The end is in sight - hoorah I hear you groan.
These may be my final final entry's as I sit here writing this before breakfast on my last day - In 5 hours time we will be leaving to journey back to the UK.
Hopefully my little blog has been of interest to a few and may have brought back fond memories to people who have visited this wonderful Island before. Hopefully it and may also have tempted some of you who have not experienced Madeira to consider this as a place to travel to one day.
Wednesday 5th JanuaryA rainy day off and on all day. Today is a special day in Funchal as it is the day before 3 Kings Day (Christmas 12th night). We headed into town to see some of the preparations. Most of the afternoon there were 3 kings wandering the streets (with a police escort) - and in the evening the three kings even had two live camels walking with them!
A special cake set out on tables all around the main town square - in the evening this will be sliced up and given away free to everyone that wants some. This task is given over to the children who dress in national costume and carry the cake around on trays. There are also kids giving out glasses of Madeira wine free too.
In the evening there is a big concert in the Municipal gardens that is shown live on TV. We founds ourselves a good spot at about 8.30 ready for the 9.30 start. Luckily for us we were at a bar under an umbrella - sadly for the event organisers the heavens opened and the heaviest rain all day fell from the sky at exactly 9.30!
We stayed for the first half an hour but then decided to return to the apartments and watch the rest on television.
1 - my attempt at getting a photo of the three kings and camels - somehow I ended up getting a rather nice picture of a policeman on his motorbike instead!
2 - The audience waiting patiently for the start.
3 - the heavens opened!
4,5 - concert gets underway
