Travel with Ed – Madeira

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The Claire Byrne Show 10 min 3 speakers 8 chapters transcribed just now

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What makes Madeira feel like an “eternal spring” island?

Claire Byrne 0:01

The Claire Burns Show on News Talk. With Aviva Insurance.

Clare Byrne 0:09

And Ed Finn is here from Ed Finn Travels. Ed has just come back from Madeira. I know we always love to know where Ed has been. This this fabulous life that he's le living your best life, Ed. The island of eternal springclair. Yeah, I've heard so much about Madeira over the years. I have never been there. What is it like?

Ed Finn 0:27

Yeah, and I've been planning this for about two years. Uh it is absolutely super. It's way it delivers way above its promise. I loved it. I mean, you know, think about 20 million years ago, this underwater eruption and this like l volcanic, you know, piece of land comes up and it has been there since, but like it's totally dormant now. But it is just that lush volcanic. I mean, for me, on when I was on some of the tours, I thought I was in Hawaii. I thought I was in the Caribbean. I thought I was in Spain or Portugal. It it's just obviously 'cause it's Portuguese, but it funchal, it's just amazing. And it's a it really is a little bit of paradise. Everything grows there. Birds of paradigm. Birds of paradise abound.

Clare Byrne 1:07

Okay, so it's green and blush in in places or all over?

Ed Finn 1:11

Uh yeah, like all over. Now Fonchal itself, of course, is a beautiful city.

How did Ed describe Madeira’s volcanic landscape and lush scenery?

Ed Finn 1:15

There's the old town. I stayed right in the centre there. That's where you

Clare Byrne 1:18

fly into, isn't it? Yeah.

Ed Finn 1:19

Yeah, exactly. It's three hours forty five minutes on the direct flight with Ryanair, which is great. Uh like the Canaries kind of time. Um, but absolutely fantastic. I mean, when you come in and you see the island from the plane, you're like, Wow, you'd think you're like, you know, this is Hawaii or somewhere, that sort of idea. It's just that lush green, sort of Costa Rica type thing.

Clare Byrne 1:38

And the attraction is the weather as well, isn't it? Is it sort of a year round decent weather?

Ed Finn 1:42

Absolutely. Beautiful weather. I mean it never gets below six degrees even in winter, but it it has a i again, sort of it has that lovely spring. No, I don't want to be going

Clare Byrne 1:50

there now for six degrees. No, it's No, no, but that would be

Ed Finn 1:53

that would be in wintertime. But like now, I mean it was really warm now just uh last week when I was there. And you know, it is again, it you know, new Christmas, by the way, and New Year is massive there. They go they they really party, they love fiestas as well. But there's so much to do, Claire, in terms of like I was whale watching. I was with my friend Sarah, she'd been whale watching nine times around the world, she'd never seen a whale, but But she saw whales in Madeira because you go out on this rib boat, um, Rockas de Seattle, this fabulous company, and you go out early in the morning and then you go you you go flying out into the Kadosha and then they spot them. And we saw like lovely uh short finned pilot whales, which are about twenty four feet long.

Ed Finn 2:33

They've dolphins there as well, so you can actually go swimming with the dolphins after you see the whales. But they're right beside you and the pods are frolicking and playing. It was

Is the weather in Madeira truly mild year‑round?

Ed Finn 2:41

It's just kind of magical. And in the backdrop then of course you have the beautiful island when you're doing it. But it was just, you know, that is like top tip recommended.

Clare Byrne 2:48

Okay, so that was one of your trips. I know you did a lot and I want to

Ed Finn 2:51

come

Clare Byrne 2:51

to but I want to go back to Funchal then. You you arrived in the city and what is that city like? Is it a sort of a walkable city or

Ed Finn 2:58

Beautiful, absolutely gorgeous. I mean, tree lined uh jacaranda trees, old churches. The Say Boutique Hotel where we stayed is in the Sey area, which is the shirt the church S E, the church is called after that. Um, like Blandy's wine lodge is right there, ten minutes walk from the hotel. Blandy's, of course, synonymous going back to the seventeenth, eighteenth century with Madeira. Um, the Madeiran wine, of course, is famous.

Clare Byrne 3:22

Is it fortified wine? Is it strong and it's is it mo mostly sweet wine that they have to do? They've d yeah,

Ed Finn 3:27

they've different ones. Uh like on the actual wine tasting there, uh with Rita we did uh different ones as well. I can give name off the names here, but there's Mumsy or M Mamsie is one of the ones that's really nice.