get known an evergreen thermal island Ischia and people who live there. We tasted several food specialities and relish thermal spa with plenty of thermal springs and swimming pools. The sun was shining, a pleasant wind was blowing when we rest on the beach and we felt like in paradise.This picturesque island could be also characterized by huge lemons and sweet grapes, which we tried several times.