Two for the Road

After more jigsaws, pub quizzes and casino trips than we’d care to admit, we arrived at Madeira, our first stop after crossing the Atlantic. There was something exciting about travelling across the ocean in this way, a little (albeit very gentrified) glimpse into a pre-air travel world, and we’re so glad that we got to experience it.

As Matt mentioned in our last blog, Madeira wasn’t our originally scheduled stop but the port, called Funchal it turned out to be a wonderful place to explore, even if the weather was a little misty and grey when we arrived.

We headed to leave the ship at the first opportunity and perhaps we should have anticipated that after over a week to succumb to cabin fever, hundreds of other passengers felt the same. We therefore got caught in a bit of a scrum to disembark, but soon we were out and so was the sun as we wandered into town.

We passed by the CR7 museum celebrating Maderia’s most famous son: Christiano Ronaldo. The footballer famously had a terrible statue of him placed outside the museum honouring him, we were sad to see it no longer in place but replaced with another which bears no more resemblance to him.

Heading further ashore, we found an outdoor market, where we saw a floral display being built as well as trying Pancho, the signature cocktail of the area.

We walked a little further and reached the historical Rua de Santa Maria, a narrow street lined with street art, bars, restaurants and shops.

After enjoying a spot of lunch, we headed on to Blandy’s wine lodge, to try some of the fortified wine, which other than footballers, Madeira is most famous for.

Following another day at sea, we found ourselves in Casablanca. We had an excursion to a vineyard booked (why yes, thank you it has been too long) but I was at least initially more excited just to be in Africa. Our trip has now officially spanned six continents!

The excursion led by a guide called Mohammad. While very charismatic, and a speaker of 6 languages, sadly knew absolutely nothing about wine. The French speaking rep from the Thalvin vineyard provided him with detailed explanations of the grapes and wine making process and Mohammad proceeded to turn those into much sorter English approximations. We thought this was all part of the fun, but I’m not sure some of our fellow sailors agreed! The winery was a pretty industrial level of operation compared to others we’ve visited, but the wine was drinkable enough, especially their flagship red, a Syrah. We were also treated to the sight of some storks nesting on the roof of their old chateau. Turns out Thalvin has fans in the avian world too.

Before heading back aboard our ship, we popped into the main square of Casablanca, to see some of the architecture, including Rick’s café, which we had learned from our guide wasn’t actually used in 1942 classic film Casablanca, but instead was placed as an homage by an American fan in the early 00s – guess we’ll always have Paris.

On our last sea day, we passed through the strait of Gibraltar, an iconic sea passage where you can see two continents simultaneously. This obviously isn’t something you get to see every day so despite hour clocks moving forward overnight we made sure to be on deck for the spectacle. As we looked over at the rock of Gibraltar, we reminisced about our first cruise on which we stood atop the peninsula and looked out, while dodging the monkeys which make the mountain their home.

The next day, our port was Alicante. It was a wet day, but we still popped off the ship for a couple of hours to enjoy some tapas, the Explanada de Espana and the central market. We are British after all so a little rain can’t put us off! The market was a beautiful building and had so many vendors, mainly food focussed, including some fishmongers with some truly enormous fish for sale!

We finally said goodbye to Virgin Voyages and hit the streets of Barcelona after a final night on the good ship Scarlet Lady. We’ve been to the city a couple of times, but before heading onto our destination for the day – Madrid – we went on a pilgrimage to the Sagrada Familia, as its base construction has been completed after 144 years of work. Although when we arrived, we found out that the cranes will still be in place for a few years to come as exterior decoration is incomplete.

We then walked toward the Barcelona-Sants train station to activate our interrailing passes. That’s right, we’ll be seeing Europe on our circuitous route home, primarily by rail – another bucket list item ticked off!

Three hours after we boarded our first train we made it to Madrid, where I write from. Today, on our first full day in the city, we did some food shopping, including procuring a bell pepper bigger than my head, and took a walk to the royal palace and many of its surrounding gardens.

It’s exciting to be on a new leg of the trip and while we still have some more months off work – hooray – this is the final leg before we come home (at least for a few weeks!)

Iris