Honeymoon – Day 3 – Part 1

Day 3 – Wednesday 16th September 2009

We woke up around 9:30am. Being the snap-happy person that I am, the first thing I did was take a few pictures of the apartment. Well, the main living area, anyway. For some reason I didn’t take any pictures in the bedroom or bathroom… Go figure. Anyways, this is what it looked like:

Pretty, huh? I love this place. I’d been coming here with my parents since being about 15 years old, and I can’t honestly remember ever staying in a nicer hotel. These pictures don’t really do it justice. But how’s about waking up to a view like this?!

You can’t tell me that’s not pretty damn impressive. Just past the wall there is a lift that goes straight down, and then across the road down there you’re at the beach. Can’t ask for much more than that. And the small building you can see at the bottom just poking out of the palm trees is the pool’s bar – over the other side there are stools actually IN the water so you can sit at the bar whilst still keeping cool. Ahh, bliss.

The hotel we stayed at is the Madeira Regency Palace. It is a 5 star hotel situated on the outskirts of Funchal, Madeira’s capital city. More specifically it’s in a small beach area called “Praia Formosa”, close to Câmara de Lobos. When I started coming here years ago, there was nothing at Praia Formosa and the surrounding area but a couple of hotels and small local bars, along with a few village houses and stretches of unspoiled land, with banana plantations and a quaint, quiet charm. I hadn’t been in a few years, and although my parents had told me the area had been “massively developed”, it was a big change. It was, and is, is still very much a beautiful place but it’s amazing how much somewhere can move forward in such a short space of time. Anyway. I digress.

After taking in the view and having a quick shower, we wandered downstairs so I could show Shaun around the grounds.
The first thing to greet you when you come outdoors from the indoor pool & gym is this:

And then you wander down some steps towards the pool, and you see this:

This is the fabulous pool bar I spoke briefly about earlier. It has the friendliest bar staff in the world, and they make the yummiest fruity cocktails I’ve ever had. That may just be because it was the first and only time I’ve had one whilst being sat at a bar in a wonderfully posh hotel pool with glorious summer weather at the end of September, but whatever. They were goooood!

And finally, we wandered a little further around and were presented with this fantastic view…

Ahhhh. Heaven, I tell you. Heaven!

A little further down the path there are tennis courts, a childrens play area, a bowling green, crazy golf aaand the lift down to the beach. Phew.
By this point though it was getting on for around 11am, and considering we’d not yet eaten we put the exploring on hold and wandered down to the local supermarket for food.

We then ate said lunch (brunch?) from the comfort of our apartment balcony whilst contemplating the consequences of leaving the UK behind and beginning a new life on this sun-soaked paradise island. Or maybe that was just me. Heck, I could definitely get used to this!

And as a side note, Madeira has the second to best bacon in the world (first being the good ol’ US of A, of course), and hands down the best bread I’ve ever tasted. Just so you know.