Today it is time to leave beautiful Madeira and return to France. We are mostly packed so we eat breakfast and enjoy the views from the balcony one last time before finishing packing. We then check the rooms and then descend to the garage where for the last time we have to carefully pass through the narrow passages and exit from the parking lot. Overall we really enjoyed the stay at this AirBnB, so happy that we chose it instead of the mainstream hotels we were looking at initially.
We have to exit Funchal on the road we now know so well, going up to the circle road and then follow the circle road towards the airport. There are still more than enough hours left to our plane so we have one more stop planned on the way to the airport, the Cristo Rei statue.
Surprisingly we find parking near the statue and first walk to the funicular which is leading to the beach at the bottom of the cliff. Which is what we initially intended to do but there is not enough time to enjoy the beach so we decide to walk on the top of the cliffs to the statue only.
The beach is not that used today because most people are in the water actually. Not sure what they are doing and why but it seems fun from above especially on this very hot day.
We continue enjoying the great views until we reach a stair down towards another overlook. We decide that given the heat we don’t want to do that and decide to only look at the statue and then return back to car.
The statue is large but not as huge as we expected and we look at it both from the back and front before finally returning to the car just to escape the heat.
There are some nice views of the coast from the parking lot and then it is time to find a gas station to fill the car and return it at the airport. The return happens without a hitch, which is great and then it is time to enter the airport and wait for our plane.
We then spend some time just enjoying the views of the planes departing and arriving. It is quite a popular terrace as it is also the only place where people are allowed to smoke in the airport. Which is annoying to us of course.
And then our plane arrives and it is time to leave Madeira after three days exploring this beautiful island. It was quite worth the visit and we would have liked to have at least one more day exploring.
And then it is time for our flight back to the mainland enjoying the great views from the plane. Now for the next two weeks it is time to meet with family and friends while exploring Lyon and southern France.
