Quinta das Cruzes, Funchal, Madeira

I was looking for inspiration to find something to post about and decide to skim through my blog archive. It looks like I haven't posted anything about our holiday in Madeira, which was actually a wonderful break. You can actually read my article about it here.

One day we found the museum of Quinta das Cruzes in an 18th century mansion built on the site of the home of Zarco, who discovered the island in the 15th century and was its first Portuguese governor. It was surrounded by a beautiful garden, part of which was enhanced by stone ornaments and crosses. Perhaps that's how it got its name, which translates as the Mansion of the Crosses. Here's one of the ornaments, which looks like a royal coat of arms.



The mini-pic of me in the sidebar was taken in this garden. When we were there in October 2007, we were suffering from the heat and we found some lovely cool spots in the garden, like the one below.



I wonder how it fared in the February floods. The news pictures of water rushing down from the mountains were horrendous, as were the reports of loss of life. Tourism is the main industry there and the survivors must still be struggling to restore the beauty of Funchal and the rest of their enchanting island.