4/25 – 5/2
Eight days brought us almost across the Atlantic Ocean to the city of Funchal on the Portuguese island of Madeira. Maybe you remember the Kingston Trio song, “Have Some Madeira My Friend”? We took the ship shuttle into town to check the place out. We visited the local market and fish store then checked out a church that was built in the early 1500’s. We took a cable car up a mountain to get a bird’s eye view of the city. On the top we found these neat wicker sleds that you could take back down the mountain. Unfortunitly we had purchased a round-trip ticket on the cable car and did not have enough money for the sled ride. Since Ken is an old Kingston Trio fan he felt it necessary to purchase a small bottle of Madeira wine. The cruise ship will confiscate (store) any liquor brought on board so we had the wine in a nice city park (yes, out of the bottle in a paper bag). Although we bought the dry version of Madeira, it was still a little sweet for our taste. Joan thought it tasted like sherry.