My alarm went off at 06:45 as usual, but I woke up with a very scratchy throat, I reckon I’m coming down with Jane’s cold, so I rolled over and went back to sleep. The Cunard beds are probably the comfiest I’ve slept in, so it wasn’t hard to go back to sleep. I’ll go to the gym tomorrow 😀. I opened the curtains to see sun on the balcony, which was nice after the 3 gloomy days getting down here.
After a lazy breakfast in the Britannia we headed out to the Pursers desk where we’d arranged to meet Judith and Stanley for a stroll around Funchal. The Xmas decorations on deck one are lovely.
We got the shuttle to the centre of Funchal, and from there walked through the Christmas market and on to the cable car. 32 euros later and we were sailing upwards towards Monte. Jane wasn’t happy, she doesn’t like heights, or the possibility of falling to her death from them. The ride though was uneventful, we arrived safely and took a stroll to the toboggan start point. I nearly persuaded Jane to go back down in one of those, but she decided that the cable car was slightly less terrifying. So with a coffee inside us we headed back down. Apparently it less scary going down, so all turned out well.
We walked back through the shops to the the shuttle, a mistake, we should have gone along the front as all the shiny stuff proved too much of a distraction for Judith. The Madeirans ?? not sure if thats right, certainly know his to decorate their town, they do like a nativity scene
We headed back for lunch in the Lido grill, my lack of will power resulted in a double cheese burger accident, they are very nice! After that Jane and Judith went and grabbed a sun lounger by the pool on deck 9 and I headed back to the room to read. The balcony was bathed in sunshine, so I took my book out there and coupled with Bluetooth earphones and Spotify I lazed in the sun for an hour or so before it was Commodore O’Clock. Jane had a breakfast Martini and I was thirsty so went for the mocktail, Red Apple Fizz.
I had my first “OK” meal at dinner tonight. I chose the chicken curry as a main, there was nothing wrong with it, it was OK, but since every meal I have had so far has been very good, I was a bit disappointed. I should have had the pasta! Even worse we had crumblegate, Stanley ordered the strawberry and apple crumble for dessert, which came out cold. So, he enquired whether it should be hour or cold, and it wasn’t back to the kitchen to be heated up. When it came back he still wasn’t happy, as the texture was all wrong, so he gave up on it. Well, it went all the way up to the Maître D, who was going to take it further.
I sat through my first full show, “La Danza” some faux ballet themed dancing, not my cup of tea but Jane liked it. Tomorrow is Santa Cruz de LA Palma, with a nice day forecast to be in the mid 20s