Around Madeira

The IFCN (Institute for Forests and Nature Conservation) has warned of a significant increase in the Forest Fire Risk owing to the present hot weather conditions. Lighting fires and using a barbecue or portable stove is forbidden. Forest recreation areas with barbecues/stoves are closed as is the Areeiro/Eira do Serrado/Barreira Forest Road. If you spot a fire, please call 112 to alert the authorities. ( Photo by Cullan Smith on Unsplash )

  There's a series of concerts  taking place roughly monthly in four of Funchal's museums: the Cidade do Açúcar Museum , the Henrique e Francisco Franco Museum , the Natural History Museum and Monte Station . The programme can be found here where tickets can also be purchased.  Alternatively, tickets (5 euros) can be purchased from the ticket office at the Teatro Municipal Baltazar Dias.

  Along with the arrival of Summer Time on Sunday, 26th March, there will be a new timetable for the airport bus service starting on Monday, 27th March and adding a few extra journeys. The new timetable is here - which is the same place as the old timetable: for now, you click on a yellow box at the top of the page to select the present or forthcoming timetable. SAM (the bus operator) have also announced they're unable to update their mobile app to reflect the new timetable, so use the website. The new timetable will also be posted on the airport bus stops when it comes into force.

According to the local press, the introduction of entrance charges for the Cabo Girão viewing point have led to queues of up to 45 minutes as arriving tourists scrabble for change and wrestle with uncooperative turnstiles. There are plans to roll out entrance charges to other popular visitor attractions,  partly to recoup some of the operating costs, but also to help manage increasing visitor numbers. Hopefully lessons will be learned before the scheme is extended.

  Just a reminder that as we approach the new season (and the start of Daylight Saving Time on 26th March), flight schedules will be changing as airlines move from their winter schedules and their staff and planes move to their summer bases. The big news is that Wizz Air seems to have withdrawn all its services between London and Madeira after 25th March.  A greater proportion of Ryanair flights seem to have early departure times (between 06:00 and 06:45), so it's just as well to note that the Aerobus currently has a 04:00 departure every day at present.