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Welcome to a visual tour of Monte Palace Tropical Garden, Madeira. As these first photos show you, it’s a remarkable place with a tremendous mix of art, architecture and vegetation from many parts of the world. Seeing the old original hotel juxtaposed against classic Japanese torii-style temple architecture (as in one of these photos above) , I initially wanted to be snooty and think things like “what a hodge podge this place is.” Oh, for at least a minute or two, how my inner intellectual purist side SO wanted to go snarky critic 😊.
But…I could not. So in love was I with the beauty and loving care visible in every path, every fountain, every sculpture and corner of the garden, every bed of plants and each vista. So impressed with the range, breadth and sheer number and scale of plants, sculpture, fountains…everything…that I just wanted to stay there forever and enjoy the peace and beauty. It’s such an inspiring place, done with such care and attention (many employees visible everywhere, doing maintenance and gardening, running shuttles for those who want to visit but aren’t up for the walks up and down hill), that I was among many who clearly came away inspired with wonder and pleasure.
Its museum building houses two floors chock full of unique African Stone sculptures from Zimbabwe and elsewhere, of a style and beauty that I hadn’t yet seen at other museums or countries I’ve visited – as well as a floor of geodes and other minerals for which I just didn’t have time. Its walks host a lovely series of commissioned (must be) tile art showing the historic kings & queens or Portugal plus its republics, as well as an overview of Madeira’s history, and then a dazzling range of contemporary and historic decorative tiles from around Portugal. These and more you will see in photo galleries below. Thus, the beautiful and unforgettable Monte Palace Gardens gets its own special entry and inspired me to revive my Urban Garden series even more than the other lovely gardens of Funchal had already prompted. (For those paying attention, you’ll notice here as well as in yesterday’s Botanic Garden post that those traditional A-frame houses from Santana also merit a place in each; and I still have more to show you from Santana itself, when I get caught up.) I hope you enjoy these photos even a small fraction of how much I enjoyed my five hours there.
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Here you see the Jardim Municipal da Funchal in all its Christmas splendor. This is also where we watched Portugal play its last two world cup matches; the daytime shot below was from that match they lost to Morocco, while the evening shot was the prior match where they beat Switzerland in the round of 16… :-). FYI Cristiano Ronaldo is from Madeira, hence the thought it would be good to watch on the public screen in the heart of town.
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Above, the port of Funchal with several cruise ships visiting, as seen from the Jardim Botânico da Madeira, i.e. Botanic Garden of Madeira. Below, one of Madeira’s most-photographed sites and certainly the most-heavily visited part of the gardens. (The words on the far side, which you’ll see again below, are too fuzzy to read but I believe I recall that they say Jardim Botânico da Funchal. Below that, various photos demonstrating not only the lovely gardens themselves but also the remarkable views and impressive civil engineering of roads, tunnels, home and towns on Madeira.
I spent a lovely afternoon exploring this garden on my own last Thursday, taking the public bus up and back since my travel companion (who’d rented the car and kindly driven us both around to the various places outside Funchal which I’ve been showing you) had flown back to A’dam that morning. This entry is a warmup for a much larger entry from the remarkable Monte Palace Garden, even further uphill but still within the city limits of Funchal. Look closely in a few of these shots and you may see a cable-car – in the sense of an enclosed capsule with people inside, dangling from a cable – here or there, or lacking that, you’ll certainly notice the huge poles and cables set up to carry those cars. One set goes from these gardens up to Monte; the other goes from downtown by the water, up to Monte. There were many other such things (called telefericos in Portuguese) scattered around the island but all appeared to be closed for the season, aside from the one going from town to Monte, which was my own ride up and back. 
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Turns out I neglected to let folks know that this particular trip is purely a vacation trip, not a stitch of work to be done. Since both John & Maria have asked, thought it worth stating that I’m here for the 2 hours more of daylight that Madeira gets at this time of year, plus just a change of pace and place…to a place where mountains, beaches, hiking paths, lovely architecture, interesting history, and world-famous Madeiran wines are all readily reachable. As are the beaches and the gorgeous coastline :-).
And as it happens, the beach at Seixal boasts a sign telling us that this beach has been rated the #3 best beach “in Europe.” In Europe means it’s part of Portugal, which is indubitably European…but geographically we’re a good deal closer to the African mainland than to any other large body of land. Certainly a gorgeous beach, and reasonably swimmable temperatures even in December :-).
(so much world, so little time....) 