Please have violins handy - this blog contains nostalgia! Once upon a time... well, in 1972 actually, my wife and I were married. We still are! We spent our honeymoon on Madeira, that Portuguese, mid-Atlantic island 520 kms (320 miles) from the African coast and 1000 kms (620 miles) from the continent of Europe. It was a picturesque, tranquil, slightly old-fashioned place, beloved of the blue-rinse brigade as a winter watering hole. In our late-twenties, we were probably the youngest foreigners on the island, but we enjoyed its simple way of life, its flower-fringed, winding roads and unspoiled mountain scenery. We stayed for two weeks at the five-star Savoy Hotel. I was something important in the travel industry in those days and, even though we were on a freebie, we were given the honeymoon suite. I
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