Dear Cruise Diary — Day 12, May 2, 2013

Dear Cruise Diary

Day 12 – Funchal, Madeira (Portugal)

May 2, 2013

Many of my fellow cruisers had signed up for shore excursions in Madeira, and I knew they all would be eating early and ready to leave the ship by 8 am if not earlier. So I used that reason (excuse?) to sleep in again. I had a leisurely breakfast around 8:30 am and prepared for a day ashore. Passport, credit card, debit card and some cash in my money belt – probably overly cautious for Madeira. But my belief has been that if you prepare for the worst, it usually doesn’t happen. Also, because I am traveling alone, there isn’t someone else’s debit card stored safely in the room safe were I to lose mine.

I didn’t really have an ambitious plan for Madeira, as I had been there overnight three times before. So I packed a sketch tablet, graphite pencils, sharpener and eraser in my bag, along with my camera. A quick stop by guest services to change a few dollars into euros (just to get by until I found an ATM) – wait! – they were out of euros. I was glad I had the 7 I hadn’t sent with nephew Zan to Europe the summer before. But instead of planning to share a taxi to the town center with other cruisers, I bought a $10 roundtrip shuttle ticket, charged to my room and thus not needing local currency.

The shuttle dropped us off near the town center and just across the street from a small park Mom and I had visited a year and a half earlier. I headed to the band shell where I took a seat, got out my sketching materials and spent the next hour immersed in trying to recreate an interesting building, courtyard and the massive jacaranda trees that were filled with purple flowers.

Jacarandas

I don’t think I had sketched in a couple of years, and the output wasn’t great. But I didn’t really care if I had something to show for my time. I loved sitting in a quiet and beautiful place enjoying the process of looking at things in a different way. Groups of school children, dressed in identical smocks, came through, followed by a group of senior citizens following a man playing an accordion. A small group of people were using the edge of the stage to assemble bunches of cut flowers.

 

Flowers were the strongest memory I had of my first trip to Madeira. The climate is temperate and must be ideal, because they grew everywhere. Just in case the natural displays weren’t enough, people were selling flowers at almost every street corner. I was a little disappointed in my most recent visit, though, because it was early December and there weren’t many flowers blooming. (In lieu of flowers, we did get to enjoy the Christmas decorations all over town.) Even though it was cloudy so the flowers didn’t “pop” in sunshine, this trip did not disappoint.

After finishing my sketch, I headed through the touristy area, past the Cathedral, through some narrow streets to a busier road that crossed a couple of gullies designed to carry heavy rains from the surrounding mountains to the harbor. My destination was the market, and once there I took a moment to feel proud that I had found it without the need of a map. I could thank my parents for a good sense of direction.

The Funchal market is probably mainly for the tourists. It surrounds an open plaza, with stalls offering flowers and plants, fruits and vegetables, as well as the embroidery, wine and trinkets that many tourists must want. My interest was in taking photographs, although not too many as I realized I was taking the same photos I had taken 17 months earlier. Adjacent was the fish market, with its tile floor and long steel tables where vendors were cleaning and filleting some fish and selling others whole. The ugliest fish was the espada, a long, black, eel-like fish with an ugly head for which Madeira was known. I knew from my previous visit that despite its appearance it was delicious.

 

 

Because I had a late breakfast I wasn’t hungry, so after snapping a few pictures I moved on toward the harbor drive. Seeing the Mariner of the Seas at the pier across the harbor reminded me of seeing the much smaller Wind Star there almost 20 years earlier. Madeira had certainly grown a lot in those two decades.

 

Windstar, 1995; Mariner of the Seas, 2013

As I headed back toward the shuttle bus stop, I passed a wide pedestrian walkway lined with benches. I still wanted to improve my skill at sketching buildings (I get too frustrated by my lack of ability to sketch trees and vegetation), so I stopped to do a “quick study” of “Madeira rooftops.” I knew the statue in the middle of the scene was beyond my ability, but the great thing about sketching was that I could just leave it out.

 

Original, left; my sketch, right

I hadn’t seen much of Madeira, but having thoroughly enjoyed my time ashore, I headed back to the ship and a quick lunch in the Windjammer. I admit that I took the elevator up the 11 flights rather than climbing. My excuse was that I wanted to get there before it closed. After lunch, I grabbed my laptop and headed off the ship to the bar/café on the second story of the pier building.

Few people on this cruise must have known that this bar existed and had free wifi. On my last cruise through Madeira, the stop was near the end of our cruise and a substantial group of us know that most ports had free or cheap wifi if you just looked for it or asked a crew member (they always know). I settled down with a latte and the password, set up the iPad to download the day’s newspapers and recent magazines, and used my laptop to upload photos to my blog site, fix some of the peculiarities of the website (like my user name and tags for my posts) and check emails. Home was six hours earlier, but I caught some people at their computers and “chatted” via email.

Back on the ship – 15 minutes before all aboard – I went to the Sky Deck (12) to watch our sail away.

Robin and Helen had reminded me the night before that drinks were half-price in the Schooner Bar between 6 and 7 pm. That was usually when I showered and dressed for dinner, but tonight I thought I would try to get ready earlier. Besides, the last few nights I had found the shower water to be tepid at best. I had asked my cabin steward to check it, but figured that I was just showering late and everyone else had used all the hot water. As I was waiting to see if the water would get hot, I noticed I had hot water from the sink faucet. It was time to investigate. Imagine my chagrin when I realized that I had been turning the shower faucet the wrong way – and thus only using cold water — for the past week! I enjoyed my first hot shower in days and headed for that much-needed gin and tonic.

So much for saving money – instead we all just ordered two at a time. But we had fun not winning at music trivia (subject: color in the title). I couldn’t believe I was the only one of our group who recognized Yellow by Cold Play.

We sat with Ron and Hoyt again, right in the doorway to the dining room. I think we will ask for a different table after this – new friends coming and going constantly interrupted us. It made for a late dinner.

Royal Caribbean is known for its shows in the evenings, but I seemed to miss most of them. The earlier shows were while I was dressing and the later ones during my dinner. This time we made a late, late show, which was a showcase the singers and dancers designed specifically for the crossing. (Professionals on shore choreograph most shows for all the ships.) They did a great job. Once back in the stateroom I had a hard time going to sleep, but it didn’t really matter, as the next day was our last sea day of this cruise segment.

Stair flight total for the day: 17. Should have hiked up those 11 flights earlier in the day….

Tomorrow: Day 12 – At Sea, Atlantic Ocean