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Our position today at circle below the name Casablanca.
FUNCHAL
Funchal has been the
capital of the Portuguese island of Madeira for over 500 years. The
island is on the same latitude as Dallas, TX, is and is located 320 miles off
the coast of Morocco in North Africa. It is 600 miles from Lisbon,
Portugal, to Funchal. Funchal is the largest city on the island with a
population of nearly 112,000 making it the 6th largest city of Portugal.
Half of the people living on the island live in Funchal. It is one of Portugal’s
main tourist attractions as many cruise ships make this a port of call.
It also has an international airport for tourists to fly in and out.
This is the 6th time we have visited Funchal and the
island of Madeira. The island is just 35 miles long and 14 miles
wide. The island was formed by a volcano some 5 million years ago
and its volcanic soil is very fertile. It is a beautiful place and one of
my personal favorite ports of call. The city is very clean and modern
with very nice people. It enjoys very even year round temperatures in the
60’s & 70’s. Funchal lies inside a natural U-shaped valley with
gentle slopes beginning at the ocean and rising up to over 3500 feet.
Settlement of Madeira began in the early 1400’s and
it became an important maritime port between Europe and the Americas. It
had rich soil which produced sugar cane during the second half of the century
and onward. The wine industry also appeared then and today the island is very well known for its unique “Madeira wines”.
The Funchal Airport is located 8 miles
east-northeast of the city. We have never flown here as all our visits
were via cruise ships. It opened in 1964 with two 5249 foot long
runways. Folks that is VERY short!! Due to increased tourist
demands the runway length has been extended twice since and is now 9124
feet long. It is still considered one of the most perilous airports in
the world. The History Channel ranked it as the 9th most dangerous
airport in the world. Pilots must undergo additional special training to
land here. I’ll come by cruise ships, thank you!!
LAST EVENING
In honor of our Canadian friend, Marcia Rector, I had Grey Goose martinis this evening in the Meridian Lounge
We headed back to the Pacific Rim restaurant at 6:45. This is Jaymea, the maitre d.
Not a good photo due to background light. But Jaymea had a nice window table ready for us.
Cover plate with Pacific Rim printed on it.
Jayvee, our sommelier for the evening, had our La Crema waiting for us.
We specifically asked that our long time friend, Dara, be our waitress. We did not know what to order so asked Dara for her guidance.
I started with this shrimp tempura.
Rebecca had the beef tataki rolls. Whatever that was. She did not care for it.
For her entree Rebecca had this "Gigantic King Tiger Prawns"
I had the miso black cod. Very good!
Better view of my cod
Dara is removing the prawns for shells.
This is Chary, Dara's helper.
Pacific Rim is not one of our favorite restaurants but it was nice to dine with Dara. After dinner we returned to our suite. I wanted to see what the show was about but Rebecca stayed home.
I sat on the 5th floor balcony so I could make a quick escape if I did not care for the show. Good thing as I left after about two of his numbers.
The show was "Mate Racz". He was the violinist from the previous show with the flamingo dancer.
The orchestra
TODAY
We were docked by 7:30 when we first opened our drapes after the alarm went off. Another crappy view out the balcony today. What's wrong with this Captain! Again I ran down to Coffee Connection to get Rebecca's Americano coffee.
I did a 15 minute walk in the hallway before adding all the above to this post. I'm heading to the shower now as my tour is to depart at 9:30.
The title of my tour today was "Chef Led Culinary Immersion & Hilltop Lunch".
This was the meeting place to start the tour and meet our chefs.
The Culinary Kitchen has a wife & husband team. This is Junnie.
This is her husband, Tom. They led the tour but we also had a local guide to describe and show us Funchal.
This is the Culinary Kitchen where cooking classes are held on sea days. I have a class on September 6th. There is a fee for the classes.
There were 18 of us on this tour plus the two chefs. It was a pay extra tour.
I took these photos of Funchal from the sports deck while waiting for my tour to begin.
My bus. It was super nice. I sat on the last row as usual because I can slide back and forth to take photos of both sides of the road. High temperature today was 82 and a nice sunny day.
This was our local tour guide. She was very good.
Our ship
Old fortress
We got off the bus for a pretty long walk to the local market. Went down this narrow cobblestone street to view paintings on some of the doors.
Above was a cable car heading up to the hilltop village of Monte. I did it on a previous cruise stop here. There are wooden carts for two people that two guys guide you as you skid back down the hill. That was a lot of fun. But not doing it today.
Looking down an alley at the cable car terminal.
Some of the door paintings. Guess where the mail is inserted on the fat, naked lady photo!!
This is a dried fish
The fish market. Not nearly as large as the one in Cadiz, but still interesting.
This man was using a huge knife to cut the fish.
Looking down at the fish market.
Next was a fruit, vegetable, and flower market. We spent 25 minutes of free time here to explore.
Front of the market.
Playing cards for money on the street.
Same guys with others watching from above.
This couple was on our 2010 world cruise for a few segments and remembered that I was a pilot.
At one of the small food shops we got to taste a local fish and tarte.
Off we went again walking.
Came to the Cathedral of Funchal.
We finally arrived at Blandy's for at tour of the winery and tasting of two Madeira wines
It was not a working winery now but more a show room and sales.
We tasted a sweet and not sweet wine. I do not care for Madeira wines.
Back on the bus finally as it was now 12:30 and we are heading up the hills for lunch.
At the lower elevations was LOTS of banana trees growing on the hill side terraces.
As we got higher there were acres of grapes.
This is the Adega da Quinta hillside restaurant. Here we were to enjoy a typical Madeira island lunch.
View below as we walked in the restaurant. Lots of round-abouts in Funchal.
Note the rods rising out of the tables.
The cubes of meat were cooked on long spits in this oven. You can see some of the meat on spits on left side of the oven.
We had water and red or white wine with lunch. The wines were good.
They put the food on the table for us to serve ourselves. First was some delicious homemade garlic bread (I had 3 pieces). Then a big bowl of a mixed salad (I did not partake). Next was something like fried polenta cubes (delicious) and french fries.
Here he is arriving with the skewers with meats.
One was hung right in front of me. You used your fork and knife to pull the meat pieces down and off. The meat was very good as seasoned with salt, garlic, and basil.
They said it was cheesecake but very light. I only had a few bites.
This drink was served last. It is a rum, lemon, and orange drink. I'll stick with my Makers Mark!!
Our guide telling us how the drink was made.
The red wine we were served.
Strange tree
Made a stop at a view point for photos. I had been at this stop on a previous trip. The bad was full of small fishing boats. We're heading back to the ship now and I'm past ready to be back on board.
This was our very nice tour bus.
At the gang plank was a crewmember with hot towels. Nice touch!
I was back in the suite at 3pm and went right to work adding all the above about my tour onto this post. It took me 1 hour and 15 minutes to get it done. I was thirsty so ran down to Coffee Connection to get a coke before finishing this post.
While I was gone today, Rebecca finally found a book in the library by Nora Roberts. She also watched her soaps.
Plan for this evening is about the same. Cocktail hour in the Meridian Lounge but tonight I will ask for a drink called "ciapirinah". It is a Brazilian cocktail made with cachaca (a hard liquor made from sugarcane), sugar, lime, and ice. I used to have them when I flew trips to Sao Paulo, Brazil, on the Boeing 777. Since this is a Portuguese island and Brazilians speak Portuguese, I think it appropriate to have one or two of these today.
This is tonight's menu for Compass Rose. We will be dining there, and hopefully, have Meldin as our waiter. He came by this morning to collect our room service tray and told him we would see him tonight.
We definitely plan to go to the theater at 9:30 for a second show by Paul Baker. We loved his first show. After all the walking I did on my tour today I will be ready for bed around 10:30. Tomorrow is another day at sea so very relaxing. My back did pretty good on the tour but is not starting the grabbing.
