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We fell in love
with Madeira. It's known as “the floating garden,”
and it's located 580km from the coast of Morocco. It's still
peaceful and not over-crowded. This is the view of Madeira's
capital city of Funchal and its harbor, from an open-top bus
where we ate burgers and had so much fun!
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The island is
known for its year-round subtropical climate, its locally
produced wine, its extraordinary scenery and vegetation (think
Jurassic Park), and its New Year’s Eve fireworks
show over the harbor – cruise ships line up every year
to watch. Here's Ron on the open-top bus. Check out the wire
in his ear. It's his new Nano, which he got for Father's Day.
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The island is also
known for its delicious food, friendly people and very relaxed
lifestyle – it's one of the most stress-free places
we've visited. Every Madeiran we met expressed an
almost childlike love and pride for the island and its history.
Here's our hotel – we love Crowne Plazas in any country!
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This is Funchal's
daily market, with everything from live birds and exotic flowers,
to black scabbard caught moments earlier.
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Madeira wine is
sold in juice-boxes with little straws. Ha!
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This is one of our
favorite restaurants.
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The World Cup was
especially popular because Ronaldo is a native son. Yes, that's
Oranje playing!
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Here I am hanging
out with Christopher Columbus, who lived here for three years
before setting off to discover the New World.
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We visited Madeira's
extraordinary botanical garden, which hugs the mountainside
overlooking Funchal's harbor.
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Flowers like bougainvillea
are growing everywhere. The vegetation is so lush because
of the irrigation channels that bring the water down from
the mountaintops. The centuries-old channels are called levadas.
The walking paths beside them – known as Levada Walks
– cover 2,000km and have made the island a popular destination
for trekkers.
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The botanical garden's
cactus forest.
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Graffiti, Madeira-style.
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We saw mountain
peeks, rain forests, countless churches and roadside shrines,
and many traditional picturesque villages subsisting on steep
terraced farming and island handicrafts. Tourism is just getting
a foothold. This is the view of Câmara de Lobos where
Churchill vacationed and painted.
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One of thousands
of waterfalls...
Caldeirão Verde is 80m high. Yes, that's a road, and
we just traveled along it. Scary!
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This is the view
from Cabo Girão, which is the highest cliff face in
Europe, second highest in the world, at 580m.
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Ponta do Castelo...
the eastern most tip of the island.
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It's amazing that
he can set the timer, run back that fast and get in position.
We're laughing because he almost went over the cliff behind
us.
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The volcanic summit
of Pico Ruivo, which is the highest peek at 1862m.
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He's being goofy...
the summit has gone to his head.
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Back at the hotel...
and poolside with Ronnie.
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Madeira's mascot...
on a tiled wall at Funchal Airport. It used to be the world's
most dangerous international airport. The landing strip was
830m long, with a mountain at one end and water at the other.
In 2000, a new one was built, supported by posts in the sea.
Our landing and takeoff were still pretty hair-raising. They
hope to have direct flights from the US by 2008!
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