Around The Island: 17 March 2023

 

 We finished our 7 straight days at sea and finally landed at Mederia. We have been here before but it was nice to finally get to a port. One of the things about an Atlantic crossing at this time of year is that all the sea days are first. We have one more sea day and then 5 daysof ports before heading home. We booked a fully day tour of the island since we had not seen very much of it before. We were gone by 9:30 and came back at 5:30. We did 5 stops. The first was a small sea side village with great views of one of the highest cliffs in the world. We had some time to walk around and get a feel for the town. The next stop was at the highest point on Funchal in the middle of the island. We were crossing from the south coast to the north coast. We were headed to Soa Vicente, another coastal town where we had lunch in a very nice restaurant right at the water. It was tasty and they did serve lots of wine. Needless to say it was a success. The highlight might have been that they had free wifi and people were using the internet to call all over. I was able to finally download some messages. However back at the ship tonight the wifi was “working (there was a signal) but it would not download anything.

   After lunch we drove along the coast to Porto Moniz which has a number of ocean swimming pools. They were closed because the waves were too strong. However the crashing waves made for some nice pictures. The area was used to film some parts of another Star Wars movie to be released in the future. From there we headed back to the ship, making a stop at a sugar cane producing factory. They turn the cane into molasses and then into rum. We had a taste of some local drink made from the rum. By the time we got back to the ship it was nearly sailing time.

  Dinner tonight was shared with 2 new couples; one American and the other from Great Britain. Everyone had interesting things to say but we missed our regular dinner companion. They went to a specialty restaurant for their anniversary. Today was St Patrick's Day and they had a “party” but we elected to see the comic. What a bust. Very few people laughed in the 45 show.

Another time change tonight, the last one for the cruise. Tomorrow is our last sea day.