Day 5, 2025 Dec. 21; Funchal, Madeira. (Still in Portugal)

And thus the good ship Queen Victoria docked without any challenges in Funchal, Madeira. Also the ms Ventura had been able to find the place and was docked ahead of us. Reason for that, was, that she had to race out at departure  to get to Santa Cruz de Tenerife and to get in ahead of the ferries. More about that later tommorrow.

The ms Ventura and ms Queen Victoria docked at the Breakwater.

With two large ships in, the south breakwater dock was nearly full. A number of years ago they built another cruise ship dock on the north side of the port, accessed from the main boulevard. Today there was nobody there but it is often used by the Germans (Tui and Aida) as a turn over port. It would have been nice to dock there as that would have avoided having to use a shuttle bus, or having to walk around the whole port to get to the same location.  That new dock is nice but it is the first time that I have seen a cruise ship dock at a pier with a small hotel and a museum on top. That museum is dedicated to the world wide known footballer (soccer player in the American langage) Cristiano Ronaldo who was born in Funchal.  It makes sense that they have a museum for him (although he is still alive and plays) as he is the most famous Madeirian ever.

Ronaldo’s Museum. Quite a few young boys were hovering around in football shirts and taking photos with his statue outside the entrance.

We waited for the exodus on the gangway to subside somewhat. To enable the exodus properly, there were 2 gangways for going out (only one on return) and so we made it ashore by 11.30. The initial plan was to get the yellow hop-on-hop off  Bus for a tour. The busses left from the ship but as it was overcast and thus without a burning sun, we decided to walk into town. We both have been around the island several times but downtown itself was a sort of white spot. Knowing that on Sunday the regular shops are mainly closed we navigated along the boulevard and then went up the hill.

The Funchal Christmas Market. The stands were the same as in any other city, Food, Drink (banana beer ?!) and arts and crafts. Anything were the flower shops, what one does not see very often in the more Northern Cities.

Here we came across a very nice christmas market; which felt wrong for one thing. NO snow.  With global warming we will have to get used to that in Nothern Europe as well but it still felt strange. But we had the chance to see Pointsettias in their natural habitat as in a lot of countries it is THE christmas flower. (On board the Queen Victoria the whole ship is full of them) In the Netherlands the flower/plant is even called “Kerstster” (Christmas Star). Music was provided by a local brassband, made up of various ages. Funny or unusual was, as long as we were around we did not hear a  single christmas song.  They played what I call “Salsa”, upbeat dancing music, arranged for a brass orchestra.  But they sounded very good.

The local brass band. One would expect christmas music but they played Salsa themed brass.

From there we found a Shopping Mall open, where the central plaza was given over to mainly coffee shops all with small terraces. In anglo saxon countries you mainly see food courts here but Portuguese people like to step out and have a coffee and chat to family and friends. As in many Southern European countries, a lot of the local life takes place outdoors and Madeira is no different. After exploring the local super market, average prices 1 euro dearer than on the continent  (most foodstuff have to be imported, as this is an island, so there are extra transport costs but compatible with the UK in prices. (Which is also an island but much closer to Europe but now has to deal with BREXIT import red tape and that drives up the price)

The whole boulevard was covered in this stringlights. I do not know if this was just for christmas or the whole year around, but it must have looked very nice in the evening time, for a boulevard stroll.

Back on board  we got ready for cocktails and this evening we had the Ukrainian classical trio playing. The three Ladies  are very talented and a delight to listen to. I think their english was too limited to say anything,  as often is done by musicians in an informal music setting, but they played and they played and that is what it is all about of course.  When we made it to dinner, we found that the Queens Grill was half empty, which is quite unusual. As we all have our own fixed table, guests arrive at different times but normally everybody is in by 20.00 hrs. So either we had a lot of exhausted guests who after Funchal could not handle a full dinner experience, or they went casual with a visit to the Lido or to one of the specialiities restaurants.  (Bamboo Restaurant in the Lido or the Verandah Steakhouse  on deck 3)

Mr. Mate Racz, violin player extra ordinaire. (*)

Then it was off to the show. Tonight we had a violinist who was giving a “Rock Symphonies” show with violin music fusion from  Vivaldi to Queen Rockband and to Wizard of Ozz. His name was Mate Racz and he is the other half of the Falmenco Show we had two days earlier. And boy…… was he good. Classically schooled (6 years in London and then assignments in Vienna etc.) and then he teamed up with the flamenco danser  (google his name or Duo Escensias) and are now touring worldwide.  He was the first peformer who got a standing ovation (as far as the guests could get out of their seats) this cruise for an entertainers performance.

Tomorrow we are in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the  Canaries, with The Canaries being  Spanish Islands off the African west coasts.  We will dock around 10 am. as we have to wait for the ferries to come in as they have preference. Weather for tomorrow: Overcast with a 30% of rain, and temperatures around 18oC/ 65oF. So perfect sightseeing weather.

(*this is a stock photo of the internet as we are not allowed to take photos during the show)