Anniversary
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Position 32:44.488N
016:42.718W Monday November 10th 13h48 Wind E Force 6 Sea State Visibility Good Heading T° Under: Speed Kts Our anniversary has crept up un us. Neither of us can
believe it’s a year already since our last party at Zetland. A lot has
happened this year We have decided to leave the boat here and go to Funchal for
the night. We got a lift with the marina shuttle bus driven by a
lunatic who doesn’t seem to understand centre of gravity. The road network is fantastic here and we experience
interesting juxtapositioning of transport. Driving through a tunnel, the only
light to be seen is the exit. This is suddenly and momentarily blocked in its
entirety by a passenger jet in flight. I struggled to see how this could be
possible until emerging from the tunnel realise that we were travelling
perpendicular to a runway which hangs from the cliff supported by gigantic
concrete stilts. As we emerge from the tunnel the road veers sharply right bring
us up parallel and level with the runway where the plane is just touching down. In our hotel we take the elevator to the seventh floor. As
the lift door opens we can see a taxi passing the corridor window, a little
unexpected. So we are in 718 looking down 7 floors on the pool, on the other
side of the hall is the main road leading west from Funchal. This is a busy town. A lot of tourists, ex pats, tattoos and
a newspaper called “Brits in Madeira”. There are three cruise ships in the harbour and the sun has
come out to wish us a happy anniversary. The hotel is a bit disappointing. They
have all the ‘mod cons’ from the time the abbreviation was given
life. Ping pong is available and I am nervous about asking for
wireless in case I am given a transistor radio the size of an American’s
suitcase to carry to the 7th floor. This is a 70’s hotel at
its best and I am sure that there is a telex machine somewhere behind the
reception desk. The evening entertainment: Two musicians, one with a 3 tiered
machine that can bang out anything from church choir to cello, the second plays
guitar shyly. His input could easily be replaced with the touch of a button so
one has to assume he owns the van. We decided to visit the infamous Reids Palace Hotel, just 10
minutes walk from us. This is a real institution with photographs of
Churchill’s visits on the walls beside old advertisements for the hotel
offering bathing all day, music during bathing hours, a lift to the bathing
area. They also catered for hammock travelers. These people travelled in a type
of comfortable stretcher which was bourne by two of two of ones men servants.
Presumably there were others to carry the luggage. After two glasses of Madeira wine we decided to dine in
their Italian restaurant, the Cipriani, partly because we had visited the
Cipriani (hotel) in Venice on our honeymoon and Reids reminded us of that in
some way. We entered the restaurant and were met by a wall of
managers, I felt I should take a free kick and took some steps backwards but
didn’t have the balls. The meal was disappointing and we let them know. I
should have taken that free. Its just that when you go to somewhere expensive
you expect it to be good. We eat on board or in tiny village restaurants most
of the time often having dinner for two with drinks for a lot less than 20 Euro
and thoroughly enjoy it most of the time because we have managed to find
something interesting and it is regularly better than expected. Here though our
expectations were built up to a by 40 Euro main courses. |
