After the intense hike to the two highest peaks in Madeira, the next day, everyone was tired and a bit sore – being our last full day in Madeira called for a poolside day. The sun was shining and athough it never warms to more than 20C or so the sun is strong and heats the pool quickly. We relaxed by the pool all day, drinks in hand – I discovered when you have leftover pineapple, kiwi, oranges, Limoncello, rum, and marmalade (yes), mixed with a bit of water and ice it make a very tasty and frothy drink.
It’s been a beautiful stay at Casa Felix – despite the scary road in and out of the house where honking the horn going up and down the road is necessary to warn oncoming traffic – luckily we never did run into another car going up or down.
We got to the airport the required 2 hours ahead, shopped at the duty free for gifts and then said goodbye to one daughter who was heading back to school in the UK. Still with an hour to wait we got a bite to eat and found the prices were far cheaper than what we purchased at the Toronto airport. Time to board our plane – we head to the check-in and board a bus that will take us to the plane (a bus, yes – small airport). The flight leaves immediately after boarding all the passengers and its a smooth flight until the final approach to Sao Miguel where the plane was doing some bouncing. It seems to be perpetually windy here, but the pilots are obviously used to it.
We said goodbye now to our other daughter and our other guest, both heading back to Canada. We got our rental car with Ilha Verde which was the rental company recommended by our host, sorted out – a standard drive deisel Mazda as most cars in Europe are manual shift and to get an automatic costs a lot extra. Rui Sousa (our escort) showed up and we drove to our home for the next 5 days via a freeway and some smaller roads, then into the village on narrow lanes – 20 minutes later we were there. Just like in Madeira we find the drivers go very fast, stop signs are only suggestions, and so are turn signals.