The Itinerary

The Itinerary
THE ITINERARY

Saturday, May 2, 2015

April 29, Funchal, Madeira

Wednesday, April 29 - Day 85 - Funchal, Madeira

We did visit Funchal in 1993 when on the Vistafjord and we do remember it, sort of!  Again, no tour today so we enjoy our breakfast and do not head for the gangway until after 9:30AM.  The ship is running a shuttle up into town today and after a miscue we board and take the short ride.

We see a HOHO bus, they are all red, double-decker buses and easy to spot, and think this would be an easy way to see the sights.  We buy our tickets in a curio shop where we finally find Jack a pin (2.90 Euros)!  We walk two blocks down to catch the bus and one pulls up just as we arrive.  There is a crowd to get on and most are buying their tickets from the driver and it is cash only (“What do you mean you only take Euros?”) and it takes awhile to get everybody on board.

Finally, we are off only to find that the multilingual narration cannot be heard due to very low volume and worn out head-set connections.  Oh well, it is a beautiful, sunny, cool day and we enjoy the ride - twice!  The first time it takes about one and a half hours to make the circuit and we sit on the left side of the upper deck.  We stay on, move to the right side and do it again with a lot fewer people on the bus.  This trip takes just over an hour.



















The island, or the portion we see, is built on steep hills and the houses tumble up and down them from the sea to the peaks.  Everything (mostly) has an orange tile roof and it is very picturesque.  We thoroughly enjoy the tour both times.  We get off down near the harbor and explore a bunch of tent shops set up for our benefit but do not find anything of interest.  We are looking for an 8"x8" tile to go in a table top but there are none.  We passed on one yesterday thinking we would see them today!





We walk back up to the shuttle pickup point but explore a nice little park before boarding and riding back to the ship.  We are both foot sore.  Back in the room, Carolyn orders a room service hamburger but Dick passes as dinner is not too far off.  We sail at 5PM, on time for a change, and begin the three day run to Southampton.

By dinner time Carolyn has slept the afternoon away as her knees are really hurting. The walking caught up with us today, Our Fitbits tell us we walked well over 10,000 steps yesterday and almost as many today. She decides she is staying in bed and just ordering a sandwich for dinner. Dick is hungry so he goes to dinner and orders scallops. Everyone is concerned about Carolyn, but he assures them that she is fine and just tired.

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