Barrels of fun

A statue of St Charles of Austria on the grounds of the church. Not sure what miracles he performed. I would spend a little more time researching this if I had the time.
This is the Monte Church. Fortunately, it was spared during the floods. This is one of Mareira's landmark buildings and people used to come here on pilgrimage.
After lunch, we decided to go up the cable car, a 20 min ride above Funchal, to Monte, a scenic tourist spot and the site of a church which holds the remains of a canonized saint, an Austrian Emperor (Charles) who is said to be responsible for miracles (from where we took the Cesta's/baskets). At some stage, the Maderian government realized that the country needed a cultural boost, and has started encouraging art and the expression thereof, in all forms, everywhere. ( More later)
Here one can see how some of the wine barrels have been turned into art pieces
Maderia has world renowned wines ...historically, that is. I can't vouch for now as I am perhaps a totally biased wanna-be SA wine drinker (getting there :o) )..I've certainly tasted a whole lot of different wines, doing the Cape wine routes and slowly have begun to enjoy a good wine.
Nor is unable to drink wine so we bought port instead and we soooooo enjoyed that! I have since bought a bottle here at home and it somehow just doesn't taste the same. So, based on my very limited knowledge, I would without hesitation, endorse their port! (more stories on that later :o) )
Oh Lord...not the best picture...I pretty much walked around for the rest of the day with 'bed-head'...full of sea-salt, wind-blown..hell, and I didn't give a toffee. This was taken in the cable car, on the way up to Monte.