A Day of Sightseeing in Funchal, Madeira, Part 2


Next we drove up to the famous botanical garden, a must-see if you go to Madeira. The garden is expansive and features a wide variety of plants and trees from all over the world, including a fruit tree that my family had in front of the house I grew up in and one that I have not seen in a very long time. Since it was huge (20 acres), we could only visit a little portion. Near the entrance, there is a beautiful Victorian house that shows a wide variety of taxidermied (?) birds and other animals, quite creepy if you ask me, so I did not photograph any of it.

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Porch of the Victorian house.

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The centerpiece of the garden I think is the colorful ground cover. It's the image that comes up each time you Google the garden. It certainly is beautiful.

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My favorite portion of the garden is the succulents area.

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The tree that brought me back to my old home.

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We were all excited to see this fruit-bearing tree that was part of all of our childhood, In the Philippines this was called "macopa".

The bonus of this visit was the presence of the resident kitty. It gave us a warm welcome, encouraging us to pet and scratch it and wasn't afraid to receive hugs. Thankfully, there was very few people in the garden that day that we had the kitty all to ourselves.

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The views from the garden were spectacular. Seemed like everywhere we went on this trip, the views were outstanding.

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There are so many tunnels here. We drove through many of them.

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I'm not done with posting about Madeira just yet. Despite the short time allotment here, we managed to stuff it with plenty of sightseeing. There's more, you'll see.

Comments

  1. I am loving that little deck, I could sit there quite happily with a coffee and book.

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  2. Beautiful City! Stunning views .. and that botanical garden is unbelievably perfect. Wow, that ground cover. And what a treat to see “your” tree from your childhood memories.

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  3. Fabulous photographs as always, thanks for sharing your interesting trips!

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  4. I imagine you could explore that garden for days and still not see all of it. I enjoyed your photos of beautiful and unusual plants.

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  5. We call that fruit 'Zamb' :)
    Beautiful pictures all.

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  6. ...what a gorgeous spot!

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  7. Lovely porch. These days I am spending more time on mine. That fruit - but we call that tambis in our part of the Philippines.

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  8. I have never been to Madeira, it looks just beautiful !

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  9. Hello, what a lovely place to visit. The gardens are beautiful. Lovely plants, trees and flowers. Beautiful views! Enjoy your day and the week ahead.

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  10. Oh my goodness! That ground cover! How beautiful.

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  11. Beautiful gardens ~ love the kitty ~ great photos ~ thanks,

    Be Well, Be Safe,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  12. Now I so wanna go to that Garden! Those topiaries are so beautiful and the maze like hedges look very exquisite! My favorite view was the one of the deck framed by viney plants with a view at the center! That is a fairytale!

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  13. I enjoyed the sightseeing with you! Love the photos.

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  14. Gorgeous specimens!
    Thank you for sharing at https://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2020/05/back-to-archives.html

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  15. Those gardens are spectacular, and the views are wonderful. I'm like you, I am not into taxidermy.
    The garden cat is good sport. One of our local museums has three garden cats, two of which are friendly. They do a good job keeping mice and other rodents down. They also have rat snakes in gardens for pest control. Harmless but a little shock to the system when you spot them.

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  16. Wow! What a beautiful garden.

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  17. What a full and fun day! Your photos are lovely.


    Feel free to share at My Corner of the World

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