Europe

Alesund: an art nouveau gem right in the beautiful fjords

The town of Alesund, Norway. A gorgeous place of art nouveau architecture up in the fjords of Norway’s long west coast. Close to ski fields.

Alesund on Norway’s west coast is not just a cruise ship pit stop. Well, they stop there for a good reason. Seafood enthusiasts love it, and so do fans of art nouveau architecture. You’ll also find the occasional skier and boarder there – it’s close to some fine ski fields a bit further inland.

Alesund makes for a great weekend getaway. The town of now about 40,000 inhabitants burned down completely in the early 20th century and was then rebuilt in art nouveau architecture. It’s a beauty!

Have you been to Alesund, Norway?

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When holidaying on Madeira, chances are you will be staying in Funchal, as it is the most developed part of the island in terms of tourism. Cruise ships dock at its port on a daily basis, on their routes between Portugal, the Canary Islands, and North Africa.

Although Madeira certainly isn’t famous for being a party island packed with the young and eligible, and although you will see many cruise ship tourists exploring Funchal on a day trip, most of whom will fit into the senior and retired age brackets, it doesn’t mean that the island or Funchal don’t have anything to offer that goes beyond a stroll along the sea promenade. Madeira seems underdeveloped for tourism in relative terms, compared to its Canary Island neighbours. And yet, you will find many great things to do in Funchal.

Funchal’s old town

Looking to sample some local cuisine? Knock yourself out in one of Funchal’s many restaurants. Most are very reasonably priced and located in the town centre. In terms of typical Portuguese dishes, I highly recommend “espatadas”, grilled meat on skewers – fantastic.

Funchal’s old town is charming, with its cobblestone streets and obscure little bars, plenty of Catholic churches and even the odd art gallery.

Funchal’s beaches

Madeira is not a place you go for a beach holiday. Firstly, the island is perhaps best described as a rock in the Atlantic (due to its volcanic origins), but at the same time having a very varied vegetation. The result is though that the shoreline is quite dramatic and getting close to the water often means being on a cliff rather than a beach. Most of Madeira’s beaches are pebble beaches. The sandy beaches on Madeira are quite small and not exactly something to write home about, but Madeira more than makes up for the lack of sandy beaches with its vegetation, natural rock pools, mountains, and even desert landscapes.

Botanic Gardens in Funchal

It is absolutely worth spending a few hours wandering around the elaborate botanic gardens. Along the walls of the garden, you will find mosaics and informative panels telling the story of historic events that involved Portugal or the Portuguese. One section of the park is dedicated to all things Asian, with a Japanese-style garden and perhaps a rather cheesy attempt at an Italian scene with Romeo and Juliet’s balcony.

Madeira wine isn’t difficult to find even in the Botanic Gardens. The entry ticket includes a free taster of a Madeira wine type of your choice (from sweet to dry) at the cafe towards the southern border of the park.

Madeira wine at the Old Blandy Wine Lodge

The Old Blandy Wine Lodge is right in the middle of Funchal. Back in the 1840s Charles Blandy bought the annex part of the then monastery complex and converted it into a winery. You can take a tour at the lodge, learn all about the history of the winery, how Madeira wine is produced, and of course, do a wine tasting.

Toboggan ride

The wicker toboggan rides are perhaps one of the strangest tourist attractions I have ever witnessed. In Monte, a part of town near the Botanic Gardens up on the mountain, men dressed in white uniforms, straw hats and special rubber-soled boots will push you down the hill, navigating you through the steep and bendy streets towards the town centre. I have to say this was an amusing albeit rather a strange sight, most commonly enjoyed by the cruise ship daytrippers. Although this activity is really not for me, those partaking seemed to be having a lot of fun. At 25 EUR per wicker toboggan, this is arguably a bit of a tourist trap.

What would you do in Funchal? Have you been there, and can you recommend any other interesting sights and activities?

Just like you wouldn’t expect the team of a landlocked country to win a major international sailing competition, you probably wouldn’t expect to find an island paradise in Switzerland either. And yet… Switzerland won the America’s Cup in 2007 and is also home to the Brissago Islands with a lush subtropical garden.

The Brissago Islands, or Isole di Brissago, are two islands in Lago Maggiore in the southern Swiss canton of Ticino. Lago Maggiore stretches from Switzerland all the way to Italy, but the islands are located in Swiss waters and are easily accessible by boat from Ascona.

The boat takes you straight to Grande Isola, also known as San Pancrazio, which is the larger of the two as the name suggests and home to a grand mansion and the superb botanical gardens with over 1700 plant species. The smaller island, called Isola di Sant’Apollinare, Isolino or Isola Piccola, is left in a natural state with indigenous vegetation.

The Brissago Islands have been through a series of ownership changes over the last 130 years. In the late 19th century, the islands were owned by the St. Leger family, who purchased them complete with the remains of an old convent. They restored the convent and developed what is now the big botanical garden that stretches all over the Grande Isola by creating pathways and bringing in subtropical plant species.

Max Emden, a businessman from Hamburg, bought the islands in the late 1920s, establishing a grand mansion building and Roman bath on Grande Isola but mostly leaving the botanical gardens untouched in their layout and vegetation.

Emden’s heirs later sold the islands to the government of the Canton of Ticino and the leagues for national heritage and nature conservation in 1949, under the condition that the islands be used for the purpose of conservation, to give the public access to the botanical gardens for tourism and cultural activities.

The variety of plants to be found in the 2.5 hectares botanical garden of Grande Isola include palm and eucalyptus trees, bamboo, lotus blossoms, ferns, cypresses, banana plants and even sequoias. The mild climate of the islands is due to the alps protecting the area from the cold air, which in turn also enables the waters of the lake to store warmth better, and thus allows plant species normally found in subtropical areas such as Asia, Australia, South Africa, America and Oceania to flourish on a small island in a lake at the southern end of Switzerland.

The Brissago Islands are a beautiful little surprise to the first time visitor of Switzerland and show how a country that is thought of like the mecca for chocolates, mountains and winter sport offers a lot more than its stereotype suggests, and spoils its visitors with a taste of subtropical vegetation in the middle of a large lake!

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Have you visited Ticino or the island paradise of the Brissago Islands?

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