Just over a week ago we took the Alfa Pendular express to Lisbon. It's a great train, supremely comfortable and capable of well over 200 kph.
Behind us we left Brian and Nancy, who had agreed to look after the beasts.
Bless them!
We had labelled the dog pill boxes, given the couple two days' training and abandoned them to their fate.
Terminal 2 at Lisbon airport is the crowded, dismal hall used by the budget airlines. Terminal 1 is smarter but just as busy. The authorities are planning a new airport and not before time.
Our destination, Funchal, the capital of Madeira, is barely two hours from Lisbon. We had booked three days at the Albatroz hotel, which is sited immediately below the runway, within easy walking distance of the terminal.
We loved watching the approaching aircraft circle around the bay and then swoop in low over the hillside. Pilots require special training before being permitted to land at the airport, whose cross-winds are notorious.
The hotel boasts spectacular succulent gardens.
As well as two sea pools that we exploited morning and afternoon. Jones would leap in and gasp.
I preferred to immerse myself gently, generally backwards.
Fishermen throbbed past the hotel day and night, sometimes in boats rather smaller than I'd have fancied.
Guests are welcomed with a bottle of Madeira wine, a fruit bowl and a honey cake.
Which is very nice!
Like most diners we took our meals on the patio. Black scabbard fish with a banana topping is a regular dish.
Flocks of sparrows (?) arrived to peck a living on the twice-a-day watered lawns.
REFRESHMENTS AT THE WHALE MUSEUM SNACK BAR
One day we took a bus to Caniçal , a little town that hosts the island's whale museum. The lower floor relates the rather gruesome history of whaling in Madeira. The upper floor has a display of impressive exhibits and video explanations of how cetaceans function and are able to dive to more than 2,000 metres.
WHALE-SPOTTING LOOK-OUT HUT - MID PICTURE
Madeira is still ringed by whale-spotting look-out huts from which watchers, intent on spouting whales, would signal with sheets to the whalers waiting in harbours below.
ROLLER-BLADE RACES ALONG THE FUNCHAL FORESHORE
Another day we visited Funchal, where the foreshore had been closed off for the city's annual roller-blade races. This is serious stuff.
From the foreshore the Teleferico cable car hoists visitors up to Monte, high on the hillside above the sprawling city.
The upper slopes showed blackened evidence of the fires that raged there two years ago.
A favourite snack bar serves the best coffee and home-made cakes in Funchal. The views come free.
Monte's spectacular church overlooks the whole city. It was the scene of a disaster last year when a falling tree killed 13 worshippers and injured many more.
On day 4 we rented a car and travelled across the island to the little town of Porto Moniz, home to one of the world's great sea pools and a favourite venue of ours. It was our third visit.
The small fishing harbour lies invisible below the railings. The spectacular backdrop speaks for itself.
Rooms at the Aqua Natura hotel overlook the pool and the waves breaking noisily on the rocks below. Once again, we'd swim morning and afternoon,
Before retiring to the patio for a pensive baggy (or two)!
Breakfast came with champers and a view across the vast and empty Atlantic.
Along the coast is the village of Seixal, which boasts a couple of much smaller pools than that at Porto Moniz. And unlike the big pool, they are not monitored. You swim at your own risk.
Also at Seixal we discovered a beach, the first we'd come across, composed of a fine (somewhat muddy and not terribly inviting) basaltic sand.
But at least it was an improvement on the shingle beaches that were interspersed with cliffs across the rest of the island.
WAVE BREAKING OVER THE SEA POOL WALL AT SEIXAL
Beside the beach a generous sea pool had been constructed. We watched as a huge wave exploded on the rocks below, soaking an unwary couple on a day tour who were making their way along the wall.
Our regular walk (for refreshments and minor groceries) was to the village of Santa Cruz whose flower display speaks for itself.
Our last night was back at the Albatroz in preparation for an early flight the following day. (That's the end of the sea pool that you can see peeping out in the centre of the photo.)
And so home again, with easyJet to Lisbon and a very (very) slow train to Loule. We arrived 90 minutes late, most grateful to the patient neighbour (Fintan) who was waiting to meet us.
BRIAN DRYING NANCY'S HAIR - NOTE THE WRIST GUARD!
Nancy, we discovered, had fallen the previous week and broken her wrist, requiring Brian to take over most of her duties. Even so, the pair had walked the dogs twice a day in our absence and had the garden looking as happy as we've seen it. Thanks Nancy and Brian. Come back soon!
That's it folks!
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