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.