I have a last set of photos from Madeira here. Funchal is after all so small so things are easy to find there. For the best shopping you have the shopping streets in Funchal centre (between the cathedral and old town) Forum shopping mall (in Lido/Ajuda, green line bus), Madeira shopping mall (in Santa Quitéria, bus eight) and Dolce Vita shopping mall (central Funchal). Zara and Massimo Dutti were all I needed, but there’s of course a lot more.
For local food, you absolutely need to visit the Funchal Market (open Mon-Sat). First of all it is nice to support the local people’s business, secondly they have a crazy selection of fresh fruits and vegetables (and flowers!), and the prices are really low (we can pay around 6€ / kg for avocado in Finland, there they were 2€ / kg) so you get a huge bag full of fresh fruit for a small price. The Madeira bananas are sooo good! If I lived in Funchal I would be there shopping daily. That’s the downside of Finland, we don’t have that kind of selection of fresh fruits and vegetables in the winter.
Another thing to do is to take a cable car ride up (15€ round trip per adult) to Monte to check out the view from there. Late February or early March might not be the best season for tropical gardens, a guide told me that April is a great time to come if you want to see the island in full bloom (+ flower festival). A quick walk to the Quinta Magnolia gardens (free entrance) also confirmed that, not much flowers this time of the year (or perhaps blame the dry winter they have had, I don’t know). But at least I found enough to satisfy my flower photography needs a little. My mum has a gardener degree and my dad likes cars, so the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, haha.
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And cheers to the person with a great car taste on Madeira. I got stuck looking at your beautiful car and stood there thinking that would look perfect with a set of new wheels… (black Subarus need black or gold wheels, I think). Something like 18×8 OZ Racing Superleggera… I know, I am really desperate for a Subaru if it has gone so far that I stand and visualize my future car on the streets. Drool… I want that car.