Hi, here are some photos from my recent trip to the island of Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean.



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A province of Portugal, Madeira has a population of around 250,000, half of whom live in and around the capital Funchal which was the base for my stay.



The island is volcanic with a rugged mountainous interior. There are almost no beaches but there are numerous places where it is possible to swim in the sea by climbing down the rocks. The climate is subtropical and due to its oceanic location, fairly stable all year round, average daily highs of 26-27C in summer, 18-19C in winter. Flight time from Manchester was 3.5-4 hours.



The island is heavily dependent on tourism economically, in fact Funchal can sometimes seem a little bit too full of tourists but it still retains much character. I'd say that about 50-60% of the tourists I saw were British, 20-25% German with Scandinavians and Dutch making up most of the rest, I also encountered a scattering of French people and one or two Americans. Of course there could have been Portuguese tourists that I couldn't spot because they blended in too well!



Views from my hotel suite, the swim-up cocktail bar was a nice feature



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My balcony was in an excellent position to spot passing pirates!!



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The capital Funchal, in many ways a typical provincial portuguese town (but with thousands of North European invaders ) .



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a trip into the interior on the number 81 bus. I feared for my life throughout this bus journey as the driver insisted on turning very late into blind corners without slowing down while a 500m drop was to one side with virtually nothing to stop me from plummeting to an early grave. To make it worse, he kept turning around to chat to locals and didn't look where he was going.



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The monte palace gardens in the Funchal suburbs, accessible by cable car.



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There is an East Asian theme to part of the gardens




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Mrs Jonesy and Jonesy Jr examine the foliage



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After a few days, word spread that Jonesy55 was on the island and local celebrity Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United came to our hotel to see us. Here are some pics I took of him sunbathing (Sorry Cristiano ).




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I had a very nice relaxing time, if I go again I'd like to explore the interior and north coast more, this time I was quite lazy I'd also like to take the ferry to Porto Santo, a smaller nearby island with an 8km sandy beach that is more arid and much quieter.