Boutique Hotel

Just a bit of quick news. It looks like the Boutique Hotel that is planned for the area on Praça do Mar has got the go ahead. It seems all the businesses in the area  have been given notice to vacate It is believed Pestana Group want to build the Hotel.

Also the Ronaldo Museum could be moved just to the left of the planned hotel close to where the sailing club is, before you get to the Beer House, this area is still under development.

Photo jornaldamadeira

French Blog

For and of my French reading readers....
A nice blog post on Madeira from French visitors. You will need to use translate if you don't read French. 

Click here for article.

Madeira Palacio/Regency Palace

AFA group are in negotiations to by the Madeira Palacio Hotel which has been left in an empty state for many years after a refurbish was started. The group plan to take the hotel in a new direction.  Good news for the area if this goes through as it is a popular tourist area and needs lifting up.

The Regency Palace Hotel further along is due to close down on 30th June after the on going struggle with debts of millions.

Birmingham to Porto Santo.

Thomson Airways from today Monday 25th may ensures a direct link from Birmingham UK, to Porto Santo. This operation, seasonal nature, will be held each week until September 28th 2015, and resumed in May 2016.

This connection happens to be the third direct link from the UK to Porto Santo, operated by the airline TUI currently flies currently from London Gatwick and Manchester.

Anthem of the Seas

Royal Caribbean newest cruise ship Anthem of the Seas was in Madeira today.  Thank you to Martyn for sending me some great photos as it passed Caniço de Baixo.

Also a few photos the internet and my friends.

Wind returns...

The wind returned yesterday afternoon/evening affecting the area of Madeira Airport, four flights - TAP (Lisbon), Transavia (Paris / Porto), Condor (Frankfurt) and TUIfly (Basel) had to divert to Porto Santo after failing to land at the main airport in the region.

Three flights mananaged to return to Madeira and land, but Transavia remained in Porto Santo, and is due in early this morning.

I am really hoping the wind dies down today as I fly to the UK,  it has been a full week of disruption at the airport this week.

Ferry set to return.

This is just a straight copy and translation from the diario online.

The Board of the Regional Government, meeting this afternoon under the chairmanship of Miguel Albuquerque, "decided to establish the necessary procedures and steps that will allow the restoration of maritime connection between Madeira and mainland Portugal for transporting passengers and cargo."

The regional secretary for the Environment and Natural Resources, Susana Prada, who was spokesman for the executive meeting, said that the efforts to resume ferry operations are already underway. However, he declined to reveal details, as this dossier is being conducted by the Regional Secretary of Economy Eduardo Jesus, who was the last two days in London and returns tonight to Madeira.

Lyme Disease

Samantha Cox has a 3rd update on her battle with Lyme Disease.

English Church Spanish Lunch.

Landing at Madeira

It has been a windy weekend here in Madeira on the south east side especially. The wind has caused many problems at the airport over these few days, with aborted landings, canceled flights, and flights like Edinburgh Easy Jet failing to land, and flying to Lisbon then all the way back to Edinburgh on Saturday, only to arrive back in Madeira late Sunday night.

The Daily Mail today has an article on landing at Madeira Airport.

8 year old on serious condition.

An 8 year old girl is in a serious condition after the strong winds in Caniço lifted the bouncy castle she was playing on and landed on the motorway. The bouncy castle was in El pepito restaurant bar in Caniço near the junction of the motorway. The girl suffered multiple injuries including trauma to the head after falling 8 meters onto the entrance of the motorway. 

Update.

Very sad to hear that the girl died during the night due to her injuries.  Thoughts are with her family. 

Update.

RTP Madeira seem to be very wrong with their news reporting,  as bthe little girl is still in a critical condition in hospital. Can't imagine how the family are feeling at this time. 

Update.

The hospital has now confirmed at 14.15 that the little girl has died due to her head injuries.

Levada Water Reduced

A large landslide has affected the flow of water on the Levada da Norte, in the area of São Vicente.

The flow of water will affect people in Ribeira Brava, Campanario and Camara de Lobos, including Quinta Grand, and Estrieto de Camera de Lobos.

Flow of water to peoples land will be significantly reduced, but they will have longer intervals of watering than normal. 

The company that manages the flow of water hope to get things back to normal between the 21st-25th May.

Large Rock Fall

A large boulder fell onto the main North Coast road between São Vicente and Porto Moniz.

No one was hurt in the incident which happened around 20.30 this evening.

Food. Music. Fun

Food drink music and fun at Jardim Panoramico close to the forum. Local restaurants have set up for food and drink and there is nightly entertainment,  well worth a look if your in the area. It is the 2nd time they have held this event.

Onion Festival

The 18th Onion Festival (Festa da Cebola) takes place in Caniço this weekend.

Al the usual stuff, singing dancing lots of drink and food, the parade takes place on the Sunday afternoon from 4pm

British Airways

Yes she is back.....

Photo by Virgilio Nobrega

Biking and Poncha

If you have not got a head for heights, hold onto your stomach at the halfway point.

Madeira, bike and poncha trip from juanmcsean on Vimeo.

Let Summer Begin

Binter Madeira 2014 from Smolé on Vimeo.

Classic car show

The Reid's classic car show was another huge success. 

Thank you to Gary for sending me a few photos.

Lemon Festival

The regional lemon festival takes place this weekend in Ilha Santana.

TAP

Still a few problems at the airport in regards to the TAP strike.

Tap Strike

Not to much news about at the moment. The TAP strike seems to be having an affect on holiday makers trying to get home from Madeira, Watch the news reports from the airports people have had their flights cancelled several times and spending hours in queues with not much information. One lady had spent 9 hours queuing only to have her flight canceled again. food vouchers are being given out, not that there is much of a choice at the airport, and I guess people are being looked after with regards to hotels and a bed for a night, but it must be very frustrating, not know anything. Some tourists have said, it has put them off from traveling here again and they will never use TAP again.

If you have any other news on the TAP strike then please let me know.

Financial Times report the strike.

Story of Cristiano Ronaldo

Porto Santo Ferry

The Porto Santo Ferry has just done a complete turnaround and heading back towards Funchal. The ferry was just off of Caniço de Baixo when it totally stopped in the ocean and the boat  Bonito was close by and looked as if it wax trying to get close to it. The ferry then turned and is heading back to Funchal.

The sea seems to be pretty strong or maybe a problem on board the ferry. Will up date if I hear anything.

So it looks as though a windsurfer was missing after trying to cat h the ripple from the ferry. The captain decided to turn off the engines while they search for the windsurfer . The Bonita picked up the windsurfer I believe.