Prinsendam 2006 Circle of the Sun, About to begin...

[Maryandi]

Thanks once again, I know it's exhausting touring around all day. We do appreciaye you taking the trouble to post when you probably don't feel like it !!

 

Love the idea of the tourist bus - was that only 13E pp or each - either way it's worth it. DH will want to climb all over the Coluseium (sp), I'd be happy driving by;) .

 

Meanwhile, rest up when you can, MaryAnn

[Ides of March]

Day 92 Ajaccio Corsica France

Up and off the boat at 8 a.m. in the birthplace of Napoleon. We walked with many other couples into the town square and for €10 each boarded a small train that runs on wheels for a tour of the town and outlining sites. The city tour took about half an hour and we saw six or seven statues of Napoleon in various guises, dressed like Caesar in a toga, riding a horse between his four brothers who each stood on a corner of the monument and another where the artist blew it and depicted the little bald guy with his left hand on his chest when apparently he only used his right when posing for statues. Josephine was conspicuously absent.

We then drove along the beautiful shore passing bamboo groves, palm and orange trees, and a cemetery of concrete mausoleums similar to those we saw in Rio where the heralded singer Tino Rossi is buried. Never heard of him. We got off at the end of the line at the Archipel De Sanguinaires which consist of pretty conical little mountains with old towers at their peak. We climbed one such small mound on the mainland and it was very reminiscent of Ireland or the Scottish Highlands in spring with the yellow maquis bushes in full bloom. These are thorny little plants that are impossible to walk through and thus were adopted as the name and symbol of the French resistance in this area during the war.

Back to town where we walked to the main sites for better pictures and went to the home where Napoleon was born and raised but passed on the five euro admission which others told us wasn't worth it. We broused a local market where cheeses, wines and meats were being sold. We made a few purchases and enjoyed pizza and filo wrapped sandwiches for lunch. Many locals were weaving palm leaves into baskets and other forms for use in Easter celebrations. After locating the post office we walked back to the ship about 12:30 p.m. through the pit area of the various teams competing in the Tour De Corse stage of the Rallye De France. As the mornings run was concluding we watched the cars enter the pits where they were stripped down and rebuilt in about half an hour in readiness for the afternoons leg.

A brief rest and up to the Lido for the complimentary wine and cheese sail away celebration that HALl offers at the beginning of each segment. Sail away at 3 p.m. was most pleasant as snowcapped mountains dominated the horizon and it was a lovely way to end a mercifully short day..

A pleasant day but the island itself was not particularly memorable as there was little to see and do unless you are a fan of the little general.

It was €13 per person to ride the Hop On Hop Off bus in Rome and Grux tells me there is a similar service in Barcelona tomorrow so we will probably use it. Hopefully I will post tomorrow night but as sail away is not until 10 p.m. I may wait until Sunday if I'm too tired and so…

Until that time

Ides

[arzz]

Hey, whatever you can post, when you can post we all appreciate. Thanks much for this "extra" cruise that I do not have to pay for! Continue to enjoy.

[localady]

Ides-

Thanks for the posts! I've really enjoyed cruising this far with you, and am glad to hear that you've regained your second wind and have enjoyed all the wonderful port days in the Med!

I know what you mean about the staff on the Prinsendam! After last July I was totally sold on the ship, the crew is just wonderful and they spoiled us in ways we'd not experienced previously.:D

We are thrilled to have booked Prom. Cabin 196 again for next summer for a Celtic cruise!!

Continued Safe seas and sunny skies!:D

[Traveller1]

Hi ides --we have so enjoyed reading yr pithy comments on the world cruise--it sounds such fun (mostly).

 

We are off to Hong Kong on Sunday to join up with the Statendam coming back from Australia and around the Pacific rim to Vancouver. We will catch up with the rest of your cruise when we get home again.

 

Thank you so much for all of this--it's been delightful to read your impressions and we both hope your cruise continues to be a terrific experience.

Wendy & Al

[Williebill]

I wonder what the good Captin thinks about his first dance at the Black & Gold Ball being with Matthew??

[Ides of March]

Day 92 Barcelona Spain

We awoke refreshed having essentially slept since sail away the day before regaining consciousness only to attend (late) a formal dinner because of a promise we had made to our table mates. On to the Hop On Hop Off bus that did a single route around town as opposed to the competing service that did three intersecting loops. The other was the more popular so there were far fewer riders on ours and we always had a good seat on the upper deck in bright sunshine and cool temperatures. The Good Captain told a pax that he has never seen such perfect weather and placid seas on a World Voyage as we have enjoyed. You’re welcome.

Barcelona is a relatively modern city full of museums (70), universities (3), and parks (16) but for all that I found it rather boring. It being a Saturday in early spring with beautiful weather, it was surprising that there weren’t more people out and about. It was pretty subdued. We drove through neighborhood after neighborhood of well-maintained eight story apartment buildings with retail on the ground floor and the taped commentary on the bus would occasionally advise us that there was nothing of interest there. That I could've figured out for myself.

Our first stop was at Catedral de Segrada Familia (Sacred Family) designed by the famous modernist architect Antônio Gaudi which apparently is where the word gaudy comes from with good reason. His stuff is really wonky but delightful. The cathedral boasts four soaring spires and three quarters of the way up one of them there is a ceramic Christmas tree sporting doves as decoration. Grux tells me its on the façade that celebrates the nativity There isn’t a straight line in the place and the curved surfaces of the entire structure are very pleasing to the eye. We paid nine euros each to enter the cathedral and climb the spires. When the Grux saw the tiny enclosed circular staircase she opted for the elevator which she rode up and immediately back down. We on the other hand were stuck in the one way staircase for an hour and a half as we would proceed up five or six steps every five minutes and then stop. There were frequent openings that you could peer out but all you could see was scaffolding as the place still isn't finished and they been working on it since Gaudi died in 1926. When we reached the halfway point which is where the elevator disgorged its masses to merge with our line in the climb to the top thus causing the slow pace, we opted to descend which we did far more rapidly. We then went into to the interior of the church only to find it completely filled with scaffolding. On the other side of the church they are building the façade in concrete from the designs he left for it but again scaffolding everywhere. They sure have a lot of balls charging nine euros to tour a construction site but you don't know this until you have been separated from your coin.

Back on to the bus for a ride to the Parc Guel where Gaudi lived and his where his student Guel designed the park and its distinctive ceramic fountains. We climbed to the top of another bloody mountain to discover that the magnificent home sitting there, although once occupied by Gaudi, was not the museum we were seeking which we had passed on the way up. Down to the museum which is filled with Avant garde furniture and paintings. These two were obviously way ahead of their time but would probably be considered mainstream today if our Museum of Civilization designed by Douglas Cardinal. can be seen as a modern benchmark I'm sure Cardinal was greatly influenced by Gaudi.

Back on the bus for a ride past monasteries and other historic landmarks that have long ceased to hold any interest for me departing finally at Las Ramblas which is a long Mall stretching through the heart of the city with cafés on each side and artisans, buskers con men and pickpockets in the middle. I watched a version of three card monte using ceramic dishes and a pea. They were setting me up by accidentally flashing the pea at me at the end and I was debating if they would let me win one to set the hook when Grux dragged me off by the collar. Great mall and I wish we had spent the day there and in its tributaries.. I was longing to have some gazpacho and tapas so we stopped at a café and ordered same together with a 1 1/2 liter beer in a huge stein. It was absolutely delicious but for €31 it should have been. Generally speaking everything is extremely expensive in Barcelona so we weren’t tempted to buy much at all.

On to the last shuttle at 5:30 PM where we rested until 7:30 p.m.and then attended the local folklore show on board before dinner. It was Ok.

We received some wonderful if frightening news from home when Grux checked her e-mail, namely that our dear friend, cousin and neighbour Vicky had successfully undergone an organ transplant operation. She is still in a critical stage of recovery but everything looks good which is fantastic. Grux has been pretty emotional since receiving word and is in a mixed state of being ecstatic that the wait was relatively short and the operation went well yet been anxious until Vic is out of the woods. This trip and reporting on it seems awfully frivolous today considering what's going on at home but it served as a diversion although nothing seems comical today. As I write this they are switching satellites so we are incommunicado for the moment and starved for more news from home. Thanks Larry, Ken and Diane for the updates.

Tomorrow Cadiz and so

Until that time

Ides

.

[Ides of March]

Day 94 Cadiz/Jerez Espagna

I departed the boat a little groggy because Grux had ordered a wake-up call for 1:45 a.m. to see Gibraltar which we were to pass at 2 a.m.. She was very disappointed that when we were in the Straits of Messina between Sicily and Italy she had stayed up till 11:30 p.m. but believing Stromboli dormant had gone to bed. At midnight we passed it and it was spewing so spectacularly that the Good Captain had turned the ship around for a couple of extra passes. He brought the boat in very close and those few passengers who were on deck raved about the experience. At least they shared their photographs with us.

Of course when the phone rang Grux didn't budge so I went up on deck to see if it was worth it. It was marginal as there were only lights at the base of the rock and by shielding your eyes from the deck lights you could only make out its dark profile. I returned to the cabin to get my binoculars and yelled at Sleeping Beauty quite loudly with no results. After a second viewing through the glasses which wasn't even as good as with the naked eye I returned to bed and read till 3:45 a.m.. In the morning she told me I looked terrible and should get more sleep.

The train station was right beside the dock and with Robin, Mary, Leon, Ella, Gary, Marlene, Howard, Steve, Bruce and Vickie, i.e. the usual international suspects, we took the 8:30 a.m. milk run to Jerez, the home of Sherry to visit the numerous Bodegas or wineries. En route Ella asked which ones we should go to and I suggested the method “one bodega, two bodega, three bodega, four…” . My suggestion was accepted although Howard, Steve, Bruce and Vickie opted for the local bus tour.

Many of the bodegas we passed were closed but when we came to Bodega Diez Merito, a German group of about 15 were going in on a prearranged tour and fearing that was the only way to gain entrance we were able to join them for five euros a head. The official guide spoke in Spanish which was then translated to German by their guide and to English by Leon who seems to know every local language we have encountered including Arabic. After an OK tour we sampled four of their products and the dry sherry tasted like paint thinner to me. The really sweet stuff was good and reminded me of the sherry I used to steal from my grandmother's closet when I was a kid.

On exiting we saw a lot of other tourists with bags from Bodega Tio Pepe (Uncle Jose) which apparently is the most famous in the world. We walked to it stopping to admire and enter the local cathedral and arrived in time for the 12:30 pm English tour. For €13.50 each we were promised a tasting and tapas. This turned out to be the Disneyland of bodega tours as we got on a little train departing at points of interest in the beautiful theme park like manicured grounds. We saw the old distillers, warehouses with dirt floors that are watered regularly to maintain proper humidity, kegs of various vintages stacked so that the oldest are on the bottom and the new is the top whereupon each year one third of each is drawn off and blended for that year's product. They then take one third of the second-level and move it to the bottom and one third of the top and move it to the middle so that when you buy a bottle you are getting a blend of fortified wines ranging from one to more than 40 years old. Very interesting.

We then saw the Christ Keg which is a huge sucker elaborately decorated and which holds their finest vintage product. Around this are slightly smaller kegs each bearing the name of an apostle except Judas Iscariot who they skipped lest the contents of that barrel turn to vinegar and added the name of a 13th apostle. I never knew the apostles had a bullpen. Finally we went through the celebrity cellar where notables such as Winston Churchill and Ayrton Senna signed the kegs in chalk when they visited sometimes adding laudatory comments. Apparently Winnie was a big customer.

On to the tasting room where a humourless fellow gave a demonstration by dipping a long thin cup attached to the end of a rod through the bung hole of a keg and then swinging the cup above his head poured it into a glass which he held in his other hand at waist level without spilling a drop. Again the dry stuff including the Tio Pepe flagship product didn't impress but the sweet Croft brand went wonderfully with the tapas which were cheese and breadsticks, thinly sliced smoked ham on crude bread and cubes of an egg and potato mixture. I was so hungry by this point that I could have chewed the ass out of a bear so I really enjoyed this rather plain fare.

We headed for the train station with the Grux and Robin agreeing on a shortcut which should have sent up a danger flag but as no one else has the energy or guts to challenge them we trailed docilely into oblivion. After seeking directions from two or three local looking tourists who were equally lost, we hit on a knowledgeable old fellow and only had to backtrack a few blocks arriving with minutes to spare.

Back to Cadiz where of course everything was closing at 4 p.m. and while the Grux Robin and Mary charged off to find the Mercado in the faint hope that it was open, we rested in a sidewalk café that took pity on us while I nursed my big toe which now appears only badly bruised when I kicked a concrete divider in the parking lot at the station. I ordered a Gazpacho Andolusia which was a big disappointment as it was bland and filled with chopped ham and egg and not onions, peppers and the like as I had expected.

Onto the ship again with minutes to spare and a coffee club meeting on sail away. An absolutely wonderful day with great friends. I found both cities very pleasant although I wouldn't call the Spanish people warm and welcoming and Jerez was moderately memorable as I now have a firsthand impression of an appellation of origin that I have worked with professionally.

Tomorrow Funchal, Madeira Portugal, our last port of call before we set off across the pond. All good news from home. Another huge win for the Bridesmaids today Will post Thursday and so..

Until that time

Ides

[Grumpy1]

Has it really been more than three months since you first set foot on Prinsendam to begin your voyage? It just doesn't seem possible. We really appreciate you taking the time to describe your adventures. I was surprised that the thread did not draw more comments and questions, but in thinking back, your posts have been so thorough that most of the questions were answered without being asked. That's a major difference in our writing styles... I'm a very slow, hunt and peck typist, so I tend to lack on details. Then I have to write twice as much the next time to fill in the gaps. I might have to try one of the dictation programs again. the one I tried years ago left a lot to be desired, but I know they have really improved recently.

 

I also want to thank gruxy for her blog. The pictures and commentary were quite good.

 

Looking forward to your last port post and then you can wrap it up as you cross the pond. Hope to meet you sometime...

[gf]

Ides,

 

Just wanted to say that I have enjoyed EVERY word of your wonderful and oh so humorous reports! Haved really LOL SO many times! Thanks to you and your wife for providing such great information and photos; hope the rest of the journey is also great!

[mim100]

Thanks again, Ides for your wonderful stories and the way you describe events and people and situations....you have made me laugh out loud on quite a few occasions...and I've learned so much about the places you visited just because you took the time to tell us...:)

[2552phxcrzr]

Thank you to both you and Grux for taking us on your travels. Grumpy last year lit the fire in us to do a World Cruise sooner rather than later. And you have kept the flame alive. Alas, we're still a working couple, so it will be a couple more years before we get to make our dream come true. In the meantime, we are living vicariously through those of you have been able to make the dream come true.

[Rumncoke]

Ides,

Where'd you go? I've been a lurker, hanging on every word. I'm going through withdrawal.

[Ides of March]

Day 96 Funchal Madeira Portugal

Wow. What a fantastic final port day. The pre dawn sail in was mesmerizing as the capital city of Madeira, Funchal lies on the very steep sides of a mountain ridge that runs along the coast and as it was about 7 a.m. most of the locals had their lights on. Melissa, a coffee club member aptly described it as looking like an illuminated Christmas tree lying on its side. The lights were tiny sparkly little pinpoints and not the glaring fluorescents that rip at your eyes. As the dawn proceeded the beautiful green sided mountains became visible converting the vista to one equally enjoyable.

Robin and Mary supervised the lowering of the ramp as usual and we were off the boat with Gary and Marlene at 8 a.m. to walk along the beautiful harbour wall 1 ½ miles into town as the shuttle bus didn't start until nine. They have a great marina with open air restaurants both onshore and on boats permanently moored at dockside. There was a hot air balloon that took passengers up for a tethered view of the harbour and I had hoped to get an aerial shot of the Prinsendam later in the day but the winds came up and scuttled that plan.

We walked through a local craft market that was just opening for the day and then toured the local fish market which like everything in town was spotlessly clean, where we watched the cleaning of the day's catch that had just come off the boats at dawn. A popular favorite were long eel like fish with pike like heads that were being expertly scaled. Ugh. Attached to the fish market in a beautiful building with an open atria were many shops selling fruit and flowers, Madeira wine and beautiful if expensive wicker ware.

After browsing for half an hour we met up with Leon and Ella who had just missed us back at the boat and after a few choruses of “hail hail the gang's all here” we paid our €10 each to ride the cable car about three quarters of the way up the backing mountain to the beautiful church of Santa Maria del Monte. It really is a gem from the outside with two matching domed towers and a black-and-white facade that makes it stand out even from the harbour two to 3 miles away. Great views of the harbour and the Prinsendam tied up beside the two other cruise ships that had followed us in.

After the obligatory church tour we paid our €25 per couple to ride the Carros de Cesto toboggan over the pavement and cobblestones halfway back to the harbour. Two people sit in a big wicker basket mounted on wooden skids that are greased with animal fat. Two drivers dressed all in white with straw boater hats ride on the back of the skids pulling on ropes attached to the front of the skids. By pushing and pulling on the ropes and the basket while running alongside they managed to steer this fruit bowl down precipitously steep city streets often beside parked cars, and through blind intersections. At one crossing a truck roared across in front of us unexpectedly at least to us. The mushers thankfully brought us almost to a full stop before proceeding through that one. Much of the time we were sliding at a 45° angle or sideways with smoke coming off the wooden slats affixed to the bottom of the skids so it was an exhilarating and unique experience and worth every cent to do once. The photo of you in your basket they take halfway down and have digitally printed and waiting for you in a nice folder was too good to pass up so there went another 10 Euros.

We then had to walk the remaining 2 km down equally steep streets back to town which is really hard on the legs if you're not used to it which we weren't. We stopped halfway for a reviving coffee which was much enjoyed. Back in town we went looking for the tourist information office walking over the Ribeira Joah Gomes without even knowing it was a river because they have hung a mesh even with the bottom of the bridge on which wisteria and other beautiful burgundy coloured Bougainvillia flowers are growing so thickly as to completely hide the water below but which you can hear flowing and burbling. The sidewalks are all black and white small mosaic stones in patterns of different design similar to the wave motif in some cases that we saw in Rio. Must be a Portuguese tradition to invest in beautiful walkways everywhere. The streets are cobblestone, there are appealing modernistic statues every block, the flowers are in full bloom everywhere you look and it's the most immaculately clean town we've seen on this tour. With the mountain backdrop, the harbour and the ocean it's not a hard place to take.

Right beside the tourist information we found the Blandy Wine factory fronting on the main street in town. After inquiring about the winery tours which were costly, we were told that the tasting room was open and we wouldn't have to wait. We proceeded into a beautiful oak beamed room with glass top barrel tables and small barrel chairs with a bar at one end. All eight of us sat around one table and the waitresses brought us two sizeable glasses each of three-year-old Madeira fortified wine of about 16 to 18% alcohol content. One was dry and one was sweet and this time we all liked them both. Then we each tried two glasses of the five-year-old vintage which were again very good but not that appreciably better to our untrained palettes to justify the difference in cost above the three-year-olds. We went back to make selected purchases of the three-year-olds only to find out that they weren't sure what they had served us so we sat back down for another three-year-old tasting. We were tempted to pretend that we had forgotten what the five year olds were like which in the state we now enjoyed wasn’t far off the mark but were too embarrassed. Finally one of the connoisseurs in the group went to inquire about their premium product and they brought us each a glass of it to try. I have a great picture of the Grux sitting with 56 empty glasses in front of her. All of this was free so each couple purchased at least one bottle in the eight to €10 range feeling we had consumed at least that much worth already. Needless to say we forgot all about taking the tour.

Leon has this love for grilled sardines and we eventually located a restaurant right on the water which served this local delicacy. Everyone ordered it except the Grux who hates sardines and much to Leon's delight we all raved about it. The lunch commenced with a complimentary glass of Madeira wine and was consumed with an excellent local beer so spirits weren't the only thing that were high and we probably would've loved inner tubes had they been shredded and served. By the end of lunch I would have been happy to curl up on a park bench and sleep for a few hours but this was considered heretical, it being our last port day so we set off in search of greater adventure. This entailed climbing back up the mountain and so we quickly ran out of gas. We split up near the base of the cable car and each couple meandered about browsing the local shops. Grux and I headed back to the boat and were delighted to spy the shuttle in the town square on which we gratefully accepted a ride for the last mile and a half. We each did some shopping on the wharf with my final purchase of another T-shirt that's too small and Grux buying a tablecloth.

Grux and many others on the boat have passed their time while attending lectures knitting and crocheting articles for a local girl's orphanage here and all of the proceeds of the white elephant sale went to this organization as well. The nuns and little girls were on board to receive the booty and Grux attended that function just before sail away. She adds that she also donated a watercolour that she painted in her art class to the charity art auction for the same worthwhile cause and is proud that it sold well so she is now a pro.

Sail away was utterly spectacular with the sun was shining directly on the homes on the mountainside giving a completely different perspective from the morning. The myriad of homes or villas all have white, pale yellow or lemon yellow stucco walls with orange tile roofs and extend 80% of the way to the mountaintop. A glorious sight. It got even better when the Good Captain gave us our final present of the itinerary by sailing for more than an hour on a westerly course down the southern coast of the island. We passed the second highest cliff in the world which was vertical, lacked plant life and was therefore a rusty brown colour whereas most of the hillside although very steep contained vegetation and flowers which at this time of the year was a luxuriant green. A thin waterfall cascaded thousands of feet to our feet. Villas abounded and were perched in the most unlikely of locations on the hillsides or on beaches sometimes accessible only by funiculars or cable cars which presumably were privately owned.

As we sat with the coffee club on deck eight aft, the question was posed many times whether it could get better than this. Some voiced the opinion that HAL had saved the best port for last and it was hard to disagree. All in all a fantastic day and just a wonderful way to end the touring portion of the voyage. The entire Madeira experience was extremely pleasant and extremely memorable.

Leon and Ella invited us to attend the Seder meal and service with them conducted by Rabbi Mintz in the Lido. We were very honoured to do so and it was a new and very enjoyable experience for us. I was again on best behavior and Leon was serving as Cantor so I purposely did not look in his direction when he was singing in case I set him off again like I did at the Captain's dinner.

A wonderful and exhausting day but we now have six sea days, five of them of 25 hours as we get back on DST before we reach Lauderdale next Thursday so recuperation is likely.

The Grux has been frustrated in trying to log on to her blog and instead of wasting expensive satellite minutes will likely do some backfilling once we are home in a weeks time or so.

Thus endeth the travelogue and I think I will take a few days off before I offer a few concluding comments and observations and so..

Until that time

Ides

[Maryandi]

Wow, Ides, I have tears in my eyes. I'm sure there were days you wanted off but now it's coming to the end - would you do it all over ? Our longest was 28 days on the Maasdam and , at the end, we felt like 'just one more day' !! Of course you have another week but the end of the ports is an end in it's own way.

 

As you gather your thoughts -please tell us what you would or not bring again, what you would do differently, etc. I know Grux made reference to some room service meals as the frequency of ports picked up-that seemed like the most restful way after a full day. But did the dining venues get a little tiring otherwise ?

 

We cannot tell you just how much we appreciate your journal and now realize that back at the beginning was so long ago. Thanks so much and look forward, as always, to your next post. We have missed ,and thank Grux for, her posts and pictures - love that Greek food, too:p

 

MaryAnn

[serendipity1499]

Ides...Thanks to you & Grux for the wonderful travelogue & pictures... Have downloaded all 77 pages of it & filing it away for the future..Hope someday we will be able to do an "Around the World" .. In the meantime will have to be content with being on the "Prinsendam" to the Amazon just 13 days from now..We were on the "Westerdam" Trans-Atlantic from Barcelona several years ago, & your last days aboard brought back many fond memories..:) Now it's time to relax in one of those wonderful deck chairs on the Promensaade Deck & enjoy your all your sea days..

 

Thanks again & hope you & Grux have a Happy Easter & a great trip home..

 

Betty

 

P.S. Hope you continue traveling on HAL as looking forward to many more of your postings..

[ANSalberg]

Dear "Ides" I don't know you at all but we will be taking the 2007 World Cruise on the Amsterdam -So I began reading your diary several months ago and have totally enjoyed your recall, your writing talent and your narration of this spectacular cruise. Thanks you again for your wonderful observations and your wicked sense of humor! Best Anne

[Grumpy1]

Now it's time to relax in one of those wonderful deck chairs on the Promensaade Deck & enjoy your all your sea days..Betty

Relax? Ides?.... It's more like 6 days of cut throat trivia!!

[kelhair]

Dearest Ides (and Grux):

 

I bow to your words and humor and insight. "My" words cannot describe how I have treasured all your posts, even tho I came late and spent last Saturday night (4 hours and 3 glasses of chardonnay) travelling with you from the beginning. Well maybe your words could describe my enjoyment and enthrallment, they certainly have regarding your postings in beauty and humor, but mine will not do you justice. As others have stated frequently, I have laughed at loud (loved the Japanese tourist and Eva/Madonna comments) and caused DH to run in so I could read posting by posting (he left the home office for breaks frequently, I only left to use the restroom and get more wine!)

 

I have no idea what you do professionally, however I am CONVINCED if it does not involve either the written word or standup comedy that you are missing your calling and depriving us all.

 

So . . . get home, do laundry, kiss pets and relatives and change careers.

 

With great appreciation and affection,

Kelly

 

Warm and best wishes regarding the transplant recovery! Kiss her before the pets.

[arzz]

Ahhhh...thank you for a wonderful voyage seen through very keen eyes and so generously shared. I have enhoyed every minute of it that you were willing to share. You deserve blue skies and calm seas all the way back to Florida.

[serendipity1499]

Relax? Ides?.... It's more like 6 days of cut throat trivia!!

 

LOL....Forgot about the Trivia..

 

OMG..."Promenade" was a big typo mistake!:o The Spelling Police will be after me!:(

 

Grumpy or Ides..Need your expertise in Formal Night on the Prinsendam to the Amazon.... Do you think they will have a "black & white ball" as well as a "gold a black ball" on our short Amazon Cruise? We have 6 Formal Nights & want to be prepared!;)

[mim100]

Ides? you're leaving ?? *sigh* you and the Grux have been welcome guests in our living room for months now...what will we do without you? you simply must take another cruise as soon as possible..and tell us everything...or maybe write that book? :):)

[wynkys]

Ides and Grux thank you once again for your wonderful reporting and it will be a hard habit to break out of checking for your posts each day.

It's been a great adventure for us all and you now have home and family to look forward to.

Continued safe passage and remember to let us all know when you decide to venture forth again.

 

Wayne

[doverite]

Day 96 Funchal Madeira Portugal

 

Wow. What a fantastic final port day. The pre dawn sail in was mesmerizing as the capital city of Madeira, Funchal lies on the very steep sides of a mountain ridge that runs along the coast and as it was about 7 a.m. most of the locals had their lights on. Melissa, a coffee club member aptly described it as looking like an illuminated Christmas tree lying on its side. The lights were tiny sparkly little pinpoints and not the glaring fluorescents that rip at your eyes. As the dawn proceeded the beautiful green sided mountains became visible converting the vista to one equally enjoyable.

 

Robin and Mary supervised the lowering of the ramp as usual and we were off the boat with Gary and Marlene at 8 a.m. to walk along the beautiful harbour wall 1 ½ miles into town as the shuttle bus didn't start until nine. They have a great marina with open air restaurants both onshore and on boats permanently moored at dockside. There was a hot air balloon that took passengers up for a tethered view of the harbour and I had hoped to get an aerial shot of the Prinsendam later in the day but the winds came up and scuttled that plan.

 

We walked through a local craft market that was just opening for the day and then toured the local fish market which like everything in town was spotlessly clean, where we watched the cleaning of the day's catch that had just come off the boats at dawn. A popular favorite were long eel like fish with pike like heads that were being expertly scaled. Ugh. Attached to the fish market in a beautiful building with an open atria were many shops selling fruit and flowers, Madeira wine and beautiful if expensive wicker ware.

 

After browsing for half an hour we met up with Leon and Ella who had just missed us back at the boat and after a few choruses of “hail hail the gang's all here” we paid our €10 each to ride the cable car about three quarters of the way up the backing mountain to the beautiful church of Santa Maria del Monte. It really is a gem from the outside with two matching domed towers and a black-and-white facade that makes it stand out even from the harbour two to 3 miles away. Great views of the harbour and the Prinsendam tied up beside the two other cruise ships that had followed us in.

 

After the obligatory church tour we paid our €25 per couple to ride the Carros de Cesto toboggan over the pavement and cobblestones halfway back to the harbour. Two people sit in a big wicker basket mounted on wooden skids that are greased with animal fat. Two drivers dressed all in white with straw boater hats ride on the back of the skids pulling on ropes attached to the front of the skids. By pushing and pulling on the ropes and the basket while running alongside they managed to steer this fruit bowl down precipitously steep city streets often beside parked cars, and through blind intersections. At one crossing a truck roared across in front of us unexpectedly at least to us. The mushers thankfully brought us almost to a full stop before proceeding through that one. Much of the time we were sliding at a 45° angle or sideways with smoke coming off the wooden slats affixed to the bottom of the skids so it was an exhilarating and unique experience and worth every cent to do once. The photo of you in your basket they take halfway down and have digitally printed and waiting for you in a nice folder was too good to pass up so there went another 10 Euros.

 

We then had to walk the remaining 2 km down equally steep streets back to town which is really hard on the legs if you're not used to it which we weren't. We stopped halfway for a reviving coffee which was much enjoyed. Back in town we went looking for the tourist information office walking over the Ribeira Joah Gomes without even knowing it was a river because they have hung a mesh even with the bottom of the bridge on which wisteria and other beautiful burgundy coloured Bougainvillia flowers are growing so thickly as to completely hide the water below but which you can hear flowing and burbling. The sidewalks are all black and white small mosaic stones in patterns of different design similar to the wave motif in some cases that we saw in Rio. Must be a Portuguese tradition to invest in beautiful walkways everywhere. The streets are cobblestone, there are appealing modernistic statues every block, the flowers are in full bloom everywhere you look and it's the most immaculately clean town we've seen on this tour. With the mountain backdrop, the harbour and the ocean it's not a hard place to take.

 

Right beside the tourist information we found the Blandy Wine factory fronting on the main street in town. After inquiring about the winery tours which were costly, we were told that the tasting room was open and we wouldn't have to wait. We proceeded into a beautiful oak beamed room with glass top barrel tables and small barrel chairs with a bar at one end. All eight of us sat around one table and the waitresses brought us two sizeable glasses each of three-year-old Madeira fortified wine of about 16 to 18% alcohol content. One was dry and one was sweet and this time we all liked them both. Then we each tried two glasses of the five-year-old vintage which were again very good but not that appreciably better to our untrained palettes to justify the difference in cost above the three-year-olds. We went back to make selected purchases of the three-year-olds only to find out that they weren't sure what they had served us so we sat back down for another three-year-old tasting. We were tempted to pretend that we had forgotten what the five year olds were like which in the state we now enjoyed wasn’t far off the mark but were too embarrassed. Finally one of the connoisseurs in the group went to inquire about their premium product and they brought us each a glass of it to try. I have a great picture of the Grux sitting with 56 empty glasses in front of her. All of this was free so each couple purchased at least one bottle in the eight to €10 range feeling we had consumed at least that much worth already. Needless to say we forgot all about taking the tour.

 

Leon has this love for grilled sardines and we eventually located a restaurant right on the water which served this local delicacy. Everyone ordered it except the Grux who hates sardines and much to Leon's delight we all raved about it. The lunch commenced with a complimentary glass of Madeira wine and was consumed with an excellent local beer so spirits weren't the only thing that were high and we probably would've loved inner tubes had they been shredded and served. By the end of lunch I would have been happy to curl up on a park bench and sleep for a few hours but this was considered heretical, it being our last port day so we set off in search of greater adventure. This entailed climbing back up the mountain and so we quickly ran out of gas. We split up near the base of the cable car and each couple meandered about browsing the local shops. Grux and I headed back to the boat and were delighted to spy the shuttle in the town square on which we gratefully accepted a ride for the last mile and a half. We each did some shopping on the wharf with my final purchase of another T-shirt that's too small and Grux buying a tablecloth.

 

Grux and many others on the boat have passed their time while attending lectures knitting and crocheting articles for a local girl's orphanage here and all of the proceeds of the white elephant sale went to this organization as well. The nuns and little girls were on board to receive the booty and Grux attended that function just before sail away. She adds that she also donated a watercolour that she painted in her art class to the charity art auction for the same worthwhile cause and is proud that it sold well so she is now a pro.

 

Sail away was utterly spectacular with the sun was shining directly on the homes on the mountainside giving a completely different perspective from the morning. The myriad of homes or villas all have white, pale yellow or lemon yellow stucco walls with orange tile roofs and extend 80% of the way to the mountaintop. A glorious sight. It got even better when the Good Captain gave us our final present of the itinerary by sailing for more than an hour on a westerly course down the southern coast of the island. We passed the second highest cliff in the world which was vertical, lacked plant life and was therefore a rusty brown colour whereas most of the hillside although very steep contained vegetation and flowers which at this time of the year was a luxuriant green. A thin waterfall cascaded thousands of feet to our feet. Villas abounded and were perched in the most unlikely of locations on the hillsides or on beaches sometimes accessible only by funiculars or cable cars which presumably were privately owned.

 

As we sat with the coffee club on deck eight aft, the question was posed many times whether it could get better than this. Some voiced the opinion that HAL had saved the best port for last and it was hard to disagree. All in all a fantastic day and just a wonderful way to end the touring portion of the voyage. The entire Madeira experience was extremely pleasant and extremely memorable.

 

Leon and Ella invited us to attend the Seder meal and service with them conducted by Rabbi Mintz in the Lido. We were very honoured to do so and it was a new and very enjoyable experience for us. I was again on best behavior and Leon was serving as Cantor so I purposely did not look in his direction when he was singing in case I set him off again like I did at the Captain's dinner.

 

A wonderful and exhausting day but we now have six sea days, five of them of 25 hours as we get back on DST before we reach Lauderdale next Thursday so recuperation is likely.

 

The Grux has been frustrated in trying to log on to her blog and instead of wasting expensive satellite minutes will likely do some backfilling once we are home in a weeks time or so.

 

Thus endeth the travelogue and I think I will take a few days off before I offer a few concluding comments and observations and so..

 

Until that time

 

Ides

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where might the blog be found?

I would like to enjoy Grux's writing style as well.

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Where might the blog be found?

I would like to enjoy Grux's writing style as well.

 

Doverite:

 

Here is Gruxy's blog:

 

http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Gruxy/

 

Enjoy:)