We got up late yesterday (Friday), walked downtown, looked around the Old Town, took the bus back, and fixed dinner.  Not an exciting day.  However, sandwiched between a nine-mile hike the day before and golf planned for the next day at hilly Porto Santo where they have no available buggies, it seemed about right.  The only semblance of a plan for the day was to find gelato for lunch and then walk through the narrow cobbled streets of Old Town Funchal, especially Rua de Santa Maria famous for its mural-style paintings on doors.  On our walk downtown we stopped by Santa Catarina Park, a large urban park we had been meaning to check out, and then found just the right gelato shop.  Moving on, it turned out Rua de Santa Maria is mostly a lineup of tourist-frequented restaurants offering nothing special although there was some nice artwork on most doors.  The location is just too close to the cruise ship docks, which seems to bring out the worst in a quaint old area.  Luckily we are getting really good at catching the bus back home, where we called it an early evening, anticipating a long hard day tomorrow

Tomorrow (i.e. today) came before sunrise.  We are not used to this but the ferry waits for no one and it leaves at 8:00 a.m. sharp.  Thus we were on our bus by 7:10 a.m. and steaming out of port on time.  We settled in for the two-and-a-half hour ride and mostly read our Kindles.  On arrival at the harbor on Porto Santo, we were met by our shuttle driver and dropped off at Porto Santo Golfe about 20 minutes later.  We had been given a tee time of 12:40 when we made our reservation, which was fine as it would allow us to eat lunch and hit the driving range.  However, when we checked in at 11:15, we were told they had moved our time up so we could start right away and be sure to finish before returning to the ferry.  A nice thought, but it totally discombobulated us . . . rushing to get our push carts and Phyllis' clubs, with not only no time for a sit-down lunch but the café had no take-away food at all.  We grabbed a Snickers and drink each, headed to the starter, and teed off on a 440 yard par 4 hole into a 25-mph wind.  The second hole was still into the wind and only six yards shorter.  Needless to say, it took us quite a while to get recombobulated. 

Perhaps unfairly, we came away from this course rather disappointed.  Although we recovered our poise, we thought it was a bit poorly designed, especially on the back nine where for three holes straight, the cliff views were awesome but the route of the fairways around them was ridiculous.  All the holes played along high sea cliffs, were long with ravine carries and had that same 25 mph wind pushing your ball toward the ocean and into oblivion.  It seemed the designer, golfing great Seve Ballesteros, was so taken with the dramatic views that he forgot that non-pros play golf to have fun, not watch shots disappear into the pucker brush, especially on a resort island.  However, we survived and indeed finished just a few minutes before the shuttle driver arrived.  We were returned to the ferry dock in plenty of time to stake out virtually our same comfortable seating.  We were famished and inhaled a large bag of potato chips (salt attack!) and a cold Coke each.  Two-and-a-half hours later we docked back in Funchal and were shuttled home very efficiently.  We give the ferry service five stars, the golf course maybe three.  But it was a beautiful sunny (if windy) day, we got some good exercise, we did not embarrass ourselves (though in this case only because no one else played with us), and Phyllis did not get sea-sick.  We can't complain too much.