Backblip
After the warm and sunny morning on our first day in Madeira, the rain came down in torrents in mid afternoon and didn’t stop until the next day.    Red warning alerts were put out for parts of the island with rock falls, landslides and road closures with the higher part of Funchal having 160mm (6+ ins) rain in 24 hours.  Fortunately we were almost back at the hotel when the rain started after having spent part of the morning wandering around the Old Town.  We watched a man delivering wood on a sledge for the bread ovens and visited the food market where there were some strange long black scabbardfish which are very popular in local dishes and especially colourful were the flowers and various fruits some of which are unfamiliar to us.