From the gardens of La Quinta de las Cruces (Madeira)

La Quinta de las Cruces was a grand old house near our hotel. We couldn't get in to see the house, but the gardens were open.

Madeira's parks and gardens are lush and tropical, even though the climate stays fairly temperate all year round, temperatures ranging from about 19C - 29C from winter to summer.

The day we visited this garden, it was overcast, but somehow that didn't matter. In fact, it made the air feel fresher and lighter.

The last 5 photos at the bottom of this post are of an amazing tree that was growing everywhere. The flowers resemble oversized courgette flowers and they have the most beautiful delicate scent.

Madeira (Monte Palace & Tropical Botanical Gardens)

This garden is one of the most amazing places I have ever visited. It was a 10 minute cable car ride up the "monte" from Funchal town and set in a huge valley-like amount of land, it is filled with lush greenery from all over the world and a mixture of Japanese style gardens, orchid houses, carp ponds and lakes, and various classical style ponds and waterfalls and lawns complete with mosaic walls showing Madeira's history.

The photos I have taken don't really do it justice. It was a gorgeous, peaceful experience, the highlight of the trip for me.

Madeira (Funchal Town)

Madeira is very hilly. Indeed, our hotel was up a mega steep hill. Considering that most of the tourist population is over 60, walking up these hills made me feel rather pathetic!

Funchal was very quiet over the weekend. The town seemed to shut down about 10:30pm, but they certainly didn't stint on the xmas lights. There was a huge array of lights on all the main streets, and even music piped onto some of the very main roads (Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole...my parents would have loved it).

The coast itself wasn't that pretty, the beaches in Funchal are very rocky, so people tend to hop on the ferry to the nearby island of Porto Santo for the idyllic white sandy beach experience, but it wasn't quite warm enough for us to do so.

All in all, it was a lovely, quiet, relaxing weekend and I really loved the tropical gardens, but it's probably the kind of holiday I'd recommend mainly to my parents or grandparents.