What's happened to the weather?

One of the reasons we chose to go back to Madeira for a second time was because our holiday in Sardinia last year was interrupted by poor weather whereas our memories of Madeira were of wall to wall sunshine. Sadly the sunshine has only been seen briefly so far, whilst we descended the steps of the plane, so our plans to relax by the pool have had to be put on hold. Instead, we spent the day exploring the sights of Funchal, learning a little of the history of Madeira and doing some shopping.

One famous early resident of Madeira was Christopher Columbus, who lived on the island for several years and married the daughter of the governor of neighbouring Porto Santo. His statue now looks out to sea, overlooking Funchal harbour.




Madeira is colourful in spring, and the Bird of Paradise flower (Strelitzia reginae) abounds throughout the many parks and gardens around the city. They are common to warmer countries and are plentiful on the island, so much so that the airport is happy to arrange to box up bunches of the flowers for visitors to take home.

The cloud refused to lift throughout the day, meaning we had to research several cafes, shops and bars during the afternoon, so the day wasn't wasted!




By evening, even though the rain stayed away, the cloud remained stubborn, giving the night-time view from our balcony a rather dramatic look.