Madeira (updated)

Madeira is located about 520km from the North African coast and about 400km North of Tenerife.  However, this Island was discovered and owned by the Portuguese rather than the Spanish.  This archipelago, formed about 20 million years ago by a series of oceanic volcanos, constructed from a hotspot within the earths crust.  Madeira, part of the Desertas Islands are the youngest ranging from 4.6 million years to 0.7 million years old.  The last reported eruptions on Madeira were about 6000 years ago.  You will be pleased to learn that there were no aboriginal people inhabiting these islands before the Portuguese.  Funchal is the capital, the largest city and port of Madeira.  It is named after the Portuguese, “funcho” or fennel.  It is twinned with Honolulu and Cape Town amongst others.

We like the pizza men on the ship but have yet to try the pizza.

Most nights there are 6 of us for dinner and occasionally the full 8.  Anyway our routine has been messed up due to the weather.  The Madeira blog came out when it should have but we didn't actually make it there until 12th.  We were delayed for one day to start with and they took us to Los Palmas instead as the sea was treacherous around Madeira.  It wasnt good when we finally got there either.  Three times they delayed our voyage there and we kept having to phone Happy Tours to change our Madeira trip.  they weren't so happy by the third time we changed it.

We seem to be making it out at night for the first time ever.  In fact we are staying up more than Sue and Ian, having ben in the night club the last 3 nights until about 2:30am.

We finally got picked up by not so Happy Tours and he took us off on a half day tour instead of our full day one that we had paid for.  He took us around Funchal and then up the mountain for some sights.

We stopped at a market but they were selling hand made jumpers and funny ponchos.

The views were good up the mountain but you could see all the clouds that form the calderas that they channel into.

Next stop the fish market in Funchal but it was very smelly and we didn't recognize many of the fish.

Next we found an indoor market that sold fruit, vegetables and flowers.

We then had a walk around the narrow streets and found a little bar in a cobbled street where we stopped for a drink.  It started raining so we stopped for a second one.  Then it really came down so we went inside and ordered pizzas for lunch then asked them to order us a taxi which took us back to the ship.

The taxi driver showed us all the damage that the rough seas had done.  It had blown down gas pipes and the sea wall by large stones being washed in with the sea.  One of the ships was smashed and two others were stuck there for two days until it got a bit better.  Tonight is another Gala dinner where we have to wear our DJ’s and we set off back to Tenerife.  Tomorrow night will be our last and we head back to Gran Canaria after that where Claire and I have an extra week and Ian and Sue fly home.