Picture heavy fun review - MSC Armonia - Canary Isles and Madeira - incl. DIY trips

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

hey Denisey,

 

you got to try the espetada! Very cool!

 

And I loved to see your Bologna pictures, since we didn't end up going there ourselves this was a very special treat. Thank you !

 

Lol -- and I even got a mention, oh my:).

 

Lol -- although I think you're a bit of a sissy for not posting closer pictures of the Neptune well :D;):D.

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Bonus post --- leaving Madeira

 

 

 

just to get you drooling in anticipation for your next cruise:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

see the Christ statue?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

my attempt to get the whole island in one picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

these mountains were soooo awe-inspiring. Madeira is truly breathtaking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the blue of the water was so intense. Amazing to imagine the water below drops to more than 3000 meters here!

 

 

 

stay tuned!

 

Stef

[denisey]

hey Denisey,

 

you got to try the espetada! Very cool!

 

And I loved to see your Bologna pictures, since we didn't end up going there ourselves this was a very special treat. Thank you !

 

Lol -- and I even got a mention, oh my:).

 

Lol -- although I think you're a bit of a sissy for not posting closer pictures of the Neptune well :D;):D.

 

Stef

 

Yup, that's me, the big sissy! But that fountain was something else! You'll have to go to Bologna on your big European driving trip!

 

And I'll have to go back to Madeira to try espetada!

 

The pastries look yummy, I might have to try them. My oven does go that high, but I'm wondering if you could cook them a little lower and then use a kitchen torch to caramelize the tops, like crème brulee?

 

I also liked the qassata on Malta...so I think I need to go back there too...

 

Oh, if only all this work didn't get in the way of my travels!

 

Denise

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

eeks, Denisey .... sorry translational misunderstanding error:

 

the espetata is the "bif;)" --- you tried that already .... I wanted to write the past tense of " get ... got .... gotten" .... not as got in "have got to" .... sorry for that.

 

Lol -- you should try the espeta however, which is the ugly fish:D. Darn, they both sound so much alike.

[denisey]

Darn English! You said it just fine, I read it wrong!

 

Either way the Bif was pretty good!

Edited June 19, 2015 by denisey

[Quilting_Cruiser]

I'm enjoying your review--thanks so much for taking the time to write it! I'm off on a cruise in March that visits the Canary Islands and have been trying to find out more about them, so this has been great. We'll be visiting Funchal and all I knew about it until reading your review was that they have the toboggan rides. I really appreciate your information about the local foods to try--I love eating local foods; you learn so much about a country and culture that way.

 

]Now all that was left for us was a long stroll along the harbor back to our ship …. Lol … with a stop at the side of the street at a little old lady with only a couple of teeth remaining in her mouth, but smiling as if she just won a million dollars. We bought some woolen stuff from her and had a good time. We were hugged and Tanja was almost kissed. All of us departed in a grand mood … us because of our fabulous new woolen Portugal souvenir and her because of the money she made. A good end to our trip to Madeira.

 

I'm always on the lookout for hand crafts when I travel so I'm curious about what you purchased from this lady...? Did you just happen upon her or are there others who sell similar items? And, the market you went to...do they have hand crafts there or is it the typical touristy-type souvenirs?

 

TIA!

[posso]

Great review. If you ever come to Liverpool - where I've lived for 40+ years - you can show me around!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

 

 

 

I'm always on the lookout for hand crafts when I travel so I'm curious about what you purchased from this lady...? Did you just happen upon her or are there others who sell similar items? And, the market you went to...do they have hand crafts there or is it the typical touristy-type souvenirs?

 

TIA!

 

Hi Tia,

 

Welcome to the review! Glad you like it.

 

This lady was just sitting around on a small wall at the side of the street. She didn't have a regular store or hut or anything. She had only a handfull of woolen items laid out next to her. mostly warm hats for the winter. Tanja bought a woolen hat, of which I'm pretty sure the granny knitted it herself, because she was busy knitting something similar when we walked up. I bought a dark blue woolen pullover with a hood and little pockets ... That one was not made by her personally... it has a sticker saying made in Portugal though.... so for me it counts as a "real" souvenir. The quality of both are excellent and now I have a second favorite pullover for the upcoming winter (next to my very old Scottish one). I don't know if she'll always be around. It looked more like she had spontaneously set up with a handfull of woolen goods to try her luck. Probably no permission, highly illegal ... but hey -- it was a cute little granny and she only offered a few things .... what would they do if they caught her?

 

You can buy woolen things all over Madeira ... it is one of THE top souvenirs. But we saw plenty of poor quality imported stuff as well, so you definitely want to pay close attention.

 

The market has mainly leather goods, fruits and vegetables, meat, flowers and fish. It is both a gigantic tourist magnet ... they'll let you taste the most bizarre fruits for free, but then you are strongly persuaded to buy some more ( story from our tablemates). The locals buy their daily food here as well however .... so it is a fun mix and definitely worth a peek.

 

 

Stef

Edited June 22, 2015 by Kreuzfahrtneuling

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Great review. If you ever come to Liverpool - where I've lived for 40+ years - you can show me around!

 

 

lol -- I'll take that as a compliment:p.

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Dinner day five

Roast beef wrapped asparagus en bellevue

Risotto Mare e Monti

Baked prime rib of beef

more to come

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

dinner continued ...

Anonymous desert

Lol – and of course Tanja’s mandatory cheese plate

Next up: tonight’s show “Pura Passion” -- one of my all time favorites.

Stay tuned!

Stef

[spinnaker2]

Madeira is just gorgeous and if I could, I would live there.

For some reason, generally islands have that effect on me. Perhaps it is because my ancestors were fisher people, from islands in Greece and Sweden.

Thanks for the lovely details and for purchasing the warm wooly items from the local woman.

It looked quite damp and chilly on the day of the tobbagon ride.

We are off on our cruise in less than two weeks but won't be in Madeira again until November.

Counting the days...

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Hi Tia,

 

Welcome to the review! Glad you like it.

 

This lady was just sitting around on a small wall at the side of the street. She didn't have a regular store or hut or anything. She had only a handfull of woolen items laid out next to her. mostly warm hats for the winter. Tanja bought a woolen hat, of which I'm pretty sure the granny knitted it herself, because she was busy knitting something similar when we walked up. I bought a dark blue woolen pullover with a hood and little pockets ... That one was not made by her personally... it has a sticker saying made in Portugal though.... so for me it counts as a "real" souvenir. The quality of both are excellent and now I have a second favorite pullover for the upcoming winter (next to my very old Scottish one). I don't know if she'll always be around. It looked more like she had spontaneously set up with a handfull of woolen goods to try her luck. Probably no permission, highly illegal ... but hey -- it was a cute little granny and she only offered a few things .... what would they do if they caught her?

 

You can buy woolen things all over Madeira ... it is one of THE top souvenirs. But we saw plenty of poor quality imported stuff as well, so you definitely want to pay close attention.

 

The market has mainly leather goods, fruits and vegetables, meat, flowers and fish. It is both a gigantic tourist magnet ... they'll let you taste the most bizarre fruits for free, but then you are strongly persuaded to buy some more ( story from our tablemates). The locals buy their daily food here as well however .... so it is a fun mix and definitely worth a peek.

 

 

Stef

 

 

 

Stef, thank so much for the detail. I'm a crafter myself, so have a deep appreciation for them and they're my favorite souvenir. I'll be on the lookout for something similar.

 

Thanks!

[DavyJoneses]

Enjoyed the photos...thanks.

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Show day five

Before the actual show started, the entertainment-team once again rocked the theatre.

When you entered, you were welcomed by these signs:

Lol … this is the German version…

Here is the English one:

They had a blast coaxing, hugging, group hugging or even chasing people down. It was the early show of the evening and a lot of Italian and Spanish guests were present.

Of course you had the occasional grump in the crowd as well, but overall it was a fun event with many smiles and laughs. Lol – even some of the very British guests participated …. Whoohooo …. I wonder how this kinda action would have worked out with a mainly German crowd …. I am a little skeptical. But here it was really too much fun. When there were too few people coming down the aisles, heck, they just roamed through the rows and hugged everybody already seated.

The end of the event was a heavily styled up, costumed lady of the entertainment team, which sort of jumped the poor guys, covered them in lipstick until they pretended to run off on their way out of the theatre. It was totally cheesy, but oh so much fun …. I guess you must have been there to truly appreciate the atmosphere.

Oh, and right before the show started, they had the kids from the clubs come up front to form a unicef logo.

But let us start the real show in the next post.

Stay tuned!

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

We are off on our cruise in less than two weeks but won't be in Madeira again until November.

Counting the days...

 

 

:eek: I just took a peek at the ships you'll be sailing on ....WOW! Those are true beauties. No wonder you're counting the days! How about a review afterwards:D? I'm toying with the thought of trying out the MSC Meraviglia in 2017 .... I'd love to check out the Yachtclub for once .... but your upcoming ships look like Yacht club all over:) .... for everybody:p ... I guess I'd like that even better ....sigh, decisions, decisions:rolleyes:.

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Enjoyed the photos...thanks.

 

:p you're welcome! There will be plenty more.

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

“Pura Passion”

This was the one show not to be missed during this cruise.

Since four out of five ports were Spanish …. Tadahhhh: a Flamenco themed show. I think I told you most about it already when describing the ship …. But here are the pictures.

The place was flooded with southern temperament. Prowess, grace, enormous pride and a sheer lust to dance were shown by the four performers. Lol --- yes, four. The rest of the gang was probably either MSC staff or maybe Flamenco trainees. They tried their best according to their abilities (which sadly means they were pretty average). The four stars however took your breath away. Here they are:

The women had their stunning solos:

OLEEEEE!!!!!

As well as the men:

Lol – two Spanish Alpha-males posing --- but it truly was impressive. The little one was the main performer of them all. Not only did he dance the most, he also entertained the audience with a little side-show…

It was very funny and I won’t tell you more about it in case you’re about to see this show soon.

Thank you for this wonderful show ---- it was a true pleasure and I’d go see it again and again and… You get my drift. Go see it!

Next up is day 6 of our cruise … La Palma! We’ve wanted to check out this island for many years, but somehow it never happened. Would we like it? Or would it seem dull after a highlight such as Madeira?

Wait and find out!

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Dailies day 6 -- La Palma

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

stay tuned!

 

Stef

[spinnaker2]

:eek: I just took a peek at the ships you'll be sailing on ....WOW! Those are true beauties. No wonder you're counting the days! How about a review afterwards:D? I'm toying with the thought of trying out the MSC Meraviglia in 2017 .... I'd love to check out the Yachtclub for once .... but your upcoming ships look like Yacht club all over:) .... for everybody:p ... I guess I'd like that even better ....sigh, decisions, decisions:rolleyes:.

 

We sailed in the yacht club twice in the Mediterranean.

It was the first and second cruise with DH, together, and I have to say the yacht club was a fabulous experience.

We liked it so much, we did the same trip twice!

I would go again in a heart beat. But we like the smaller ship experience.

Maybe I will try my hand at a review.

I do generally post while onboard.

Don't mean to high jack your thread.

Love your postings

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Maybe I will try my hand at a review.

I do generally post while onboard.

Don't mean to high jack your thread.

Love your postings

 

 

:D yay --- a fresh review on the horizon ! Whhooohooo!

 

 

 

You're not hijacking at all:) -- feel free to post whenever, whatever you want .... the more communication on here the better. Nothing is worse than the feeling of writing a long review and nobody cares. I love an inspiring dialogue much more than a tiring monologue. Thank you for posting .... please don't stop!

 

:p thanks for the compliment.

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

La Palma MSC excursions:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and our own plans:

 

 

 

 

Mix of foreign pics from my binder to get your mouth watering:

 

 

 

 

 

stay tuned!

 

Stef

[denisey]

Wow! Another exciting Island. It is kind of amazing how different each one is.

 

I did see a Canary Island cruise and thought about it...but it was on the Queen Mary 2 round trip from London, so unless someone gives me a suitcase full of money, it is not happening!

 

Spinnaker2 you HAVE to write a review! I'll read it, I promise!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

La Palma --- getting started

Our goal for today was to visit the gigantic volcanic crater in the middle of the island called Caldera de Taburiente. I’ve read in various reviews that you simply couldn’t truly say you visited La Palma without having done the one and only mandatory “easy” trail off La Cumbrecita Pass. Oh my, it seemed to be quite the highlight …. We were hooked and curious.

Of course, like you’ve seen, there are plenty of shore excursions, which will get you to that pass. Well, we’re no ship tour kinda people, so that was quickly dismissed.

A rental car came to mind … would have been easy to book and we would have seen a great deal …. Just not La Cumbrecita, since you need to pre-book your parking spots up there way in advance… they only have 12 spots …. And they grant the (admittedly free) permits for only short time frames …. Hiking in a rush sucks, so even if we would have been able to score a spot … it would have been rather stressful.

So we decided on a combination of public transportation and taxi. You easily get to the Caldera Visitor Center by the public bus nr. 300. I think one person one way was about 2 Euros. The drive takes about half an hour and once at the center you can take a taxi for the rest of the route up to the pass.

But we’ll go step by step. Let’s start walking off the ship:

The walk to shore is nice, since you pass right by the little sailboats bobbing in the water. You walk past a weird Mc Donald’s restaurant and cross right through a big parking lot on your left; up some steps and across the road you pretty much stumble right onto the bus stops. The 300 is the one at the very front of the spots.

 

An overview of the trip:

Tadahhh …. In the bus at 8:27 … 3 more minutes till departure! The bus is almost empty.

Here you can see that the bus line is even painted on the pavement …. You simply cannot miss this one.

Some first impressions from along the road:

We loved it! The first stretch up the mountains was full of grand views. We loved the equally lush vegetation as on Madeira, no wonder La Palma is called La Isla Verde (the green island), but what we actually prefered was that there were more open spaces and much less chaos. (Almost) no ruins, no wild traffic, actual vacant pieces of green land everywhere, just to be dotted by rather beautiful little houses. The mountains were less ragged than on Madeira. Everything just seemed to be in flow, a lot tamer than on the wild island of flowers. Of course this might be a downside for some travellers, lol -- but you might get an inkling, that we were indeed about to utterly fall in love with this island. But let's continue.

There were plenty of bus stops along the way and slowly yet surely it filled up till it was about two thirds occupied. The average bus users were either nature-tourists in their 20’s with a grungy kind of adventure look about them or occasional locals with a plastic bag on the way home from the small grocery shop. But the main audience in the bus was actually well above the age of 70, normally appearing in pairs and all sported silver-grey hair and portrayed a sporty, energetic, witty look. They all made the impression of not having to worry about money, yet having accumulated enough wisdom to live and enjoy life without having to prove anything to anybody anymore. It was a pleasure to see some of these friendly, relaxed senior couples arguing in a loving and quite constructive manner… I could swear they speak at least three languages fluently and have seen a large part of this beautiful world. Sigh – if I grow old I wanna be just like them. La Palma is a retirement paradise for fit, energetic, smart, culturally interested and yet down to earth senior citizens who’ve seen it all. Tanja and I both agreed – if we ever prove to be smart and fit enough and work up the confidence of maybe belonging to these cool seniors--- this definitely would be a place we’d enjoy retirement in.

Stay tuned!

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

La Palma -- Drive on bus 300 continued:

You can still see the rather dark, gloomy weather in port and on the ocean … but the higher we drove the father away we got from the clouds.

Lol – when I look at this picture I sigh and admire the beams of light … When Tanja looks at this picture she sighs and admires the old French car.

Oh my God, it felt almost like flying over the clouds. These pictures really don’t do it justice in any way whatsoever. It was one of those moments when your lower jaw drops uncontrollably and just stays open in awe while you gape dumbfounded towards the spectacle below.

…until you suddenly enter a tunnel. Like woken from a dream you blink and snap back to reality. For a minute that is, because once you emerge from the tunnel you get to experience the same thing all over, just with a completely different landscape. Have we mysteriously been beamed to Montana? You drive through a vast plain with high mountains peeking up from each side. The farmland in the valley blends seamlessly into the green vegetation on the sides of the mountains. Wow!

But be careful not to be too overwhelmed by all this, because your bus stop is soon to come up and if you don’t push the button for the bus to stop it might pass your stop at the visitor center altogether. We WOULD have missed it if not two of the young tourists got off here as well and had pushed that darn button for us. I exclaimed to Tanja in the last minute :"Oh crap, this is it, quick -- we need to get off!"

But be at ease, this won't happen to you. Here's a little help:

If you see this “art” next to the road, it is time to push that button. You're welcome.

 

This is the Visitor Center:

IF you

do

get a rental car --- be careful about the radar machine in the white box up front! See?

Stay tuned!

Stef

Edited June 25, 2015 by Kreuzfahrtneuling