CATCHING UP

April 8, 2017

Well, as I told you yesterday, we had supper with our fellow cruise talkers, Vivianne and Michael, and Anthony.  They are all English.  Anthony is very refined in his speech – By Jove, and I say.  Michael sounds like the Beatles – all four talking at once, but Vivianne, who is the on stage personality (her husband is her support staff), could be the quintessential British lady weeding her flower garden and setting up an afternoon tea with cucumber sandwiches, were she not an experienced Egyptologist.

We complained about our agents, and shared war stories of less than acceptable accommodations – I must say (I wrote that very British and with a stiff upper lip) they have had some duzzies, and I’m glad they have the lead in that department.  They each described P&O cruise line as “never again”  – not very good food, lousy cabins, unfriendly and uncooperative staff, and generally, just not worth the trouble.  While Bonnie and I have been in crew quarters on Princess, we have never been in crew quarters below the water line.  Fortunately they did not have portholes or they would have felt they were in an aquarium.

Anthony is flying back to Fort Lauderdale and will cruise back to England on the Queen Victoria.  Vivianne and Michael are returning to England to paint their house.

Speaking of agents, I have been in touch with Linda, our agent for HAL, and I think we have secured a 21 day sailing in November from Greece, through the Med back to Ft. Lauderdale.  I hope she confirms it in the next day or two.

Yesterday – when all my troubles seemed so far away, and I was worn slap out from a 5 hour private tour around Madeira and the late dinner with the above mentioned new friends – we had a wonderful time toodling around Madeira – our second visit there in 4 months (oh what do the simple folk do – thank you Lord!).

We took a taxi from the ship out to the Cable Cars that ascend to the Botanical Gardens (if you want to get some early pictures of the beauty up there, Google it).  A young man – Tony – approached us, declaring he was a taxi driver, and asking if we were planning to take the cable car.  He explained – good salesman – that the cable car would cost us 30 euros each to ride up and 30 euros each to ride back down, and we would see only a church up the mountain side, and the Botanical Gs.  If we would ride with him – and he showed us his cab and license – for only 140 euro, he would show us the 6 most popular sites, take as long as we wished, and take us back to the ship.  We have very rarely said yes to local tours, but we did this time, and had a great time.  We were in Madeira another time, maybe a year ago, and saw some of the same sites, but the beauty is stunning and worth the second look.

I thought about Cathy/CJ on part of the trip as we drove up a very long switch back road that is very close to the edge of the mountain, and remembered driving up a not too dissimilar road in Chattanooga, TN to the top of another mountain.  But the view of “Nun’s Valley” is incredible.  I got some great pictures.

We cut out one of the visits – this to the cliff side observatory where you can stand on a glass platform out over the ocean from way, way up the moutain, because it was getting close to supper time – and ended in the Fishing Village, a small port and village where commercial fishermen still ply the waters of the Atlantic.  Boats of various shapes and sizes were pulled into a dry dock, but we could see others out in the water.  As we circled the village we stumbled onto a small chapel and went inside.  Our guide later told us it was the fishermen’s chapel.  It was more beautiful, we think, than the big church that all of the tourists flock to at the top of the Cable Car.  A number of paintings featured a man in monk’s habit with a tonsure haircut and sailing ships in one distress or another.  Tony did not know the stories behind those paintings.  I hope I can find them.

Well, it is almost time to dress for our last formal night and go the specialty restaurant – The Pinnacle Grill – for an 18 ounce bone-in rib eye.  Tonight’s show is another production number by the ship’s singers and dancers, and we always enjoy them.  Next report will be as we sail away from Cadiz tomorrow.

TTFN