Day eight in Madeira

Another interesting day today and one where my daughter proved me wrong and wore her skirt, for part of it. We had an interesting trip to Santo António Da Serra which included looking at spectacular scenery and when there, we visited the market there.  The big difference between the last trip my wife and I took to the island compared to now, is the way land is used.  Before, vines were planted everywhere that could reasonably grow them.  Now there appears to be more diversity in what is grown though it appears that bananas are the main product that is grown now.

After that we went to Canical where we had intended to see the whale museum, but my wife had managed to book a cancellation slot for Afternoon Tea at Reids.  This meant that we drove to Ponta de São Lourenço where my daughter and I went for a walk.  The contrast between the lush vegetation of the rest of the island and the desolate windswept landscape there is amazing and while my daughter and I did not get to walk as far as we would have liked, it was an experience to remember.

Tea was enjoyed by all, though my son had mango juice as he is not a fan of tea.  The last time we had afternoon tea was at Greyfriars in Colchester where the sandwiches were a bit stale.  There was nothing to fault here though and the view from the terrace almost matched the food.  It was here that my daughter wore her skirt, changing into it before we went, due to the policy they had of no shorts, and she changed out of it later.

On getting back to the hotel we watched two films, Jumanji and Tomb Raider.  Both were a lot better than I expected.  Jumanji was as enjoyable as the original, though I feel, not as scary, the theme being based more on action than on suspense.  The kids have watched it before but enjoyed watching it again and they were kind enough to not spoil it for my wife and me.  I had to admit that I did not expect the film to be as good as it was, considering the quality of the original.  Tomb Raider was also a film my wife and I liked, though it was a bit too scary for my son, and my daughter got distracted by her phone and preferred social media to the film.  It was more predictable than Jumanji, but was enjoyable and if I had watched either at the cinema, I would have been happy to do so.