Sat 15 Nov- Funchal, Madeira (Portugal)

Sat 15 Nov- today we docked in Funchal, Madeira (actually part of Portugal) for 8 hours. We went ashore after breakfast, with a shopping list that included flowers for the cabin and Port wine for after-dinner enjoyment. We walked around the town, enjoying the warm day, blue sky, kind of windy, but really quite pleasant. We found some nice flowers, but not the fragrant variety of the 'Casa Blanca' lilies we wanted. The flowers do add nice color and some pleasant fragrance to our cabin. We found some nice "Casa dos Vinhos Madeira" port, 3 bottles for the price of 2, so we bought that. It's really good as a sweet after-dinner drink. We walked back to the ship through Santa Caterina Park, enjoying the garden aspects and the nice view of the harbor and town below.
Back on the ship, we enjoyed lunch and later the String Quartet. We relaxed, reading our books and playing 'Held'.
The show (after anaother delicious dinner) was 'A Celebration of Music', featuring the vocal styling of Emily Garth, Kami Rodgers, Chris Shafer; and the music of the Regatta String Quartet and the Regatta Orchestra (all Russians, playing very jazzy arrangements of tunes).