The Porto Santo trip was fun. The ferry boat was pretty nice and took about 2 hours and 15 minutes to get to Porto Santo. Asnida got sea sick though so she went to sit down after a while and felt ill for the remainder of the boat trip. While I was happily walking around on the ship rocking in the waves out on open sea ;-)
It was raining on Friday night when we arrived but we just wanted to check in anyway and relax a bit. The Hotel Torre Praia is located right at the beach and in the city center so very convenient. We tried to book an island tour for Saturday morning but apparently the tour operator didn't have a driver or whatever so we booked it for Sunday morning.
Upon waking up on Saturday the weather seemed decent, cloudy but not too cold or too warm. So we decided to explore the city on foot. Since it's a small town we found ourselves walking to the airport soon. We went up a staircase outside the airport and noticed several photographers and a TV camera crew waiting for a plane to arrive. Five minutes after we got there the plane actually arrived and the passengers were welcomed by a group of people in traditional attire and dancing. We initially thought someone famous was on board but a colleague told me today that it was the first direct flight from Poland. Hence the special welcoming committee :-)
We walked back to the hotel to get some rest and after a while the sun came out so we decided to go for a walk on the 9 km long sandy beach. I should've eaten something prior to this but I didn't so I was starving and grumpy for a few hours. There weren't any places to get food along the beach once we got about 1 km from our hotel so we just kept walking and walking. Enjoying the scenery and walking into the waves with our feet.
Eventually after 1,5 or 2 hours we reached the end of the beach at Ponta da Calheta which is a beautiful end point and it also had a restaurant! So after some decent food and some rest we slowly started walking back to our hotel. In total we probably walked about 14 km (7 km x 2) from our hotel to Ponta da Calheta and back. In addition to the walk earlier in the day I estimate we walked around 20 km on Saturday!
We didn't go anywhere that night, we stayed in and watched the Champions' League final between Barcelona and Manchester United.
Sunday morning started out cloudy and a bit colder. While we were waiting for the tour guide to come pick us up it started to rain but fortunately it didn't last long. The island tour was quite nice and we visited several good high points with good views of the Porto Santo island. The tour ended at Ponta da Calheta from which we could actually see Madeira! The distance between the two island is about 50 km so on a good clear day you can see Madeira :-)
After the tour we went for a nice lunch at a place called restaurant Forno which also served rice with our meal so Asnida was happy. Afterwards we went shopping and bought some souvenirs, amongst others a bracelet for Asnida. Fortunately the hotel gave us another room to shower and get changed into other clothes even though we had already checked out in the morning. (Tour started at 10am, check out time was 12pm.)
Asnida made sure to take a pill to avoid getting sea sick again and she didn't move at all on the ferry boat trip back to Funchal haha. We arrived in Funchal around 9:15pm and it was slightly raining. The walk back home covered a short distance but was all uphill.
I think we watched "Mission impossible III" before falling asleep quickly.
Good times! (yes this is a hyperlink to the pics!!!)
Next thing we might do here is go dolphin/whale watching. If my thumb heals soon we can also drive around the island again and visit the aquarium and outdoor pools in Porto Moniz.
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