Category Archives: Madeira

Europe, Madeira, Portugal, Travelogue

Travelogue Canary Islands 3: Funchal

FUNCHAL
13 March 2025

Although the Canary Islands are Spanish, our cruise itinerary included a bonus day on the Portuguese islands of Madeira. With only the one day to explore, we decided to focus on Funchal and do it properly. We booked tickets for the Funchal Yellow Bus hop-on-hop-off experience through the travel desk on our cruise ship which gave us access to the tour bus that came right onto the quay in front of the disembarkation point.

The bus itself is exactly what you’d expect—open top, audio guide in 10 languages. The route winds through the old town, past the cable car station (mental note: do that next), and up into the hills where the views get increasingly smug-worthy. The commentary was just enough history to feel cultured, not so much that you start checking your watch.

We hopped off the bus at Camara de Lobos; a fishing village so pretty that it looks photoshopped! Its claim to fame is that Churchill stayed in the Reid’s Palace Hotel in 1950 and set up his painting easel outside to capture the picturesque colourful boats, whitewashed houses and dramatic cliffs. We set Dorothy down on the bench next to Winston for a snappy for our holiday album before the inevitable fridge magnet hunt.

We hopped back on the bus to take us to the Lido promenade. The promenade stretches for about 2 km, linking the Lido area to Praia Formosa beach on a decorated tiled path. It was lined with palm trees, lush botanical gardens, and benches where locals less on-a-mission than we were took time to sit and stare at the ocean for a while. (Of course, being the Atlantic, the water is freezing so staring is probably the best way to experience it!)

After some discussion when we got back on the bus, the mothers, petered by the long walk and a few steep-climb hills, decided to hop off at the bus stop at the quayside to retire back to the ship while Chris and I continued back into town with full intention of cashing in the wine-tasting that was included in our bus ticket.

We walked along the pleasant shaded avenue in the city centre, admiring the seamless combination of understated modern conveniences alongside the authentic old-world charm until we found Blandy’s. We cashed in the complimentary tastings and topped up with a pay-in to complete the flight of their Madeiran sweet wines. Did you know Madeira wine was used to toast the signing of the US Declaration of Independence? Neither did I. Cheers, George Washington.

Although not to our usual palette, it was worth it to have the experience in the motherland, and we bought a combo pack to take home for our Wine & Dine tasting club.

Canary Islands, Europe, Madeira, Spain

Travelogue Canary Islands 1: Las Palmas

LAS PALMAS DE GRAN CANARIA
09 – 10 March 2025

It was bittersweet to plan our trip to the Canary Islands. As one of the few cruises my folks had not done, it had seemed a fitting family reunion and send-off for Pappy’s ashes. Sadly, passport admin prevented our Irish family from meeting up with us, but we decided to go ahead with the mothers anyway as a something-to-look-forward to holiday after a particularly tough 2024.

We spent the next few months planning and booking and debating and packing. And then we were off! Up in the sky on a Lufthansa flight through Frankfurt to meet the MSC Opera cruise ship in Las Palmas, the capital of Tenerife.

Having made no transfer arrangements, we struck luck spotting an MSC representative as we walked through into the Arrivals Hall. There was a cruise shuttle waiting right outside to take us to the ship. Just short of an hour later, we’d completed our first excursion as the scenic bus route northward along the coastline to Santa Cruz, and were the first of our busload to check in.

Having been in transit for a considerable amount of time and breakfast seeming like a distant memory, first order of business on the ship was to find lunch. Which we did with vigour and purpose at the buffet restaurant. A long horseshoe of delicious things had us loading our over-sized plates with more food than any one person should be allowed at a single sitting!

On conclusion, we located our cabins and realised that the mothers had been erroneously allocated a double cabin with a lifeboat completely obscuring their window, when they should have had a twin with a view. That would not be! With prompt escalation, their amendment was soon in motion – and resulted in an upgrade to a much bigger and nicer cabin.

After a bit of an explore around the lounges, bars, shops, pools and games areas, the labyrinth of a ship started taking shape in our mind-maps, giving natural perspective and orientation to front vs back and the various decks. It was soon time to wander over to the lucky draw at the Spa; we  came up dry, but took the win on how expertly we’d navigated to the correct side of the correct deck first time.

This left us an hour and a bit to rest and recover in time for our dinner in the main restaurant, where we had pre-booked the 18h30 sitting for the duration. Having splashed on the Dine & Drinks drinks package, we were soon doing exactly that. A lot too close to our feast at lunchtime, truth be told! Still, we soldiered through our 3 courses and a mix of white and red wines over our first meal experience in our allocated booth for dinners for the week.

Exhausted from the journey and pleased to be able to be horizontal for the night, we were soon ensconced in our respective cabins, welcoming the clean, smooth white linen and drifting off to the gentle rhythm of the motion of the ocean as our sea hotel moved on to the next port.

MONDAY

Since our itinerary had us spending a few nights on Gran Canaria at the end of the trip, we felt no obligation to splash out on any formal excursions on our first day. We did find a Hop On Hop Off bus for Las Palmas that stopped right outside the cruise port, which would be a wonderful way to get a low-effort lay of the land.

Indulging on an enormous multi-course buffet breakfast – rationalising that we would need to keep up our strength on the bus tour all day – we waddled off the ship to the bus stop.

The route was about an hour and a half in total and we were happy to view most of the spread-out sights in Las Palmas from the bus, with the audio guide filling in details about what we were seeing, as well as the usual factoids about the life and people of the place.

We learned that Las Palmas dates back to Neolithic settlers who lived in caves and was the first port in the Canary Island. It now sees more than a million passengers pass through every year, largely thanks to its reputation as ‘the City of Eternal Spring’ (around 18-26 degrees all year round) and having some of the best urban beaches in the world. Home to 400 000 people, it is the biggest city in the Canaries and the 9th biggest in Spain. It is also the sister city of San Antonio, Texas.

We did hop off the bus at the Las Palmas Old Town, to see the famous St Ana church and the charming square and cobbled streets surrounding it. It was a pleasure to enjoy the moderate early afternoon sunshine while absorbing the scenery.

When the bus returned to the quayside stop, we parted ways with the mothers, who were on the hunt for a bevvy, while we were eager to explore the La Isletta peninsular on foot. We discovered a bustling waterfront area with holiday-makers tanning and swimming in the bluer-than-blue sea, or eating and drinking at the many cafes that lined the promenade.

We decided we would return with the troops during our Gran Canaria stay at the end of our trip. The mothers were very pleased with our discovery and decision, when we found them very settled on Deck 11 and flexing their drinks package to create their own sundowner event. We had all adjusted quite well quite quickly to cruise life.