Over a Cliff in Funchal

Day 4:

At land at last! We make landfall in Funchal, Portugal. It is located on the island of Madeira and was discovered in the 1400s. Today, it is the oldest European city outside the European continent. While it belongs to Portugal, we are closer to the African coast of Morocco than to the Portugal on the Iberian Peninsula.

Here we take our first of the MSC complimentary excursions that we will have over the cruise. The morning starts in the ship theater where we sit in our excursion groups according to a map of the theater projected on the screen.

A characteristic of MSC cruises is its international nature. As Americans, native-English speakers are a stark minority. Fortunately, MSC arranges their excursions by language. Therefore, we are with not only native-English speakers, but with other nationalities who feel comfortable enough to follow an English-speaking tour guide

Our excursion number is called and we make our way off the ship and to our bus. While complimentary, the excursion is no different than those we have paid for on MSC or any other cruise line. Our bus makes it out of the city and to the small town of Ribeira Brava—meaning “Wild River” due to the river that passes by it as it makes its way to the sea. The town is quaint with beautiful views of the ocean. Here we find a small and modest church.

Then it was off to Cabo Girão which is the 2nd highest cliff in the world, rising to a height of 582 meters (1909 feet). The last stop was Câmara de Lobos where Winston Churchill painted the bay reaching into the sea. After taking our pictures, it was back to the ship as we begin our transatlantic segment as in 5 days we reach Barbados.