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| Chasing the Pack! |
The Madeira Half Marathon - January in Madeira sounded like a nice escape from the cold winter of North Wales, but the rain followed us south. It was warm rain though and quite refreshing during the Funchal Half Marathon. We both gave this one a go and despite it being along the coast road it was far from flat! Here's Vicky in the blue top chasing hard through the tropical drizzle.
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| Looks like a model but this is for real! |
The capital of Madeira is Funchal, which is where we stayed at a very pleasant hotel close to the seafront - we were among the youngest there and many of the incumbents seemed to be there for the winter. High above the city and frequently obscured by low cloud, is the village of Monte. We took a hair-raising bus ride up the steep narrow roads to reach the Monte Tropical Gardens an astonishing creation of follies, lakes stocked with giant Koi Carp, waterfalls and themed gardens. We saw an amazing orchid garden, quite something considering this is not the orchid season, we visited an African sculpture museum, an underground gemstone museum and wandered among the maze of different sights.
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| All the way? |
One way back down to Funchal is on the traditional toboggans. Steered by teams of costumed locals these are pushed down some alarmingly steep streets - there are no brakes and stopping relies on the stout boots that you see the men wearing. And I didn't see any seat belts either! We took the bus back down.
Beer in Madeira is synonymous with Coral Lager, the local brew which is found everywhere. In our hotel the bar font didn't even have any indicator of what poured out - the assumption seems to be that if you ask for a beer you want Coral Lager. We managed to find the only microbrew bar down a side street in Funchal where we found a selection of taps dispensing Portuguese craft beers including a tasty IPA and a smoked porter - marvellous - we went back the next night and the night after!
