Madeira

Thursday 4th December

I set my alarm for 8:15 as I had arranged to meet Jenny and Judith for breakfast at 9am. I would have had trouble sleeping much later than that as there were so many announcements! It was lovely to have a leisurely private breakfast in the dining room, all alone up in the top section. We had great service.

We met up at 10.15 to leave the ship. We caught the shuttle bus into Madeira as we’d been told it would take an hour to walk to the cable car. As we got on the bus our cruise cards were scanned and we will be charged for the bus. This is a new thing. People who have paid full fares get the shuttle buses for free while those on saver fares are charged. (The charge was $US4.50 each way.)

It was lovely walking through Madeira. The sun was shining and it was so warm that I had to take off my jacket. The trip up in the cable car was very smooth. The cars come so frequently that there was hardly any wait. We bought a combination ticket giving us the return ride on the cable car plus entrance to Monte Gardens.

The gardens are lovely but involve a lot of walking with ups and downs. There are many paths to choose from, and the map is not very clear or to scale. It was all a lot of guesswork. We knew we had to head for the pond at the bottom. I suggested that we meander down gradually, taking the interior paths, as we could then come up the boring route on a little buggy. That worked. We loved the display of minerals in one of the outbuildings. Nature is wonderful. I regretted having no water with me, but at least we had banana bread and could sit and eat that while waiting for the buggy to take us back to the top. Last time I was in the gardens it was late Spring and the bushes seemed to be between Spring and Summer flowerings. This time it was early Winter and again there were few flowers. Still, the layout is lovely.

We came down on the cable car with a few crew members and heard about life on the ship from their perspective. We sat in a café at the base of the cable car and drank coffee, then sheltered from the rain inside the shop. We were told by another passenger that it would only take 20 minutes to walk back to the ship, so we set off along the promenade. It was probably closer to 40 minutes. We could see the ship right opposite us when we started, but could not get there without walking on water. We had to go in a large U, past the Braemar (Fred Olsen), which was berthed closer in.

Although we had enjoyed the sun, the storm clouds over the island as we departed, were spectacular.

Lunch in the King’s Court was followed by time in our rooms. I decided to catch up on my diary and to have room service dinner rather than go to the dining room. I enjoyed penne bolognaise.

I went to the Queen's Room as usual to dance. Jenny arrived about 10:30 to say that Judith was not feeling well and had skipped dinner. When Jenny got back to her room she found a message from Judith to say that she had Norovirus and was therefore quarantined for 48 hours. She had a very unpleasant time when it first hit her system. The ship was well set up to deal with it. A cleaning crew took care of any mess in her room. The cleaning crew came a couple of times in order to make sure that no bugs were left in the room. (Still, I am never completely sure that they will get every spot. Whenever I go on a ship I take disinfectant wipes with me to wipe down things like the telephone, the remote control, and the door and drawer handles, things they might have missed.)