April 12 Tokyo

 For some reason we find it impossible to make a connection when traveling internationally, outbound. Our trip to London last year for the start of an 80-day trip required rebooking after the connecting flight was delayed. Our luggage, however, got an extra 4 days worth of travel.

This year our originating flight was delayed by 1:35 eating up all but 10 minutes of the connection in ATL. So we moved over two gates and booked through Seattle, with a 45 minute connection to Tokyo. Well, that flight was slightly delayed, then took 15 minutes to taxi to the gate in SEA. By the time we got the international flight they had given away our seats, so we spent the night in Seattle, courtesy of Delta.

Enough of that. We made it Tokyo one day late, fortunately we had planned to arrive 3 days early. 

The flight took the northern route to Japan.

We're staying at the Tokyo Hilton Odaiba. Our room has an outstanding view, as do most of the rooms.

The cherry blossoms are still in bloom.

The Rainbow Bridge is right outside our window.

A nearby building/Death Star

Our hotel, viewed from one of the many walkways along the water.

We walked along the main road, to find food and stay awake for few hours.

A photo booth! As we found out later, this area is very popular in the evenings, with a large mall right next to our hotel.

As we walked back from dining, there's a miniature Statue of Liberty along the waterfront.

That evening.

On our single day in Tokyo we took the subway into town, just to walk around in the sunlight and see the city. Not very crowded at 8am on a Saturday.

Shimbashi Subway station

Hibiya Park, just south of the Imperial Palace gounds

The moat

One of a pair of gates guarding access to the grounds.

Nijubashi Bridge

After two hours of walking around the Imperial Palace grounds, we found the subway again and eventually found our train and went to Ginza district, Tokyo's shopping street.

Every high end retailer was present in this area. Lots of opportunity to spend money. We found a Disney Store and bought a Chip and Dale Keychain.

Tiffany's

After an afternoon nap we went out for food again, and the area was quite busy. Instead of walking along the street level we were on the third level promenade. There's our hotel.

The Rainbow Bridge lit up at night. The lights went out about midnight.

 

 From our hotel room. That's the mini Liberty in the lower right.

 

 

Sept 25 Funchal Portugal

 After a pleasant and restful day at sea, we arrived at a new place for us. Funchal is the capital city of the Madeira Islands, just north of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic west of Morocco.

The days are getting shorter -- it's still dark as we approach the town. Everything looks better at night.

A shuttle bus was available for "mobility impaired" so we took the pleasant 20-minute walk into town. Apparently access was controlled through this gate.

Moving from painters to players, Funchal's most famous son is Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the best soccer players of his time. Several waiters in the buffet were eager to visit the CR7 museum just across the harbor from our docked ship. I told them it was a one-kilometer walk or 200 meter swim to the museum.

In a world of motorbikes, this is a limousine

This hotel is ....

Street art made from artificial vegetables.

The cathedral

Ceiling of the cathedral

Yet another church at the town square

Town hall

A captive river runs through the town

Many building walls are decorated with Portuguese tiles

Although not mobility impaired, we took a taxi from the town to the pier. The last kilometer from CR7 to the ship was without any shade. Later that afternoon, here's what the place looks like in daylight.

Sept 23 Malaga Spain

 I wonder if the Malaga airport could handle all of the last minute arrival and departures that Oceania created when the changeover day shifted from Lisbon (harbor pilot strike) to Malaga. Lots of flights had to get changed. The easiest were the people who flew into Lisbon a day early -- they could then fly to Malaga (space available) today. The itinerary change was published about two weeks ago so there should have been time to fix things. I didn't hear much complaining at the dinner tables around us.

We had not scheduled an excursion so we did our two hour stroll through town that turned into more than 3 hours. There was supposed to be a shuttle bus from the pier to the town. We boarded that bus and 10 minutes later, after a high volume phone call in Spanish, the driver sent us all off. A tour company rep on the pier said the bus was broken and a new one would arrive in 20 minutes (which I immediately converted to 30+ real minutes). She also said the walk into town was about 20 minutes so we took off on foot -- after I had gotten her to show me exactly on the map where the shuttle bus return would originate (you already know how this is going to end up, don't you?).

The cube house, after a pleasant 15 minute walk along the pier.

Town Hall

University

Roman ruins from the first century that we discovered in 1951 (or rediscovered, I guess).

Pablo Picaso the most famous native of Malaga. He's sitting on a bench near his family home.

Pablo's view

The Picaso Museum, head of the line. The end of the line was 200+ people down the road.

The Basilica

As you guessed, we waited at the pickup point for the shuttle bus for 45-minutes (supposedly running every 30 minutes) so we walked back. We could have taken a taxi but we were still OK with walking. Unfortunately the shade went away for the second half of the walk along the pier, leaving us feeling like this street art.