Ribeira Brava

On the way west The picture is the place in the frame, and the useful question is what it leaves out. A ship alongside at the quay is not a boarding time. A ferry to Porto Santo takes about 2 hours 30 minutes when it runs, and the queue is not in the picture. A sunny square is not a clear road up into the hills. If the hills behind the town are grey, the climb is in cloud, and Funchal being bright does not change that. Cruise days fill the pavement along the harbour. A quiet morning is not one of those days, and you can see a hull before you walk down. Do not treat a town camera as the airport, and do not treat the airport camera as this town. If you are only passing on the VR1, do not stop on it to look. Park in town and walk. Walk the last part. The useful things in these towns, the quay, the square, the café, are a few minutes on foot from a proper car park, and they are a bad place to arrive by stopping on the VR1. On a cruise morning, go early or accept a full pavement. The picture will have shown you the hull already. If you are walking up toward the hills and the ridge behind the roofs is grey, turn the walk into the town instead. You can try the climb later. A second look after lunch is enough to know if the cloud has lifted. Nothing in the frame is a boarding pass, a table reservation, or a reason to leave the car in a bus stop. Look once before you leave Funchal and once more when you still have a choice. The island changes between the city and the place in the picture. A jacket in the car costs nothing. A car left in a narrow lane costs the village its road. If the picture and the sky over Funchal disagree, believe the picture. Ten minutes later is a fair second look. An hour later can be a different coast.