Knowing nothing of Madiera, I was very excited to be visiting this island. When my nephew, Bobby, learned we were going to visit Madeira, he said his wife, Misty, would be so envious as that is where her ancestors were from. I assured Bobby that we would have plenty of pictures to show her.
But first, an update – Alan caught onto the Tango with no problem at all! I think he has been holding out on me and is really a dancer at heart! The Tango was fun, but the shortness of the lesson is very frustrating; it feels as if you just get the dance and the class is over. There is no place for real beginners to practice either. The only dance music is in the Atrium and is mainly older couples who have danced together for at least 40 years, or so it seems. It is a pleasure to watch them though, especially after learning just how involved all the steps are. We are at sea again today and the dance instructors must have realized the frustration of learning a new dance and then moving on, so today was a recap of all three we have learned so far. Ok, not a great idea either – we have even forgotten the waltz! Got the basic back and was able for me to actually count in a ChaCha, but the Tango is gone. No loss really, I would really just love for us to be able to Waltz and we can. I then told Alan he really didn’t have to come to these classes anymore, until we learned it is Swing tomorrow!
I go to line dancing following this class and the cruise video camera was there today. Of course, they don’t film the ones we know, but the challenging ones, and I am in the front row! I expect we will have to buy this video now to see just how funny we look!
Ok, back to the subject meant to be on this blog today – Madeira. What a beautiful island! We did have the misfortune to arrive on All Saints Day, which is a national holiday. So most shops were shut and there were only a few people in national dress – Alan spotted them at the door of the flower market. All I saw was the shut door of the flower market as we went by on the tour bus.
There were only 3 stops we planned to make on the tour bus, but the frustrating thing was no one got off! So we had to go twice around the island to get where we wanted to go. The first stop was the highest point, but it wasn’t really – it must have been the highest point of Funchal. But it was beautiful. Then we had a fantastic 2 hour break at Camara de Lobos. This is a little fishing village made famous by Sir Winston Churchill’s painting. Here I had a Madeira wine and Alan had a beer. Not having tried Madiera wine before, I was pleasantly surprised how sweet it is, in fact it is more like a sherry to me. We wandered all over this village enjoying the ambiance. Even the drunken men were part of the wonder of how lovely this life style must be. We assumed that on any other day, these men would be off fishing, but today, they had a well- earned day off.
Due to the confusion on the walk on/walk off tour bus, we lost a valuable hour and ½, so I did not get to go to the shopping centre that was open today. No great loss, I had not intended to go shopping anyway, that is until I heard it was there!
Madeira is famous for its wine, but its second most important export is bananas and the trees are everywhere! In the picture, you can see them all up the cliff.
Madeira is also famous for linen and embroidery. Although Alan and I thought we would buy a nice tablecloth on our travels, we did not intend to do this on Madeira, luckily! Not only had we forgotten to measure our new dining room table, but we also had not intended on paying over £500 for a tablecloth we saw that was just gorgeous.
An unexpected delight about arriving in Portugal was we could phone home! Instead of “latching onto Maritime connections” we were texted that we were now in Portugal and the connections were affordable! I was so excited it was all I could do not to phone people at 6am. As it happened we did wake Martin up, but we meant well. It was funny to watch so many people on their phones. And an added bonus, I was able to text Sue and ask her to measure our table! Now we are ready for the Caribbean market and possibly an affordable tablecloth. (thanks, Sue!)
We both really enjoyed our day on Madeira, even though I was unable to buy seasickness medication, or anything else I had hoped for, we also could not find an internet café. However, our searching allowed me to get a delicious Madeira cake!
Once boarded back on the ship, we were immediately involved in the sail away party poolside. This was fantastic and so much better than the one leaving Southampton. The majority of the 3200 passengers appeared to be there and the sun was shining! We sang and danced and left Europe. Ok, a bit of a strange feeling to realize we were so committed to crossing the Atlantic, but this should not have been a surprise since this is what we signed up for.
And now for the bad news – due to the busyness of the day, Alan was unable to review his photos. This is unusual for him but we had every minute catered for, including searching for the internet, which never happened. It was not until we arrived at the bus going back to the ship that Alan had a chance to look at his pictures. And they were not properly there. Absolute heartbreak! This was a problem with his memory card and could easily have been corrected, if only Alan had had a chance to look. There are a few decent photos, but the majority of Madeira pictures will be mine. So promising Bobby and Misty pictures was not a good move.
On the other hand, why don’t we just go back and do it again!?
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