Day 34..Happy Thanxgiving ...day at sea

a very Happy Thanxgiving to all on our first full day at sea as we begin our transatlantic crossing ... partly cloudy skies earlier in the morning gave way to mostly sunny blue skies from mid-morning on ..the winds were up and building  and the Captain in his daily briefing mentioned even stronger winds for the overnite as the ship altered course more to the south  as compared to last year's crossing ..went to the Indonesian Crew Show at 11pm in the main showroom tonite.. as always they put on a great show and are very talented...  a super-fun show to be at..

Day 33..Funchal Madeira Portugal..day 2

temps in the low 70's with some early morning clouds changing to blue skies in late morning...we took a ship's tour this morning heading up to a beautiful high location Eira Do Serrado at over 3000 feet high...temps dropped down to 51* as we walked up to the peak ... on the way down we stopped at the highlite of the tour for us in the small village of Monte and the 'sleigh ride' down the streets and halfway down the mountain.. we did it last year and it is still a hoot...    Funchal Sleigh Ride video
 .... a short stop in Funchal near the local Mercado-market and it was back to the ship for an early afternoon sailaway as we sailed along the southern coast of Madeira and the beginning of our 7 day transatlantic crossing for our next port Half Moon Cay, Bahamas.....Madeira has become one of our favorite islands to visit..

Day 32.. Funchal, Madeira, Portugal

we arrived in this beautiful island of Madeira,Portugal at the port of Funchal it's capital city..... having been here on last year's cruise we had planned ahead  and decided to take the Hop On - Hop Off bus tour and do the two routes across the southern part of the island and over to the village of camera de lobos.. what a view... we completed our tour and decided to go the the mercado9 Market)  where we walked around and sampled some fruits and roasted nuts...  after leaving the mercado we hop on the bus and took it two stops into the downtown Rambla area..  we had lunch at an outdoor cafe  using the free wifi and listening to a local live quartet ...  a nice lunch with of course a capuccino topped off the visit as it began to drizzle...  after walking around the town we hopped a taxi ride back to the ship...  later after having dinner on the ship we tried to go back downtown but the rains came down out of the mountains and curtailed our plans...  we stay here overnite and have a ship's tour planned for tomorrow..as always is the case ship's internet super-slow so limited on the pics posted..

Day 31.. day at sea

a quiet uneventful day at sea as the seas calmed down from last nite as we are enroute to our next port..the island of Funchal, Madeira, Portugal.. off the coast of Africa a couple of hundred miles north of the Canary Islands where we had visited on the beginning of this cruise.. overcast skies and 60* temps for most of the morning giving way to a an hour or so of sunshine midday as we sat outside on the Navigation deck-aft for a while..it was another 'formal nite' at dinner tonite

Day 30..Lisbon day 2

our original plan was to do another Hop on Hop Off bus tour today as we went on a tour of Lisbon on last year's cruise...... a mixup occurred and we all decided to catch a ride to downtown Lisbon on the bus...   we walked around the pedestrian only street with some friends from the ship including Ruth..Fran and Bill...the pastry shops just kept on 'calling us' so a 'timeout' had to be made at a pastry shop and outdoor cafe which we remembered from last years visit here  where we tried an assortment of delicious pastries and a cappuccino which I might add was quite  'different' from any cappuccino we've had in Spain and Italy.. and pretty darn good too...  we walked thru the main square watching the 'street people' performing their musical acts..  since this was a Sunday downtown was not as busy as it normally is.. off the main street  and walking area a lot of the shops were closed.. we doubled back and after a couple of hours hopped onto the '728' bus taking it back along the waterfront a few stops back to the ship...  we walked by the train station ..got some free wifi there.. had some more chestnuts at our favorite vendor..took a few pics with him and it was back onboard for our sailaway back along the tagus River passing by the statue of Christ at the bridge at 330pm...  after dinner we had an invite to a cocktail party on the Lido deck... a pretty nice fun filled day in a very nice city.. ship's internet still super-slow to post a lot of pics

Day 29..Lisbon day 1

after a bumpy overnite thru windy conditions along the Atlantic coast from the sail up from Cadiz we arrived at the mouth of the Tagus River and our approach to the city of Lisbon with a double rainbow greeting us in a brief rain shower...  the temps were nice at 65* with the sun and clouds mixing it up...  ..after we docked about noontime we decided to do another Hop On-Hop Off bus tour of the city...  we did two of the four routes as the winds picked up and the air became a bit kewler while riding the open upper level of the bus...our arrival back at the ship was after 4pm with a quick stop for some roasted chestnuts ..decided to have dinner onboard and then walked outside afterwards for some local pics and  to get some more chestnuts in front of the entrance to the Lisbon Railroad station just across from our ship's dock.. we have dubbed the resident 'chestnut man' the best chestnuts in all of Europe bar none and the cheapest at 2 Euros..  we will venture out tomorrow after our overnite stay in port..

Day 28..Cadiz, Spain

a late sunrise and an early morning tour up to Seville about 1 1/2 hour bus ride from Cadiz... sunny blue skies.. 78*.. but a long day...  for me the ride wasn't worth it..overplayed ..not what I thought Seville was.. just a bustling city ..should have stayed in Cadiz a nice quiet beachfront city that I really like a lot and unfortunately this time around didn't get to see...  we left the port at 730pm enroute to our next port..Lisbon for a two day overnite stop.. about an hour after sailing we ran into a large thunderstorm with heavy rains and strong 40+ mph winds that continued to make a bumpy ride north

Day 27....Gibraltar

another windy day  with the usual large cloud hanging over the 'Rock' on our approach to this port... we took a ship's tour up to the 'top of the Rock'.. and the rest of the area..Barbary Monkeys everywhere.. they seemed to be a lot more docile this year than last.. however we did hear of a few passengers getting bitten ...and of course food was involved.....a bit of a disappointment as the tour did not make a photo stop at Europa Point as they normally do..might have to say something to the ship about that...   it seems we left Italy at the right time with all the protests and demonstrations we have seen on the news in the past couple of days .. didn't affect us so far...   our next port is Cadiz arriving there tomorrow morning