Blogs from Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, Europe - page 2

March 26 – Madeira It’s 7:30 am, the room is still dark the sun hasn’t begun to show itself. All I see is Kirsten’s smiling face, Good Morning sugar. We’re home, I look out our cabin sliding doors and it truly looks like I’m looking out our bedroom sliding doors overlooking Lake Howard. We’re in Madeira, our first stop after crossing the Atlantic. It’s an island part of an archipelago islands belonging to Portugal off the coast of Africa. We docked sometime early, Kirsten was up, dressed, ready for breakfast leaving out the door saying I’ll see you up on the Lido Deck. You better hurry, were getting off the ship on the first group. I rollout of bed and hurry getting dressed. I arrive on the Lido deck Kirsten has already has my breakfast waiting ... read more

Thursday October 13– Another lazy start to the day. Slept until 7:30 and then did a little organizing and who knows what else in the morning. Where does the time go? At one point I heard my Airbnb host leave the apartment next door (cleaning, I think), so I opened up and asked him for a new garbage bag. Mine was not full, but it did have a rotting orange that was stinking up the place every time I opened the garbage can. He showed me where they were – I thought I had looked everywhere but had overlooked them. He had left me some fruit when I arrived, but on my first or second day, I realized that the orange was all moldy underneath, threw it in the bin, and have been regretting it ever ... read more

No real blog here. Just wanted to show off the Painted Door Project on behalf of the artists who painted them. Take a look - impressive.... read more

Es geht wieder los… eine unserer liebsten Urlaubsbeschäftigungen steht auf dem Plan: Canyoning! Wir sind ehrlich gesagt ein wenig aufgeregt, denn ich habe uns für die Intermediate Tour angemeldet und somit nicht für eine harmlose Anfänger-Tour. Und das bei den Schluchten, die wir hier schon haben sehen dürfen. Adrenalin von Sekunde 1! Der Pickup ist überpünktlich und wir starten im vollen Van. Augusto hat gute Laune und beste Guide Qualitäten. Auch das Sicherheits-Briefing überzeugt uns – es ist tiefergehend als wir es bisher bekommen haben und das ist gut so. Auch die Ausrüstung ist sehr gut und damit steigt unsere Aufregung noch einmal: werden wir so viel mehr an „Ausbildung“ brauchen als zuvor? Es geht in den Canyon und schon der Marsch dahin hat es in sich: die Schluchten sind grandios und man ist froh einen ... read more

Madeira Blog 8th January 2020 We left Southampton on the 4th January heading to the balmier waters initially of Madeira before we head across the pond to even more calmer waters. Four sea days to Madeira and the six sea days to our first Caribbean port of call of Barbados Having visited Funchal on a number of occasions its good to reacquaint to some of the picturesque areas of the Island. The island lies west of Morocco and north of the Canaries and the day before arriving we have already seen whales and dolphins as we head into warmer waters. As this is post Christmas and New Year, they still have the decorations up (they are up until Easter). Our last visit was during their famed flower festival, todays visit they are prepping all the gardens, ... read more