Living Moments - N°2 Edition 2014

For the second time, hurricane Marilyn had swept away our house in the Caribbean. Again only remains of the wall and the crumpled-up net of the tennis court were left! That was reason enough for us to look for a new holiday home. This time, safety, excellent flight connections and, please, no jetlag which always deprived us of some of our holidays, were the basic conditions of our search. We foundMadeira, only four hours away by plane, a safe place with friendly people, English ambience and, what enthralled me most of all, stunning nature with wonderful, level hiking trails, the Levadas. During the search for a house, we stumbled upon an enchanted garden where huge camellia trees were blooming. The views across the city of Funchal and the harbour were like a fairytale and the house was charming. Suddenly I saw Sissi in front of me, how she tried to recover a few metres from here, and Emperor Charles was the direct neighbour, buried in the beautiful Pilgrimage Church of Monte. Even though he had been dead for many years, I, as an Austrian, was very touched by that because he spent his last years less than 300 metres away from this wonderful place. I was also able to persuade my husband that this should become “our house and garden” because, slightly sentimental, he remembered that he, as a young physician, was called to Empress Zita and was especially troubled when he had to persuade her to take off her glove in order for him to feel her pulse. On the spur of the moment we bought the house, particularly for the reason that it featured beauti- ful, old Portuguese and English furniture. I was still full of excitement when I discovered that the house was of the technical standard of “around the turn of the century” and the roof had to be completely re-done. So I got down to work and refurbished the house very carefully; a new roof, new bathrooms, a new Italian kitchen. It was important to me that the old charm of the Quinta, of the Portuguese country house, was preserved. There are only a few houses like this so well-preserved on the island and I was very happy when I found out that the builder of this house used it as a “summer resort”when he found it too warm in his palazzo in Funchal, which can be viewed by the public today, and secluded himself in his gorgeous garden in Monte. As my husband – much to my chagrin – did not re- tire, but kept on doing his job with great pleasure, the years flew by. We grew older and planned to build a ground level house with swimming pool above our old house since we had a big bevy of children and grandchildren and the steps to the first floor became slightly troublesome for us. Even though Funchal is situated on a hillside location, we have a ground level plot with building permit in our large garden. Unfortunately everything turned out differently. For health reasons my husband was not able to travel so far, and with heavy heart we have to say goodbye to our little hideaway and the beautiful garden in Madeira. It is our heartfelt desire and would be our great pleasure to find a true aficionado who will contin- ue to live our “Portuguese dream” in his or her very individual way in this wonderful place. 84 7TaTYR 8ZXPY_^ Edition 2 · 2014