#127 Nomad Diary. 25-31 March 2023. Cruise Stop: Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. Missed Ports for Storm: Cassablanca and La Coruna. Questions From a Friend About Needed Nomad Items.
Dinner entree’ served in the ship’s dining room. This is fish with a citrus caper sauce and vegetables. I enjoyed it!
Owen, 18 month old grandson, on video call playing peek-a-boo with his shirt! lol!
Saturday. 25. Our seventh sea day in a row. For the past 2 days we’ve had spotty to no internet. Our sea days are similar in that: we get up between 6-7; do our daily exercise routine either in our room or in the gym; dress for the day and go to the dining room for breakfast; wake up slowly; chat with each other and others; attend a trivia or two; go to the hot tub after lunch; read a lot; lunch at the buffet; walk around the ship and always use the stairs; have a coffee time together; rest in our cabin and enjoy our balcony; have dinner in the dining room with others; attend a show or movie or go to our room after dinner; sleep by 10ish. Tonight’s show was performed by the “Little Opera Company”, and we enjoyed it as we usually do with earplugs to tone down the amplifiers! Lol. Some interesting couples we met today included: 80 year old couple from Chile who lived over 50 years in Florida and raised two sons there. This was their 48th cruise in about 22 years. For a 5 year stint, they moved back to Chile to tour their country, and then moved back to Florida. Another couple is in our age range and are not yet retired. We have had dinner with them in random seating about 3 times so far. They live between Atlanta and Colorado Springs as she relocated to be nearer to her parents and help with their aging needs. She was able to get a job at a school that specializes in dyslexia. Her stories of the challenges and personal wins there are interesting and inspiring. The husband has an interesting past with memories of a long and pleasing childhood in Laos because of his Dad’s piloting work, some years in the Marines, travels abroad and raising children.
Selfie with Madeira in the background.
Darrell walking into town ahead of me. I love the decorated mosaic sidewalks
A typical street in old Funchal. Fabulous mosaic walking zones!
The skylift we are in line to ride up the mountain.
View from the skylife of a bridge and valley.
Selfie at the top of the skylift in Funchal.
Old stairs on our walk from the skylift to the sled ride.
An 1800's sled. Now used to take tourist on a thrill ride down the steep streets back to town. Unfortunately we didn’t get a ticket as they were sold out for the day!
View of the sled rides taking off. Today we will be walking downhill.
My view as we walk down a very steep hill back to old town. It took us about 1 ½ hours. My legs were wobbly from exertion.
Me and a really cool tree while walking downhill in Funchal, Madeira.
Old keys turned into door handles!
More beautiful sidewalk mosaics showing town history. Funchal, Madeira.
The local pastry with a following! We bought two takeaway, and sat down near a fountain to eat them. Delicious! They were warm, and the center was a thick liquid, sweet and similar to high quality custard like pudding. The crust was made of phyllo dough.
For our lunch, after dessert, we shared this fresh octopus salad and a tapas (appetizer) platter. This was all so good and fresh and served with drizzling extra virgin olive oil and vinegar.
Our tapas platter. The chips didn’t have salt on them! (unlike the US) The shrimp are fresh and local with a noticeably better taste than shrimp I usually get in the US.
Nice tree lined walkways in Funchal, Madeira.
Sunday. 26. It was so nice to see land today after a week at sea! Madeira was settled by the Portuguese in the 15th century (1400s) I think 😀. It is lush and populated with a look of terra cotta clay roofs and white stucco. The mountain looks to go straight up from the sea with houses built low and high. This island has a beautiful sunrise, clear weather and promises of 70 degrees. We have a plan to ride the skyride, do some walking and eat some food here.
We fulfilled our plans. Darrell bought a cork belt. We tasted the famous custard tarts and they are delicious. The tarts were warm with a very soft filling similar to custard pudding. For lunch we ordered a fresh octopus salad and a Tapas plate. Both were delicious with the local olive oil and fresh seafood. We had lunch in old town after we rode comfortably up the mountain in the skylift and walked more than an hour downhill on the steep grade making my legs like jelly! We got back to the ship exhausted before our 3pm streaming of worship with our Alabama church. We were able to get a short call in with grandson Owen today being 6 hours different.
Inside the center of the Sky Princess ship.
Monday. 27. Around 8:30 am, the ship captain made an announcement that because of a storm diversion for the ship, we will not be stopping in Casablanca tomorrow. This is disappointing, but also quite normal for cruising. We have never been to this port and it is the reason we were attracted to this itinerary. We have heard of some others who are missing Casablanca for their third time. Oh well.
At noon and at 6 pm we get updates from our captain with some added information each time. The results of their navigational day and storm tracking is that we are now headed directly to Southampton port in England. We look to arrive on Thursday evening ahead of the storm, and sit in port through our disembarkation on Saturday morning.
This means more sea days for all of us onboard. We have new entertainers who switched out during our Madeira stop! Lol.
I contacted our airbnb host in Bells Yew Green near Frant train station and a stop from Royal Tunbridge Wells (and maybe 2-3 stops from High Brooms where we will attend with a church we met last summer). I let her know our eta for Saturday. She was quite nice to ask if she could get us some foods? I sent her a short list for Sunday breakfast to get us through until we are able to shop on Sunday afternoon.
Darrell and I arrived early to the dining room and wondered if others would come this evening. Eventually we had a full table of random cruisers! We enjoy the social times onboard where we exchange life stories and travels.
An evening dinner menu that changes daily. Page 1.
Page 2 of the same dinner menu.
Tuesday. 28. The weather is clear skies and sunny with a slight chill in the air. About midmorning we are told that there is a medical emergency and we will be pulling in close to Lisbon to make a connection for this passenger. We do get to see land and enjoy the beautiful sunshine, but there are no parking spaces for our huge liner here. I heard a salty passenger talking to the hotel manager, as she told me who he was. He said that the captain tried to get us a port to compensate for our 2 lost ports, but he was unsuccessful and we are off again to Southampton.
Relaxing in our cabin. Darrell’s working on our computer.
Wednesday. 29.
We took a galley tour today and were led on a walk through one of the large ship kitchens. This is a first time to come open since the pandemic shut downs.
A call with 2 ½ year old Quinn. Grandson in Portland, Maine.
Thursday. 30. We arrived into Southampton cruise port about 10pm. We made calls to the grandkids and sent messages to our sons. We are now in England until the first week of June. We are 5 hours ahead of Eastern Time and 6 hours ahead of Central Time. It feels amazing to have come through so many sea days! The passage was quite comfortable. We are ready for a change of scenery! The forecast for the port area is cold (40-50 degrees F), windy and rainy. We plan to go to a museum in Portsmouth on Friday.
Rainy, wet and empty cruise deck. About 50 degrees F.
Breakfast in the dining room is elegant!
Breakfast menu that changes daily.
Coming out of the Portsmouth train station and walking towards the Historic Dockyard museums.
The end of the Victory warship where Lord Admiral Nelson died during the celebrated Battle of Trafalgar. It is wrapped in scaffolding but is still open during renovations. It is the oldest commissioned warship in the world (I think I got that detail right).
We toured this museum first today. It is the warship Mary Rose. This museum is amazing! It combines the story of the ship and the story of the archeology of bringing up the ship and 19,000 artifacts about a mile from Portsmouth harbor.
The preserved hull from the Mary Rose, sunk in the 1540’s.
A cannon from the Mary Rose. There are many on display and they vary in size, decoration, time of manufacture, etc. There are also archery weapons onboard.
This was an amazing vinette with the bones reassembled of the ship’s dog.
There were 500 men onboard this ship and the weight of the rations added to the load.
Henry was quite the egoist.
Behind Darrell is the current entrance to the Victory and behind that is the entrance and exit to the Mary Rose museum. These are a couple of block walk from the ticket entrance. There are many more exhibits here that we don’t have time to explore today.
Darrell ducking to get through the side door on the Victory.
Darrell listening to the audio tour while standing in Admiral Nelson’s quarters with the hanging and covered bed to the right.
View of the galley where the food is prepared at this state of the art (1700 style) hob. This ship held 800 men!
A cannon with an eating table beside it.
Touring through the rope storage on this huge ship with several level and work rooms. I hit my head one time (ouch!) Darrell hit his head several times!
Friday. 31.
We are living on the ship until Saturday morning. Today English Customs came onboard and cleared us for arriving into the country and simplifying our getting off the ship tomorrow, Saturday. We had an enjoyable morning with breakfast in the dining room. We dressed from cold wet weather and left the ship to explore. Once off the ship, we were able to get onto a shuttle bus provided by Princess to take us out of the cruise port and into town where we can easily walk to the Central train station. When we return later in the day, we will come back to the shuttle and ride back to the ship.
We made it to the train station easier with google maps. We have a ‘two together railcard” that allows some deep ticket discounts. We have a return ticket to Portsmouth Harbor, and ride 40 minutes to our destination. The walk is quick to the Historic Dockyard. We buy a combined museum ticket so that we can tour both the Mary Rose and the Victory. We spent about 3 hours completing our tours, and we also had time for a cappuccino while there. We were ready for a quick meal before our return train trip to Southampton.
Tonight is dinner in the dining room and packing to move off the ship on Saturday morning.
Nomad Notes: Questions recently from my friend Sharon who is downsizing and will soon be living in her nomadic style.
Is there anything that you would suggest having or carrying when you were Airbnbing and working?
Is there anything that you thought that you would need that you didn’t? Items can be kitchen, tech or anything. In the US or traveling overseas?
Is there anything you wish you had? In the US or traveling overseas?
When we first downsized our house, we sold everything that we couldn’t fit into two vehicles. We continued working from September 2020 when we sold our house until November 2021 for me and March 2022 for Darrell. Since March 2022 we downsized to only our Honda Truck. It is now March 2023, and we have continued to lighten our load that we carry in the back of our pick-up. In 2022 we stored our truck for about 7 months while we traveled abroad. In 2023 we will be abroad for about 6 months. So we go a long time without seeing or using our items that we keep stored in our truck.
Items we own and often use during month-long US airbnb stays:
Our pillows
A cooler for use in the truck and packing foods on moving day
Insulated coffee mugs for the truck
Brita filter water bottles
Insta-Pot
Water Filter Pitcher
pH water tester
Wire whisk (Darrell uses to make pancakes)
Air-popper
Hot water pot
Eye masks and Ear plugs
For work, Darrell carried a small foldable work stand because some airbnb’s didn’t have a desk.
Office equipment went away when the jobs stopped.
Items we thought we would need or want that we donated or gave away recently:
Iron
2 cast iron skillets
Vitamix
Plates
Items we brought or bought while moving through England for 4 months. We lived out of 1 suitcase and 1 backpack each, and stayed 1-2 weeks at mostly furnished apartments (airbnb’s):
Brita filter water bottles
Eye masks and ear plugs
French Press, 2 cup
Nylon spatula
Small wire whisk
Washcloths
Items we wished for:
We have wished for some things along the way and purchased them when the time is right. Our current shopping list is very short or non-existent.
Examples include:
Miniaturized items to reduce weight and space like: A compact and shared computer; a smaller blood pressure cuff; a portable scanner (that scanned fast too) that we used to scan all of our photos and documents.
Noise-reducing headset for me
Neck-support sleeping wrap for me on airplanes
Specific clothing items that we purchased to replace what we had like: wool hiking socks for cotton ones; wool tees for cotton; rain shell
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