Day 5

we are already on day 5 of the cruise and it is all good so far. Our first stop 2 days ago was Madeira where we got off for a couple of hours. We only got a chance to walk round the town of Funchal at the port but it is a very attractive town with terracotta roofed buildings lining the hillside leading up from the port. We avoided the early morning scramble to get off, opting for a post lunch visit. It was the warmest day we have had and by the time we had walked the 20 minutes into the town, the boys were making it quite clear that another afternoon in the ship's water play area would have been a much better idea! Despite this, we managed an hour there before returning. It was nice to have a change of scene for a bit, but as we were already aware, by virtue of quarter million tonne ships needing lots of water to stay afloat, mooring is confined to large docks which are not usually the most picturesque part of a country. Although on some cruises they moor offshore and use tenders to shuttle people ashore, it wouldn't have worked for us.