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Saturday, December 31, 2011

Funchal, Madera

Funchal Public Market - 06

I spoke about social networking and transportation at the CIVITAS Forum 2011 held in October in Funchal, Madera Portugal. Madera is an island in the Atlantic Ocean about an hour-and-a-half flying time to the south west of Lisbon. The conference was great and it was lots of fun to visit Funchal.

Funchal Public Market - 05
Highlights were the public market. The photo above is of a fruit stand that had about ten different kinds of passion fruit! 

Funchal Restaurante Dos Combatentes - 2

I ate at a wonderful restaurant called Restaurante dos Combatentes twice, once for lunch and then later in the week for dinner. Very attentive service and great food.


I took a tour of the Old Blandy Wine Lodge which includes a museum and tasting rooms in addition to being used to store and age the wine. Madera wine violates lots of the rules: it's aged in hot attics and the bottles should be stored upright. It's a fortified wine so quite high alcohol content. It was fun being able to taste several types and vintages of Madera. Here's a photo of one of the museum's tasting rooms.


Blandy's Madera Museum Funchal - 4

The Funchal Airport was great, one of the few that still has an outdoor viewing platform. Here's a photo of our plane from the viewing area.


Funchal Madera Airport - 05



All my photos of Funchal on Flickr.