Day 104 of 111. Funchal, Madeira Our final foreign port on this Grand World Voyage is the city of Funchal on the island of Madeira. Our excursion first took us to the highest cliff in Europe (and the second highest in the world), Cabo Girao. Of course, they have built a glass-bottom vista point at…

Day 102 of 111. Rabat, Morocco After we finished our tour of Casablanca, we traveled further up the coast to Rabat, the capital city of Morocco. After visited the royal compound, we went to a Moroccan restaurant for lunch called Le Ziryab. When the waiter brought us water, he asked “Distilled” or “Gas”? That kind…

Day 102 of 111. Casablanca, Morocco There is a region in the older part of the city called the Habous Quarter, kind of a marketplace or city center. We walked through some small streets lined with carpet sellers, a few souvenir shops, and cafes. We visited a very fascinating small cul de sac with about…

Day 102 of 111. Casablanca, Morocco Of course, the first place that comes to mind when you say Casablanca is Rick’s Cafe from the movie, Casablanca. Rick’s Cafe is fictional, but there IS a cafe built especially for tourists. I can see now the strategic importance of Casablanca. The city is on the continent of…

Day 101 of 111. Cadiz, Spain After our overland trip to Madrid, we met the ship in Cadiz on the west coast of Spain in the early afternoon. We had a few hours to explore the town which was within walking distance of the port. We visited Cadiz on Holy Saturday. In this predominantly Catholic…

Ron took a tour of the cathedral that is visible from outside the city. In the Sacristy or robing room of the church you can see an El Greco painting, “El Expolio” or “The Disrobing of Christ”. The gold structure is called the “Monstrance” and is the vessel in which the Eucharist is carried during…

Day 100 of 111. Toledo, Spain From Madrid it is about a 45 minute drive to Toledo. This is an Medieval town originally surrounded by a large wall for defense. Even from a distance, we can see two iconic buildings, the Alcazar and the Cathedral. We had to leave our bus outside the city walls…

Day 99 of 111. Madrid, Spain One of the biggest attractions of this overland trip was the chance to spend some time in the Prada Museum. Unfortunatly, absolutely no photographs were allowed inside the museum. Ron had a list in his head of the masterpieces he was hoping to see and I think we saw…

Day 99 of 111. Madrid, Spain The ship was docked in Barcelona when we took off on a train to Madrid. We will meet the ship when it gets to Cadiz. We only have a few more ports and then a seven-day sea voyage to get back to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA. It has been…

While the ship is docked in Barcelona, we boarded a train for an overland trip to Madrid. This was a high-speed train that got up to a speed of 187 mph (301 km/h). When we found our Madrid tour guide and boarded the bus, we drove to a beautiful public park that used to be…