torjen: Bem-vindo a Portugal, bem-vindo a Funchal

What a fantastic greeting for the sailors and so not catholic. Yes, we arrived in Funchal, Madeira. Finally home, at least a little bit. No problems with languages or culture.

– And an organizational disaster. It took us 1,5 hours to finally leave the ship and they extended the already short stay therefore for 0,5 hours. That was the worst of a long line of going ashore problems we faced. Don’t think that only because it says being at a port from 10 to 17 actually means you got that time. No no no. At least 15 to 30 minutes to set up the gangway and 15 minutes before leaving you have to be on board. There goes your first hour. Then imagine 2800 people leaving the ship on only 2 gangways, yes that is another half hour at least – and then: you are not in the city, you are at the harbor, miles away if unlucky and that means another 30 minutes, either waiting for the unorganized shuttle buses or walking or –like we did: save the time and take a cab.

So there we were, 15 minutes after leaving the ship taking on our shopping mall outside Madeira, beautifully built into the mountain. And there we were looking for books, presents, newspaper and little things (like an extension cord which then led to a confiscation on board) and of course freshly baked Pasteis de Nata (custard tarts) for all of us for the 5°clock cookie time. Packed like donkeys we headed back the same way (taxi) to the ship to free ourselves from the goodies. Torsten wanted to stay on board while I went on foot exploring the city, where of course all shops were closed, like we suspected.

Here are some images of the small town of Funchal which simply is lovely. The whole scenery reminded me of the Black Forest only with tropical plants (banana trees seem to be weed here).

lovely gay Christmas decoration