21 Jan

Posted at 21:52h in culture by
0 Likes

While searching for the start of our Boaventura hike, we drove through the small village centre. Much to our surprise, the streets where filled with people decorating the town with flowers and flower garlands. DECORATED STREETS In Madeira, a festival means: flowers, thousands of them! People use fresh flowers to make flower carpets for the streets. These carpets can be hundreds of meters long, decorating several streets and squares. Creating these carpets takes many hours, with large groups of people working vigorously under the warm sun. The results are gorgeous! We...

21 Jan

Posted at 14:58h in culture, madeiramade by
0 Likes

During our first visit to Madeira, our hotel served pastel de nata every other day at breakfast. It was love at first taste! After my first pastel de nata, my trip to the breakfast buffet was not complete without grabbing one, or two of these pastries. In my defense: they served mini pastel de nata. Unfortunately we were never again so lucky to have pastel de nata at hotel breakfast. However, you will find small bakeries on every corner of the street in Madeira, so getting a hold of...

04 Jan

Posted at 15:00h in madeiramade by
5 Likes

Bolo do caco: typical Madeiran food! You will find bolo do caco in practically all restaurants on Madeira and at many street food stands. SO WHAT IS IT, BOLO DO CACO? It is a Madeiran flat bread.  The bread, bolo, is cooked on a caco: a hot basalt stone, thus the name. This bread is served in many delicious ways. Essential is homemade garlic butter: bolo do caco and garlic butter are best friends. Restaurants will serve the bread with garlic butter as an appetizer, and at cafes or food stands you'll find it with...

01 Jan

Posted at 15:03h in culture, shops & restaurants by
0 Likes

When we first visited Madeira, we already encountered a lot of these: stores selling products made entirely out of cork. A few years later, it seems more and more of these stores are popping up around Madeira. Apparently, cork products sell! To be honest, if you would have asked my opinion about this material a few years ago, I would have said I found it a bit outdated. But nowadays, it is back and on-trend! According to style magazines it is absolutely okay to incorporate cork into your...