Mediterranean Adventure - Wrap Up

By the numbers:

Number of nautical miles sailed: 13,283
Number of countries visited: 8
Number of ports visited: 23
Number of time zone changes: 14
Number of miles walked: 140
Number of life birds: 15

Just for fun, David came up with some totals for all our cruises:

Number of nautical miles sailed: 63,800
Number of ports visited:108
Number of days cruising: 215

And finally, we were struck (not literally, but only by the grace of God in Naples) by the proliferation of tiny cars all over Europe.  Here are some of our favorites.

Half Moon Cay, Bahamas - December 7, 2017

After seven days at sea we arrived at Half Moon Cay, Holland America's private island in the Bahamas.  This was our only tender port and the seas were extremely rough.  We were not going to go ashore, but then we decided to go and see if we could find any interesting birds.  The island is very tacky and commercial.  But I guess some people love it.  It had just rained, so it was very hot and humid, and we had no luck finding any birds.  The tender trip both ways was very scary, and we were amazed that no one was injured getting on and off.  We really regretted going ashore, as it was not a pleasant way to end an otherwise wonderful cruise.

Miles walked: 2.5

Funchal, Madeira, Portugal - November 29, 2017

After a day at sea we arrived in Funchal.  The forecast was for rain so we took our raincoats with us when we left the ship.  We had nothing in particular to see, so we just walked into town to look around.  Funchal is a really beautiful, clean city with lots of trees and parks.  The mountains rise steeply behind it, and there are houses almost all the way up.  In town we found the market, which was fun.  There were lots of produce stands with a lot of tropical fruits we'd never seen.  We bought some assorted dried fruit to take with us for snacks.  There was a large fish market with some of the ugliest fish I've ever seen.  We had lunch at a little outdoor cafe, then walked around looking for gelato.  After a walk uphill we found the historic Reid Hotel overlooking the harbor.  We then walked back down the hill, still looking for gelato.  We never did find any, but we spotted something else really amazing.  Anyone who lives in Tucson know the name Truly Nolen as the local pest control company that has antique cars all over town.  In Funchal we saw a little yellow VW bug with mouse ears.  It was a Truly Nolen car!  We've since learned that they have companies all over the world.  It turned out to be a gorgeous sunny day with not a drop of rain.  And for the third time we left a country with wonderful memories.  At 5:00, which was supposed to be our departure time, the captain announced that we had a problem with one of our emergency generators.  He expected that they would be able to fix it and we'd sail at 6:00.  We finally left at 6:15.  It turned out to be a good thing, because by then it was dark.  As we sailed out we looked out from the stern of the ship.  The mountains were covered with thousands of lights from all the houses.  It was positively magical.

Miles walked: 5.4 

Casablanca, Morocco - November 27, 2017

We knew going in that Casablanca would not be exciting, and it wasn't.  The city is modern except for a lot of decaying, falling down structures.  The one thing we had hoped to visit was the Hassan II mosque, the third largest mosque in the world.  We had to take a shuttle from the very busy port.  In town we were immediately assaulted by taxi drivers, street vendors, even kids with their hands out.  In spite of it being 80 degrees, most of the people were wearing jackets.  I guess for them it was a cold snap.  After walking several blocks into the old town, we decided we'd had enough.  It felt uncomfortable.  Not in the sense of safety, just that the culture is so different we weren't sure how to behave.  We really stood out.  The mosque was probably a mile away and we decided to skip it. The one really interesting thing was the totally alien feeling of the city.  The dress, the language so different from ours.  We took the shuttle back to the ship and enjoyed the rest of the day sitting outside.  The air was incredibly dusty but the warmth felt good.

Miles walked: 1.3

Cadiz, Spain - November 26, 2017

We didn't have a long list of things to see in Cadiz, but it turned out to be one of our favorite places.  It's a small city, serving as the access point to Seville.  We docked right downtown and were able to walk right into the main plaza, where we had lunch.  There were a few big, beautiful churches and parks with statues.  We walked down the main shopping street, along with hundreds of locals out on a Sunday.  After a bit more walking we plopped down at an outdoor cafe and had a glass of wine.  The weather was perfect and it was nice just to sit and people watch.  We found markers for a walking tour, so we did that and found another really nice part of the city.  Just as with Italy, our last stop in Spain was a good one to remember.

Miles walked: 5