We've now been in Madeira for two days. So far it has been really awesome!
Yesterday (Monday) morning we started with home school, then about 11.30 we got a taxi to the airport to hire a car. The airport is called Christiano Ronaldo International Airport after the footballer, who was born in Funchal.
Once we had the hire car, we drove to a little cafe above Funchal which had really nice views, and we saw two cats.
After lunch, we drove up into the mountains. We drove through the clouds and it got a lot colder. We arrived at a little cafe which had an Army radar station beside it. The view of the peaks and ravines was amazing, but we couldn't see to the bottom of the island because of the clouds. Pico do Ariero is the second highest point in Madeira, 1,810m high, nearly 6,000 feet, which is a third higher than Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Britain, despite Maderia being a small island.
After we left the peak, we drove down the mountains to the North Coast. The views were spectacular, and we were commenting on how hard it must have been to build the roads which wind through the mountains with lots of hairpin bends. We saw a go karting track so we went to have a look but you needed to be 14 years old so we couldn't drive them. Then we went to a viewing point and we walked up a path and found dog paw prints in the tarmac. At the viewing point there were lots of young ladies spending ages doing silly poses for their social media. We thought they looked daft!
On the way back to the boat, we went to a viewing point at the North East end of the island, where there were amazing cliffs and the landscape looked like mars, red and rocky with cactuses. We bought a little turtle magnet made of rock and shell from the island.
When we got back to the marina, we met a South African man with a little Yorkshire Terrier puppy called Dinghy. We petted Dinghy and when I (Archie) sat down she lept up and I fell onto my back and she started licking me!
Today (Tuesday) we started with home school again while Daddy fitted our new vang. After home school we drove into Funchal to find a laundrette, then had lunch at a cafe in the old town.
After lunch, we walked past the marina to the Museo CR7, which is a museum about Christiano Ronaldo and his trophies. There was a statue of him outside, and a chocolate statue of him inside. There were videos of him all over the walls showing his best shots and footage of him as a child.
After the Museo CR7 we bought some postcards and wrote them while we had a drink, then we went to the Cabo Girao skywalk, which is suspended over the highest sea cliffs in Europe at 580m. There is a section of the floor made of glass so you can look down as you walk!
On the way home, we stopped at the Christo Rei, a statue of Christ like the one in Rio de Janeiro, but smaller! There was a gondonla down to the beach which we didn't have time to do, but we might go while were in Madeira.
I (Archie) think Madeira is a very pretty island with great views and interesting history, as well as being the birth place of one of the greatest footballers of our time! It has some really cool things to see and interesting things to do. There is lots of variety of nature. We're looking forward to exploring more in the next few days. I (Fergus) think it is really cool that there is a road, a marina and a go kart track underneath the airport's runway! I also love the different plants, animals and landscapes here.
