Well our cruising is finally coming to an end. We have less than 3 days before we arrive in Ft Lauderdale, 2 months after leaving that port on September 1st. Since our last blog where we discussed our visit to the Vatican City, we headed to Toulon, France but the winds were really blowing and we were unable to make our stop in this port. This was the second port we have missed on this 29 day cruise but we weren’t too concerned since this was not one of our favorite ports and we had visited this city during the first segment of the cruise.
Since we had previously visited the port we thought we would share a few pictures from that stop. We first walked the town and saw some nice sights like the fountain in Liberty Square and the beautiful opera house in this small city. We also viewed a very unique sculpture of the bow of a ship that seems to grow out of a building that is actually an art institute. From the main town we took a bus up to the cable car where we rode up to the top of Mount Faron to see some of the wonderful panoramic views of the city, harbor and nearby mountains. While going up the cable car we saw several mountain climbers scaling one of the cliffs along this mountain. We finished our visit with a ferry ride from the city back to our ship where you get a great view of the French navy who use this port for many of their key naval vessels such as the aircraft carrier shown in one of our pictures. This is a nice city to visit but there is not a lot to do there except for casual sightseeing and shopping.
After leaving that port we headed to Barcelona where we have been so many times during our cruises over the last few months. We still love the city and always find something different to look at. We were able to go up to the roof top of the Gothic cathedral on this trip for some nice city views and we also took a 3 hour free walking tour of the Gothic area where we learned a lot of interesting facts about Barcelona and Spain. We didn’t share any more pictures from this visit since we have shown so many in our previous blogs on this city. Our final port stop was Madeira which we have always enjoyed on previous visits.
We spent our first few hours in Madeira using some internet at one of the cafes in the port terminal because we had been having so much difficulty in sending out our blogs on the ship. After sending out the blogs we walked into town to see what had changed since our last visit to this island last year. We had elected not to go on the famous “basket” ride this town has to offer since we have done it many times previously and will be coming back again to this island next year. We included a few pictures from the cable car ride and the basket ride from our previous visit to show everyone what this island has to offer. We then headed over to Santa Maria Street which is known for the art project underway over the last few years where most of the restaurants and shops have had their doors and walls painted by artists to add some unique character to the area. It is definitely worthwhile to check out this street if you get to this island. While walking this street Sharon found a cork store with some very unique items such as jewelry, watches, umbrellas, safety helmets, dresses, shoes, handbags, wallets, etc. all made out of Portuguese cork. You can see a picture of Greg carrying a golf bag made entirely out of cork.
You will also note in the last few pictures that we could not resist trying out the local Madeira bread which is really good. You can get it with just garlic butter, cheese, salami or bacon. This is a treat definitely worth trying out. Madeira was our last port to visit on our cruise and it is a nice city to see before crossing the Atlantic.
We have now been sailing across the Atlantic for 6 days and have 2 more days at sea to go. We are enjoying the nice relaxing cruise back to the US.
Hope you have enjoyed our cruise journey through our email blogs. Look forward to seeing family and friends very soon!
Greg & Sharon
Since we had previously visited the port we thought we would share a few pictures from that stop. We first walked the town and saw some nice sights like the fountain in Liberty Square and the beautiful opera house in this small city. We also viewed a very unique sculpture of the bow of a ship that seems to grow out of a building that is actually an art institute. From the main town we took a bus up to the cable car where we rode up to the top of Mount Faron to see some of the wonderful panoramic views of the city, harbor and nearby mountains. While going up the cable car we saw several mountain climbers scaling one of the cliffs along this mountain. We finished our visit with a ferry ride from the city back to our ship where you get a great view of the French navy who use this port for many of their key naval vessels such as the aircraft carrier shown in one of our pictures. This is a nice city to visit but there is not a lot to do there except for casual sightseeing and shopping.
After leaving that port we headed to Barcelona where we have been so many times during our cruises over the last few months. We still love the city and always find something different to look at. We were able to go up to the roof top of the Gothic cathedral on this trip for some nice city views and we also took a 3 hour free walking tour of the Gothic area where we learned a lot of interesting facts about Barcelona and Spain. We didn’t share any more pictures from this visit since we have shown so many in our previous blogs on this city. Our final port stop was Madeira which we have always enjoyed on previous visits.
We spent our first few hours in Madeira using some internet at one of the cafes in the port terminal because we had been having so much difficulty in sending out our blogs on the ship. After sending out the blogs we walked into town to see what had changed since our last visit to this island last year. We had elected not to go on the famous “basket” ride this town has to offer since we have done it many times previously and will be coming back again to this island next year. We included a few pictures from the cable car ride and the basket ride from our previous visit to show everyone what this island has to offer. We then headed over to Santa Maria Street which is known for the art project underway over the last few years where most of the restaurants and shops have had their doors and walls painted by artists to add some unique character to the area. It is definitely worthwhile to check out this street if you get to this island. While walking this street Sharon found a cork store with some very unique items such as jewelry, watches, umbrellas, safety helmets, dresses, shoes, handbags, wallets, etc. all made out of Portuguese cork. You can see a picture of Greg carrying a golf bag made entirely out of cork.
You will also note in the last few pictures that we could not resist trying out the local Madeira bread which is really good. You can get it with just garlic butter, cheese, salami or bacon. This is a treat definitely worth trying out. Madeira was our last port to visit on our cruise and it is a nice city to see before crossing the Atlantic.
We have now been sailing across the Atlantic for 6 days and have 2 more days at sea to go. We are enjoying the nice relaxing cruise back to the US.
Hope you have enjoyed our cruise journey through our email blogs. Look forward to seeing family and friends very soon!
Greg & Sharon
RSS Feed
