Recently I travelled to Madeira, a Portuguese island in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, about 4.5 hours flight from London. I have been very much looking forward to this little getaway, since I have read a lot about this tiny island. The airport is about 20km east of Funchal, the capital. Self catering accommodation and a rental car gave us the flexibility we needed. The climate is very temperamental I’d say, the northern part of the island is green and rainy, however, when driving 20 minutes to the southern coast, the weather can be sunny and warm. Being July I expected lots of tourists, but I was pleasantly surprised as it was not overcrowded and lots of Madeirense locals were around.
Madeira is an island that offers something for everyone. You can go hiking in the mountains with peaks reaching over 1800m high. The weather is like it is supposed to be in the mountains: unpredictable. You can easily find yourself lost in the clouds, while it is sunny at sea level. If you’re not the hiking type (like me, not a big fan) the island also offers a few sandy beaches (take a bath before in sunscreen, the sun is VERY strong as I found out painfully myself). If you rather enjoy some culture Funchal is your address, lots of nice restaurants, a university, a cathedral, botanical gardens and museums. If you like seafood, Madeira is the place to be (speaking of my own observation rather than experience, since I don’t eat fish).
And what does an Austrian do when in Madeira? Say hello t0 the last emperor of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, of course. What else would you do? (Careful sarcasm). So Karl the First (and also the last) went into exile to Madeira and is now burried in a church in a place called Monte with a spectacular view over Funchal. Not a bad place to be burried, I’d say, let’s not go into detail of some of the war crimes he was responsible for… As it would be Austrian fashion, I did not visit the cemetery though, visiting an emperor’s coffin in a church on a mountain was enough of good old Austrian morbid habits.
The Monikart Studio 