Funchal, Madiera, Portugal

I know, I know...I'm very slow! This is the last port day that I have to share with you and in my opinion it was the prettiest. I would love to be able to go back some day and spend more time in Portugal.

Once again we got off the ship with no real plans. We dined with a family that had visited Madeira before and they told us is was unnecessary to buy the bus ticket into town, which were 4.00 each way. So, we took out walking...and we walked...and we walked...and we walked. We were beginning to second guess the decision to walk to town when a gentleman approached us and told us he could take us all over the island and be our personal tour guide for the day. He was a pretty aggressive salesman and I could tell the girls were rather nervous. After Brent dickering with him about the price, the final price was 130 Euro. Brent hemmed and hawed and told the man he would have to pass. We took out walking again. About 100 yards up the road we were approached again...same scenario only this time the man only wanted 90 Euros. Brent again contemplated and then turned him down. Just up ahead there was a small group of taxi drivers and one of them appearing to be a little more timid waited until we were walking away and then ran toward us. He explained that he would be our personal tour guide for the day at the rate of 60 Euro. For the 3rd time, Brent declined the assistance of a tour guide. As we are walking off the girls are begging Brent to not accept any offers; they do not want to sit in a taxi all day with a strange man. Period. We only walked about 20 feet and the timid taxi driver ran after us again and offered to do it for only 50 Euro. The girls again are begging Brent to not accept. Brent tells the driver that he'll be right back. He then tells us to just stay put that he'll be right back. He takes off towards the group of taxi drivers that we have already passed and  asked them if any one of them could beat the timid driver's price. I guess no one wanted to put up with us for less than 50 Euros. Brent agrees to accept the offer and asked the driver where his car is, because it's sure not anywhere where we can see it. He tells us that it is up the hill. You know, just up the hill...it sounds so simple, "just up the hill". Off we all go following the taxi driver as he heads towards his car. Only at this point Blair is crying saying that she wants to go back to the ship because she is scared to death of this driver, or any of the drivers for that matter. I am literally pushing her up this hill, and let me tell you...this isn't just any hill. You don't look out in front of you, you have to look up to see where you are going. I was huffing and puffing so hard that the driver turned around and asked if I would prefer he brought the car to me. Of course being the prideful person I am, I told him that I was just fine. My lungs were screaming and my arms were getting tired of pushing, but I was determined to succeed! We finally made it to the car with two daughters that really didn't want to be. The driver explains our options as to where we can go and we decide the first stop will be the Botanical Gardens. Oh my, what a beautiful place.

This was in a shopping area on the way to the gardens:





Their Angel Wing Begonias are like shrubs!



You can see the cable car in this picture.  This is something that most tourists want to do.  They ride the cable car to the top and then they do this basket ride down the mountain.  The baskets look like a sled on wooden runners and two men, one on each side of you, run you down the mountain.  If we would have had more time we would have done that too; unfortunately, we ran out of time and energy.




A view of our ship from the gardens:









There were quiet a few waterfalls that we saw while we were there.  Just one of the reasons it reminded me of Hawaii.







Brent heading up to the top:



"Come on girls, you can do it."



"I think I can, I think I can."




And this is Lovers Cave:



Standing inside Lovers Cave looking out:



Our ship was huge, but this picture shows just how huge it really is:



I loved this sign for the women's bathroom:



I know, I became quite intrigued by every loo, toilet, water closet...etc that we used on this trip.  But isn't this neat?  I loved it!  It was like a green house and the sinks were so cute.



All that walking really worked up an appetite!  They had this cute little open-air pastry shop in the gardens. We ordered a couple of espressos and this delicious coconut pastry.



Can't you tell?



One of my more favorite pictures from the trip:



This is at the very top of the list of favorite pictures....and I'm not even sure why.  My favorite is coming!








I took this so I would remember what all walkways were like in Madeira.  Little did I know how dangerous these beautiful walkways could be.



The bird of paradise were absolutely beautiful...*sigh*  I'm so ready to go back.











Madeira is a farming community, where they grow bananas, mangoes, and grapes.



Camera de Lobes (Lair of the Sea Wolves) is a small fishing village that we visited and this is a picture looking out into the Atlantic

This is my most favorite picture! 

On the other side of looking back into the village.  See the fish that they are drying?



And then we went up the mountain and this is the village looking down on it:




Remember that I mentioned that they grow bananas, mangoes and grapes?  Look at this picture and you can see the bananas and the grapes.  Any place you see green, that would be banana trees and all the brown patches are grapes.




Our Taxi driver about half way up the mountain:



Our final destination was to see the world's second highest sea cliff, Cabo Girao.  This is looking down from Cabo Girao:




And then looking out:



Looking down again:



The family tourist snapshot to prove that we were there:



After we left this area our very nice driver too us back into town so that Brent retrieve some cash from an ATM to pay the driver.  After doing that we looked around in a mall and bought some water and a few supplies at a grocery store.  We were heading back to the ship when all the sudden Ashley falls very hard on the stone path, just like the picture above.  Brent was about 20 feet in the lead, followed by Blair.  I was behind Ashley and I don't know what I was thinking but I just looked at her and wondered why she wasn't getting up.  There was an older gentleman and his wife were right behind us and he quickly bent down and picked Ashley up.  He held her just like he was doing the Heimlich maneuver on her.  He was so sweet and he held her until she had her balance and Brent was by her side.  Immediately blood started pouring down her leg.  Always my quick thinker, Brent took the water bottle he had and started washing Ashley's knee off.  Now, we just had to get her back to the ship, and it's about 20 minutes of brisk walking.  Ashley was such a great sport!  She hiked her skirt up and didn't complain at all. 





We did stop and take a break about 2/3 the way back to our ship when we saw this ship.  This is an exact replica of the Santa Maria.  You know..... the Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria? 






How would you like to fix dinner here tonight?






Ashley's knee after getting back to the ship. Needless to say, this really affected her ability to do several things over the next few days.

Vigo, Spain

For the past two port days we've had a plan, but today we simply did not.  We have absolutely no idea what we are going to do, where we are going, or even how we are going to get there. This photo is the best depiction of our fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants stance we took when arriving.  We stood at many a street corner trying to figure out what we were going to do next.

This restaurant was at the end of the street, right outside of the port. I just loved the colors and the ship-like look.



Some street vendors setting up their wares to sell for the day:

As you can tell, the buildings are quite close together and everything is either very up, or very down, but there just isn't much level ground in Vigo.

I absolutely loved all the stone! The cobblestone streets were so neat, but not very convenient when pulling a backpack on wheels!



Have you ever seen landscaping like this?



And believe it or not, this is not a one-way street!

Ashley is just too cute:

Notice the cat on the roof top? They were everywhere!



Ashley had a blowout with her dressy shoes on our first formal night, so we were trying to find a replacement pair for her. We saw a lot of interesting shoes in the process. Isn't this a unique way to display shoes?





And again... I just loved the fresh produce!



My girls were so embarrassed when we walked into this little pastry shop and I pointed to something,(I cannot even remember what it was) and the lady behind the counter thought that I wanted it. I took my picture and walked out, but my children said I was being very rude. I wasn't intentionally rude, what I call it is a language barrier; we simply didn't understand each other. I was pointing and complimenting the food and she thought I wanted to buy.



Around the corner from the pastry shop was this lonely little flower box of flowers:



We walked up and up and up...everything all day long was up hill until we were done finished and then it was all downhill. As we were walking up Blair discovered this door knocker:

I promise, even though it appears that Brent is wearing a skirt, he clearly is not:

I'm not joking when I say everything is UP! I could eat anything I wanted if I lived in Spain and walked everywhere.

But, then again I wouldn't want to live in Spain and have a small flat with only this kind of balcony. I'd really miss my yard.



Blair being her beautiful self:




Almost at the top looking back down to our ship:



And again the wonderful thing about Europe; fresh food everywhere!



I'm not real sure what this is for, but I thought it was pretty neat. It was placed in the middle of a roundabout.

Walking down the street this was a creepy thing to see:




We heard all this racket and chanting going on and we just had to investigate. In very rudimentary English a gentleman standing next to us explained that it was a protest and it had something to do with welfare.





Still searching for that perfect pair of shoes, we went into this mall and right outside the entrance was this pooch. I couldn't believe it. I've seen huge dogs that can take care of themselves tied up in a public place, but never had I witnessed a poor defenseless puppy being left to itself.



Do you notice anything interesting in this picture? The girls and I could not believe this when we saw it! Since when do you decorate with or sell plungers right along with accessories?



We didn't have any luck in that mall, so we headed to the outdoor mall area:

This is where I, Mom, start getting really fussy! I mean really fussy. My teenage daughter isn't having any luck finding the right shoes, and I'm hungry...really hungry. Brent walks into at least a dozen little sandwich shops and walks back out. What a tease! We've been told that we need to have seafood, so I think the sandwiches just aren't what he was looking for. We finally stop at a restaurant and we are seated. It smells so bad that I've instantly lost my appetite. Then the lady at the next table over lights up her cigarette and it begins to get even smellier. I felt so bad, but I just couldn't do it; I simply couldn't eat with smoke wafting around my head and up my nostrils. Brent was so kind to tell the waiter that we'd changed our minds. We take off walking and Brent spots another place to eat. At street level you looked down into this restaurant. It had a sign above the bar area that said "No Smoking". Just kidding, we were in Spain and I think it said "No Fumar". I don't speak Spanish, but I knew that sign meant something good! We walk down into the restaurant and it's a little spooky. The girls have decided at this point that they are just going to wait until they get back to the ship to eat something. Brent and I look at the menu and don't understand a thing! You'd think living in Texas we could have deciphered some of it, but this isn't a enchilada, rice and beans type of place we frequent at home. So, we choose to use the point and smile method of communicating. When we walked in Brent saw these shells with something in them just sitting on the counter, so he points at them and tell the guy we want two. I try real heard to not allow the gag reflex kick, but really...the food is just sitting out in the open where any dirty handed urchin could touch them. It takes forever for them to put them on plates and bring them to us. The girls are enjoying the basket of bread that was brought to our table. I didn't want to hurt Brent's feeling so when "it" arrived, I dove right in. And you know what? It was absolutely delicious! In about three bites it was gone and I wanted another one. It was the most interesting thing and I still don't know what it was. There was a small piece of seafood in the middle of breading, but the flavors were so unique and so wonderful. All we ordered were those two shells and a single shot of espresso, and our bill was 22.00 Euros, which is approximately $34.00. Needless to say, I was very thankful that the girls decided they wanted to wait for the free food on the ship.




We left the restaurant all fairly exhausted and the girls are ready to eat, so we head back to the ship. Here are just a few more pictures of Vigo:

The Port in Vigo: