The (Cruise) Days Dwindle Down

Yesterday was a shore day in Madeira.  The weather didn't cooperate...mostly cloudy with light rain, a little sun, then pouring rain from 2pm on.  The best part of the tour was a very nice lunch at local restaurant...a local fish lightly breaded then fried to a perfect doneness, with two cooked bananas & some garlic bread.  Seemed like a fair meal for 12.50 euros.  Then came the side dishes: boiled potatoes, seafood paella & salad.  Madeira prices.

The island seems like one very large mountain that rose from the sea.  The cliffs come down to the sea leaving almost no room for beaches.  Bermuda is surrounded by beaches, Madeira has two.  Getting around Madeira has its ups and downs, literally.  Getting from one place to another means gong through tunnels, some quite long.  The narrow roads hug the mountain with a sheer drop on the outside lane.

The homes are perched on or carved into the mountainside.

<It's 6am & internet access seems OK.  Shhhh....I'm going to try to sneak in some pics>

This is a scene going through a village.  The green areas are growing bananas.

Yes, a dreary day that eventually turned to pouring rain.  A scene thru a restaurant window:

Zooming in on the water area:

Madeira is a rugged, mountainous place with some spectacular scenery that the rain muted to monochrome.

Waterfalls spring from openings in the mountainside.  Apologies for the bus window reflection.

I'm going to use this time to throw in photos that I've prepared...no particular order.

Call this the department of weird art.  I don't get the point of this one.

And this next one is just plain screwy, literally.

So what's so screwy about this piece??  Let me zoom in a bit.

Yeah, the peppers are covered with screws & nuts.  Go figure.

We have on board a wonderful string quartet; four lovely ladies that make beautiful music, from classical to Broadway.

The photo upload speeds are slowing way down which tells me the ship is waking up.  So I'm going to publish this now.  We're two days out from Barcelona & better internet.

Thanks for your patience!