Madeira – (Like the Cake and Wine) and Life Aboard.

Whilst it was quite sad saying farewell to England knowing that we were about to commence our journey home – the fun of boarding Arcadia once again did offer some compensation.

We are four days into our cruise and are currently moored in Funchal, capital of Madeira. The four days have passed incredibly quickly, it has been very easy to slip back into cruising life. To keep us occupied and to maybe help combat the overeating – I have taken up shuffleboard and deck quoits whilst Darryl has joined the Bridge classes for absolute beginners.

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After train and hotel jumping for so long – it’s been great to be able to unpack our bags and settle in. With the sun not rising until after 8am and the cabin pitch black – we surprisingly find ourselves sleeping as much as ten hours.

Much to Darryl’s dismay, we attended our first Black-Tie affair the other night. It went a lot better than expected – I think it was the free beer and champagne.

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Being one of maybe a handful of Australians onboard, the majority by far are Brits, I find myself exaggerating my Australian accent and throwing in lots of slang – “too right mate – Australia is a bonzer place”. Maybe that’s a slight exaggeration but you get the drift.

Located west of Morocco, the tiny Portuguese island of Madeira is our first port of call with thirteen others to follow. After watching one of the Arcadia crew give a Port lecture on Funchal, our aim was to take a toboggan ride on the famous toboggan rides here and to hunt for a piece of Madeira cake.

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With the toboggan ride commencing four kilometres up a very steep incline, our best option of reaching the start was by cable car. Having forgotten that I really do not like cable cars , I spent a good part of the ten-minute journey looking at Facebook.

The toboggan ride was everything it was meant to be – exhilarating, slightly scary and damn hard work for the two guiding our cart.

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The Madeira cake took some searching but eventually we found it in a little cafe not far from where our ship is tendered. It was slightly stale but the Portuguese egg tart that accompanied it was absolutely fantastic.

The rest of our time in Madeira has been spent pounding the footpaths, admiring the handbags made of cork (well I did), and poking our heads into the Ronaldo museum – Ronaldo comes from here.

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It was a surprise on waking this morning to find my phone come alive – the first time since leaving England. Unbeknown to me, my British SIM card works here so this very quick blog has been an unexpected occurrence.

Next blog – internet permitting, will be from Barbados.

Fun fact – we have the same captain – Captaaaain Cook, as the last time we sailed on Arcadia.