3. Madeira, Ma Dear...

 

Oh, it was so lovely to wake up this morning, open the curtains and see land, not just sea! And not just any old land, but the soaring landscape of Madeira: lush green hillsides dotted with cream and terracotta houses, botanical gardens and vineyards. Three days at sea and this beautiful island has just seemed to appear out of nowhere! Grey, stony and grimy in the port, but just beyond a colourful mix of the traditional and modern: the shops, bars, restaurants and historical buildings of Funchal, the capital city. Let’s get off and get to it!

We docked at 7.16 apparently, and there must have been a bit of nifty ‘left hand down a bit’, as Ventura had reversed into the dock: port side facing the island, but starboard in front of the jetty. D was pale at the thought of leaving the ship and it was clear he would really rather just sit on deck and look at the scenery. Getting back to the ship by 4.30 or they go without you? Tooo risky…

Some judicious chivvying and the reassurance that we would allow at least two hours to get back to the ship, persuaded him to strap his travel safe, anti-theft bum bag to his waist and venture forth from Ventura. I’d decided we’d get on the hop-on, hop-off bus, as it’s such a good way of seeing a new place, and as I promised we wouldn’t do any hopping off, just stay on for the whole tour and get safely back to the port, D was on board and got off board.

Disembarking was great fun, especially as there was a real gangplank this time, although staggering down it, I rather wished it was an escalator. The Yellow Hop-On Hop-Off Bus was waiting along with all the other commercial opportunists, so we hopped on, swiped our cruise cards for a ridiculous fare, plugged our earphones into channel 3 and off we went. 

We got right to the top of the island and got a great view, spotted a few bougainvillea (disappointingly, not as many pretty flowers as I’d thought), passed a graveyard which was full of little white tomb houses, saw the Cristiano Ronaldo museum, the Charles Darwin Botanical Garden, the famous Reid’s Palace Hotel and the bay that Winston Churchill painted in 1950. D said he hoped it wouldn’t take much longer as he needed the toilet.

                                                

We didn’t see the famous Monte Toboggan Wicker Sledges, where the ‘Carreiros’ push you down the hillside for a couple of miles, or stop at the cable car station, thank God. My vertigo tolerance has already reached breaking point looking over the side of a cruise ship; I’m convinced I’ll inadvertently jump off.

D was relieved to be back down, in reach of a toilet and in view of the ship; quick coffee, then a 20 minute walk back to Ventura, job done. We had to show our cruise cards three times, clamber back up the gangplank, put our bags through a scan and walk through one ourselves. D said ‘ridiculous’ a few more times. Into the buffet for a selection of Afternoon Tea goodies, then straight to the Sail Away Singalong.

Honestly, it was heaven, swaying on the top deck (well away from the edge), singing along with the entertainment team & about 1,000 other passengers, ‘Sweet Caroline’ ‘Amarillo’, ‘Sweet Marie’ and many more, plus the Conga! The sun, which had been hiding behind a cloud for most of the day - but had been strong enough to keep the temperatures quite high – put in a proper appearance, so it was all perfect. 

Off to La Palma tomorrow, which D and I didn’t know is a Canary Island: we thought it was in Spain. You’re never too old to learn - or to dance on the deck of a ship.