Monday 12th January
Funchal, Madeira
After leaving Southampton on Thursday we have been sailing south. We crossed the Bay of Biscay where there was quite a swell but were in calmer waters by Saturday. Today we have arrived at our first port, Funchal in Madeira. It's a lovely warm, sunny day here and we have spent it walking around the town. There is a new promenade since we were here last. We strolled along it and then stopped at a cafe to have a coffee. I wanted to visit Funchal cathedral which is over 600 years old but we were only able to view it from outside as the doors were all closed today. The picture shows the flower and fruit market which was really lovely. Lots of the stalls upstairs had chillies hanging down like this one so they must be very popular here. After spending all our euros we headed back to our ship ready to sail further south this afternoon.