Finally! Land!

29 March

We are now on the last of our sea days.

I’ve been waking at noon or there abouts all week. At first I thought it was the booster shot, but then I realized that we have gone through 9 time changes in a very short time.  No wonder I don’t know what time it is. First we moved backwards in time when we were in Mexico, then we moved forwards again.  The past 2 nights have seen a time movement. I believe there will be more coming as we haven’t hit CET yet. Oh the confusion.

Today’s highlight was the ATW lunch.  We met a mother and her daughter for the first time.  They were a lovely couple of girls.  The food, not so much.  The duck was overcooked and the beets were…But they did set up an eggplant with feta dish for me without peppers.  I also had a lovely bowl of soup.  The dessert was overly sweet for my liking.  I know, everyone says the food is wonderful, I still disagree on many of the dishes served.  

While at lunch, Budda came around hunting people to eat in Polo so we agreed.  It was a good thing we did.  Once again we met a couple we hadn’t met before.  They were great to talk to and full of laughs.  Sharing tables are wonderful for meeting people.  The dinner was much much better than the lunch.

Between the lunch and dinner, I opted for a massage. The usual girl was out sick so I had a substitute.  Boy am I glad I did.  Her deep tissue was really DEEP tissue.  I liked her so much, I changed over the rest of my massages to her.  This will make for an even better trip now.  

George and I ended up staying awake until around 1AM just watching movies. This time change stuff is for the birds.  We are going the wrong way.  

30 March

As I already posted, we have been here for 100 days now.  

Once again I awoke late and we had just enough time for lunch before going to play cards.  We won again, but this time our partners had a much better game.  It makes it more fun when the points are closer.

At dinner in the Polo Grill yet again, we met another man who has only been on since Miami and a lady we’d met before. She too has just passed her 100th day.  I ordered a 1/2 portion of the pork chop and they obliged!  It was divine.  I loved every last bite of the fat, and the meat wasn’t bad either. 

George and I went to the room and finished a movie.  Around 1:30 AM I got on a zoom call with friends back home; much to their surprise.  I had sent an earlier email sending our regrets because of the 4 hour time difference.  It was engaging as always.  

31 March: the last sea day

Thank god!  Land tomorrow.  7 days is not a lot I know, but even George has said he’s had enough.  

I woke up at 11:00 today.  And just as soon as I did, George fell asleep again.  I sit writing this knowing we will not have lunch.  By dinner time, I will be very hungry.  It’s ok though, he needs his rest.  He’s been waking at 'normal hours' and trying to push through. The time difference has finally caught up.  Poor man.  

 

We ended up having room service.  That was like pulling teeth.  George wanted a simple ham and cheese on rye bread, I wanted plain buttered pasta.  I got spaghetti that was drowning in butter and he got ham, lettuce, and tomato on white bread in the form of a double decker club.  The French fries we didn’t order tasted good though.  

We did go down for dinner, but I don’t remember much of it.  

April 1

We were rudely awoken by the cruise director who let us know that the next two ports are out. We are now not stopping at Gibraltar or Mellila.  Gibraltar I don’t really care about.  We’ve been there before, and to be honest, one day is more than enough to see the highlights. I was however looking forward to Mellila.  It is one of two Spanish toe holds on the African continent.  Sadly, like other places on this itinerary, it was not meant to be.

Actually, I thought it must be an April fool’s joke.  I was wrong.  My next thought was "Seriously? Weather again?"  But then after getting on Facebook and Cruise Critic board I realized that many ships were losing ports so perhaps it is the weather.  

As it was April Fool’s Day, I’m sure you may have noticed my blog post about the microwave. It astounds me how ridiculous people are.  I had that posted for a very long time set to be made live on that date.  It was written after a Cruise Critic board member had a hissy fit about our scooters.  Honestly, people are so gullible.  Who the heck would bring a microwave on a cruise ship.  

Anyway, we landed in Funchal Portugal at 11 am and at 11:30 we headed out to enjoy an excursion.  I had planned in advance to ride the toboggans, and discovered the cable car ride to the top and began looking into the cost of these items and how to get there.  One of the passengers over dinner told me the night before that there was an excursion that did that, went to a cathedral and the gardens too.  Well, for double the price, I thought why not just take the ships tour.  

The first stop was the cable car.  We rode it for about 15 minutes or so.  It is much like any other cable car, but there were some stunning views.  At one point, we heard dogs barking and later we heard frogs croaking.  We later realized it was the car itself and the noise the cables were making.  Someone made a joke about it being safe, but I had already noticed the repair joints on the cable on the downhill.  I didn’t look closely at the cable that we were on.  Trust in the company to repair their equipment.

When we got to the top, the tour guide walked us to the toboggan run and told us we would go to the church but if you didn’t want to walk 85 steps then you could stay here.  George and I took off to the church.  She looked offended that we didn’t want to stand around and listen to more of her schpiel.  

The church was interesting. There was some 100 year celebration going on so the main altar was decked out in flowers.  I really liked the wooden painted ceiling.  We left and took a walk along the path to the right of the main entrance.  This lead us to the toboggans again.  I loved the walkway.  It is made up of thousands of tiny stones all set into the ground in the tiniest of steps.  

I waited in line as the guide told us to do and George went off to video the tobogganers.  After a bit someone else from our group came up and asked me if I had gotten the tickets.  It turned out our guide was waiting by the church steps with them and I had to run get a pair.  I guess I should have listened to the schpiel-it must have changed from her initial instructions.  

We waited our turn, and then, the ride!  Oh what fun!  There were times when we thought we would hit a wall on a turn, but the pushers knew exactly what they were doing and saved us every time. The speed wasn’t too bad, it was just enough to let one feel a bit of exhilaration and a small thumping of the heart.  I loved that there were men standing on the street corners stopping traffic for us to come through.  I can imagine how it was in days of old.  Although, something tells me there probably weren’t that many cars around at that time.  

The toboggans are run by 2 men who prevent them from going too fast down the hill for the most part.  Every now and again they would hop off the skids and give us a push, but that was not very often.  This was most of the ride, although, there are a few feet of road where there is no downhill so they pulled us instead.  They have special leather shoes that have what looks to be tire rubber on the bottom.  The baskets run as toboggans do on runners.  These are made of wood and are sanded to a very fine finish.  How one might ask?  Perhaps it is done as the toboggans are being built, but I have more of a feeling it is from running down the roads again and again.  When looking at the road, it shone from the wooden tracks that have rubbed against them through the years.  The ride lasts for 2 km and was originally designed for fast downhill travel from Monte to Funchal.  I for one am thrilled that this quaint tradition is still running today.  If you get a chance to do it, you should. You won’t regret it. 

When we finished the ride, we were dropped off at a rather convenient little shop and cafe.  I looked for puzzles and finding only a jigsaw, we decided our souvenir for the day would be a beer and a photograph. We did buy the photograph of our ride (also conveniently taken at two locations along the road) as we got a kick out of Georges bifurcated beard.

From here we hopped back on the bus (only after watching the toboggans being loaded on a truck and the pushers on a bus for the return up the hill)  - in the old days they would carry these big baskets on their backs all the way up to the top.  After the beer we were heading to the botanical gardens.  Here we saw a bunch of plants and trees…sigh…I was fascinated by two sites, the patterned plants on the plain and a topiary garden near the exit.  There was also the bifurcating and trifurcating tree that reminded me oh so ever much of my lovers beard...There was an hour stop for lunch built in that we weren’t told about so we sat down and had a ham sandwich, a glass of sangria, and a cherry liqueur. 

From here we were taken to an embroidery factory where we were given a small (and I mean small) sip of Madeira.  This was why I wanted this city.  The Madeira! They of course offered it for sale, but we didn’t like the sales push, nor the prices and headed out in search of a better bottle.  I got a 10 year old one vs. the 2 and 5 year old bottles they were selling for double the cost there.  We also bought some local fennel candy. George didn’t care for it, but I love it.  We once again boarded the bus and headed back to the ship.  6 hours in port.  Not long at all.  But the toboggan ride made it worth while. 

That evening we had dinner in Toscana again.  George and I spent quite a long time that evening watching movies.  I’ve now got a system.  I write the name of the movie we are watching on a post it note and when we finish it, I cross it off.  This has helped me to be able to remember the movies we have seen already.  His after dinner drink was the coffee liqueur from Costa Rica, as for me: Have some Madeira my dear.

April 2

Oh joy!  Another sea day.  We are awake to find ourselves around 1/2 way to Gibraltar.  A sight we will not see on this leg.  That’s ok.  Gibraltar will not then be the new San Diego.  The waves are calmer, it’s not bad at all and many passengers can be heard speculating as to the real reason we are not docking.  

Ah well.  Lunch is as usual but today it is a bit chilly outside.  I order a peppermint tea with whiskey.  Nice combination.  It warmed me up as expected.  After lunch we had cards with friends, and witnessed an absolute miracle. We managed to beat our opponents in one round without them having put down a single canasta.  We hypothesized that this could happen, but never expected it to.  Looking back on that hand, we had over 29000 points, they had -690.  I’ve never seen that before and doubt I will again.  

We came back to the room and I noticed that my shelves had been 'shifted'.  I guess the cleaners were looking for something.  A short while later we had a knock on the door asking about a black polo shirt.  I opened the cupboards without question as I knew I didn’t have it and have nothing to hide.  

I next went to the front desk to sort out this VeriFLY thing that we need for Malta.  Oh my what an ordeal. I spent almost 2 hours at the desk working on getting the documentation to work. There are two links that one can go to, one for flights, the other for all other modes of transportation.  Neither is labeled. Once I worked that out I asked for a piece of paper and wrote down all of the steps needed to fillout the documentation necessary.  When I uploaded all of the information, I handed over my copy of the instructions to the desk and returned to the room to upload George's information.  While at the desk, I helped a fellow passenger get her form done.  She jokingly told me at 120 years old, she had no chance of completing this.   

We went to dinner and when we returned to the room there was a notice on our door that said a lot of stuff, but basically it was telling me I was not allowed a microwave in the room. OMG!!! YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!

Well, that April fools joke worked.  Someone sent an email to Oceania accusing me of having one.  In hind site, the polo shirt business was so they could look in my closet.  I went downstairs and requested a meeting with someone about this.  Sleep did not come that night.  

Around 3-4 I watched Morocco go by outside our window.  The lights were on our port side and twinkled in greeting.  They beckoned to our ship but sadly, we passed in the night.  

3 April

At 9 I was awaken by a phone call asking for that meeting.  I went downstairs for it at 11.  Wow! It was all over this joke blog post that I put up.  No big deal.  I have no problem with it and thankfully, the gentleman I spoke to had more common sense than did the person sending the email.  He immediately noticed the date and realized what was going on.  I promised not to post another joke like that again and all was well.  So whomever the fool was that turned me in, I do hope you realize that you have been had.

The waves today are not high, but they are rolling.  I watched one boat off the port side ride into the waves.  The rolling here is much different than it is on the oceans.  I’ve been to the Mediterranean many times over the years, but this is the first time I’ve taken a boat on it.  It’s a very different creature than it is at the shore line.  

After lunch, George went to the 3PM help session for the people needing to do the paperwork for Malta.  I went for a massage.  I must say, I love this.  Today’s was so good, I fell asleep.  I have not done that in years.  It’s a compliment to the masseuse.  When I was done, I went to the Insignia lounge to get George and help where I could. One gent asked us who was the expert in the process and when I said it was me he left.  Me thinks he doesn’t care for me.  His loss.  When I left, he was still struggling.  I do hope he managed to get it to work.

An interesting conversation I had with Rod and Merry.  When the weather is rough, ships go into port.  Why then did we not?  Food for thought.  

I got a call saying the 3D printer was just fine to have in the room-mysterious person, you have been foiled again.  I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the lectures from the past couple of days.  Having them on the tv has been wonderful.  With all of the time changes we have been through since French Polynesia-12 in all, thank you Rod-I have been unable to adjust my sleep times.  I think for me, it is more the 8 that we have gone through since leaving the Panama Canal.  

Until next time, Happy Puzzling and Smooth Sailing.