FUNCHAL, MADEIRA. Thursday, March 22nd.

We started the day with a stunning viewing of the city of Funchal
and then had a beautiful devotional time together: “When time was right, I revealed Myself to you… I sang you a Love song, whose beginning and end are veiled in eternity. I infused meaning into your mind and harmony into your heart. Join Me in signing My song. Together we will draw others out of darkness into My marvelous Light” (Young, p. 18). Such  penetrating truth and imagery!

 Soon after breakfast we made our way to the city, not by shuttle bus today, but walking about a mile along the “Pontinha” (the little point) which was the name of the part of Lisbon that we lived in for a couple of years. We decided to go with taxi driver, Sr. Leonaldo, instead of the yellow tour bus option. 

His black Mercedes, his command of historical and local knowledge confirmed that we had made a good decision going with him. He said that we really needed to see the island from the highest point, Cabo Girao, at 580 m (over 1800 ft) straight up from the sea. Whew. I’m not much for heights but it was spectacular. 

So much of our two hour drive reminded us of Azores or parts of Portugal! – fishing ports crowded with brightly colored fishing boats, their colorful fishermen and lots of sleeping dogs on the docks, 

cafes with small metal tables and chairs spilling onto the sidewalks, fish split open and hung-up to dry, farms terraced up and down the sides of the high hills, pastel painted houses with clay tile roofs built along narrow, asphalt roadways that wind around the hills, a few gypsies hanging out at the look-out point, a cross at highest point of the island.

Then the city center charmed us with her familiar characteristics -- we could have been in Coimbra or Lisbon or Angra do Heroismo – seeing architecture so purely Portuguese (except for the castle that we knew instantly was Spanish), visiting the centrally-placed cathedral, seeing flowered-filled boxes, gardens and parks everywhere

and walking on sidewalks laid in swirling designs with white and black rocks in mosaic.  We each had our little coffee “bica cheia” and  cabbage soup “caldo verde”, VERY traditional treats.

Back on board the ship
a folk group from Madeira presented a show of song and dance. The four couples of the group wore traditional outfits, danced and sung songs from the 11 Catholic parishes on the island.

The island needs rain desperately; the yellowing, dry leaves on the small trees that lined our walk along the dock told that story. On Tennerife there has been no rain all year. But there is no dryness in the style and motifs on Madeia!

What a trip down memory lane! We lived from 1974-79 in Portugal, then 1983-1990 in Portugal again plus in the Azores. Those years provided us a full passel of lovely memories! Today was a “day spent in Portugal” for us – delightful! My only wish was that our children, the 4 couples of them, could have shared the time with us.

PUERTO DE LA CRUZ, TENERIFE , CANARIES Wednesday, March 21

Jon and I might have thought we were back in Portugal or the Azores today, at least during the hours we spent walking the city of Puerto de la Cruz. We walked “people streets” as we would call them there, streets set up just for pedestrians, no vehicles, benches to rest, trees for shade, cafes with small tables spilling onto the walkways, store after store of high fashion Spanish designs and local handicrafts and souvenirs.

Our goal was the city market that is called “Nuestra Senhora de Africa” (Our Lady of Africa). It was a ring of specialty stores – bakeries, fruit stands, vegetable stands, butchers and flower stands in the middle. We stopped for tiny expresso coffees, of course.

We were very impressed with the beauty of this island nation, the Canaries. Volcanic origins here pushed jagged mountains into a chain of seven islands where Spanish is the language. They are in-line with the Saharah, so sand from the dessert blows onto them.

We have not been very successful finding other Americans on board even though a nice Scottish couple we shared table with yesterday said there are over 500 Americans on the ship. We listen for them in the elevators, around the tables, but have only found two ladies from California and only two families on the camel ride.  Seems like such a few if there are so many others. But we met a delightful couple of Christians from South Africa.

I finished a novel set in Edinburg, Scotland, and picked up three non-fiction books at the ship library: Half the Sky, turning oppression into opportunity for women worldwide, The Go-Giver and Ecological Intelligence (Daniel Goleman). We do have time to read. It’s vacation time!

“Waiting, trusting, and hoping are intricately connected, like golden strands interwoven to form a strong chain. Trusting is the central strand, because it is the response from God’s children that He desires the most. Waiting and hoping embellish the central strand and strengthen the chain that connects us to God” (paraphrase Young, 16).

This triple chord is pertinent to us. God has taught us to trust Him again and again. This trip is part of waiting on Him and hoping in Him. We DO feel quite connected to Him.

SHORE EXCURSION TO LANZAROTE ISLAND, CANARIES

“Ride a camel” had never appeared on my wish list, but today Jon and I rode a camel! In fact, 150 people from the ship rode camels. It was great, great fun. I’d do it again.

 

Neither had I heard much of anything about the island of Lanzarote of the Canaries,
but now we know quite a bit about it as we spent half a day touring it with a guide who informed about the six years of flowing lava which is longest period in the world and created a landscape that serves as movie location for alien planets! Look at the pictures to see why it qualifies!

The tour of the island was by bus which we shared with other English-speakers. The driver and the guide were from the island, and showed us their skill in negotiating the narrow, curvy roads between the fields of black and black-to-orange basalt that extended for mile after mile. Twently villages were buriedunder the molten lava and other damaged but, as I understand our guide, no person or animal died in the natural disaster. When the farmers returned to their farms, they were “clever”, says our guide, and figured out that they could dig down below the basalt to the soil, plant a plant, build a semi-circular rock wall to keep the sand from burying the plant and it worked! They could return to farming in that way. They made 100,000 plantings like that on the island.

We stopped to shop for a few minutes and noticed that the souvenirs were mostly locally made – jewelry and statuettes of basalt and geodes, sculptures of the lava sand, local ceramics, leather and shells. We have so many cool items in our house in Federal Way that we are not much tempted to buy, but…we did get a couple of neat reminders of the unique place the island is.

We didn’t eat on the island; we came back to the ship. When we lived in Portugal and the Azores, we ate frequently from the sea, so we are trying to take advantage of the fresh seafoods available at the restaurants on board. The chefs do a great job at preparing it. We had whiting for lunch and salmon and sea trout for supper. Nice! Jon found the pool empty enough to swim some good laps.

We were challenged by this thought from our devotional time:

“…our ultimate goal is not to control or fix everything around us; it is to keep communing with God. A successful day is one in which we have stayed in touch with Him, even if many things remain undone at the end of the day. Do not let your to-do list (written or mental) become an idol directing our life. Instead, we ask the Holy Spirit to guide us moment by moment” (paraphrase of Young, p. 13).

Trust that you, too, will be blessed by it.

SUNDAY AT SEA (March 18)

In the daily schedule there is a time scheduled for personal prayers at 8:00 a.m. in the chapel, so Jon and I scurried up from our Deck 10 stateroom to the chapel. We thought it would be a good place to meet other Christians, on Sunday a.m. The chapel is lovely with blue velvet-covered straight chairs, and blue & green on a simple, colored-glass window, and carpeting. We were disappointed that only one other person came in to pray, a Catholic lady who didn’t speak English. We thought with 2,400 passengers and 1,200 crewmen on board that someone else would have come to the chapel…

However, the deep blue waters of sea, the pastel blue sky and the perfect crescent of the horizon all around us didn’t disappoint. How beautiful! We echo the declarations of the Psalmist:

“O, Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth…You have made man to have dominion over the works of your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen…the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth!”

So we spent the rest of the day, reading, walking along the deck, going to a couple of classes, napping, watching a movie and eating! I haven’t yet described to you the system of food service on board. It’s really something! There are four restaurants which are “free” to us, their costs are built into the cruise package. We have normally gone to one of the buffets that have a great variety of every foods – like a Golden Corral or Sirloin Steakhouse – except they vary the special foods. Yesterday one choice was Romanian-type lamb sausage wrapped in grape leaves, today the Vietnamese soup was special. Water, tea, coffee and milk are available, too.

We tried dinner at one of the other “free” restaurants, a very chic, candle-lit place called the Pacific Garden. The blackened Red Snapper I had served in thick yummy seafood gumbo might have been the best fish I’ve ever eaten.

It is a LUXURY ship; people with earnings like ours very infrequently get to go on such a trip, but the Lord has made ways for us to do many “luxurious things” on a shoestring. The cost of internet is a big concern though. I’m sorry about that. I'd rather spend more time "with you" on line.

We hope you have had a wonderful Sunday, including a great service. We prayed for that for all of you who may read this. 

ST. PATRICK’S AT SEA

Our first day of seeing no land, on deck today we could see choppy waves and feel the stiff wind of the Mediterranean Sea. We didn’t spend much time there because the activity schedule gave us interesting options.  We’ll pass through the Straits of Gilbralter tonight at 11:30 p.m. but we will be sleeping. We had a great visit there many years ago – in the daytime.

We visited the library and checked out a book.

Jon went swimming in spite of the chilly weather. The ship has two outdoor swimming pools and warm-to-hot swirling tub 

I went to the Fitness center. We went to classes! I didn’t expect to have learning experiences on board! I attended one on the formation of the gemstones tanzanite and amber. I found out that there is now only one mine in the world for the tanzanite because the second one had to be closed for unstable conditions. Amber, on the other hand, is composed of hardened resin from ancient trees such that some of the most precious pieces have insects buried in them.

While Jon went to an orientation about the off-shore excursions that are coming up, I attended a seminar about toxins and detox processes. Always charmed by a British broge, I was impressed with the knowledge of young women who presented. She explained that our goals in fitness and health must be worked through three things: diet, exercise and detox, that without the third, our fitness goals cannot be met. She said were born with a near perfect pH but toxins that we accumulate through life from air, medicines, food, drink, autoimmune system, stress and chemicals onto skin turn our bodies acidic. Therefore, the goal of detoxing our systems is to make them more alkaline; she said the best way to do that is through algae – either ingested in capsule form or applied to the skin and in bath sachets. It was a convincing presentation. The years Jon and I have lived abroad have made it easy and inexpensive to “eat organically”; that’s about all we had! But in the States there are such wide choices. We need to make healthier eating choices.

Oh, Jon and I also went to Part I of “30,000 years of Art”. It wasn’t as dynamic as the other, but interesting, nevertheless. It is a kind of lead-up to an art auction on board with 600 pieces to sell. By the way, we are going to visit Malaga, the birthplace of Pablo Picasso…and of Antonio Banderas!

Jon and I have not forgotten to spend a good time in prayer and Bible study. We are missing the WaPac Prayer Summit, but prayed for all of those gathered. Our Lenten reading contained this gem from “Jesus Calling”:


“Holiness is letting Me live through you. Since I dwell in you, you are fully equipped to be holy. Pause before responding to people or situations, giving My Spirit space to act through you. Hasty words and actions leave no room for Me; this is atheistic living. I want to inhabit all your moments – gracing your thoughts, words, and behavior” (Young, P.12).

BARCELONA

Our “day” in Barcelona was rather unorthodox in hours, i.e. it was a “day” spread over two dates. I think the day’s hours do not count the 2 wandering around the airport and getting to the hotel. Nor the 10 hrs sleeping the first night (yea!) so the day’s hours were spent time in our room, watching Spanish TV for a while, working on-line to reschedule our flight from Venice, time at Gracies Shopping Mall, and taking the Barcelona City Tour, to see many fine works of architecture across the city. We recommend our hotel -- “Silken Hotel Diagonal” because of its proximity to the Mall which has everything. The name comes from the street it fronts – a major thoroughfare. It’s decoration is black & white geometrics, lots of circles, lines and squares.

On the double-decker bus tour, we had constant guide comments in any one of 14 languages from the recorded voice we plugged into. We learned that Barcelona has 1,600,000 people and two official languages – Catalan and Spanish. So, that’s why we could understand some people and not others! We saw several of unique building including the Abnar Tower, right beside our hotel, and also several UNESCO World Heritage sites in the city and buildings that were new or improved from the Olympic Games.

We had fun eating “local” for the most part-- hake, pork loin, café con leche, croissants, cod cakes (bolos de bacalhau) and “tapas” but we passed up Subway, McDonalds and Burger King but Jon 
couldn’t, for the love of Quincy, pass up a Dunkin’ Donuts. He got coffee and a cream-filled donut. (Quincy, MA is the home of the original doughnut shop called “Dunkin’ Donuts” and they are very good, better than Krispy Kreme, quite even with Tim Horton.)

By the middle of the afternoon today, we caught a taxi to the very large cruise ship – the Norweigan Jade. Whew, is it big! 

We have a cozy little stateroom on the 10^th deck. Reception is on the 6^th, the welcome party at the poolside on the 12^th. This is going to be quite an adventure! We are very thankful to be here. There is internet but it is slow and expensive. We’ll buy enough time to make a quick check-in morning and night. Somehow Jon misplaced his camera on our way to the room, but, thankfully, someone found it and turned it in to “Lost and Found”. Yea! He had taken nice pictures of the city bus tour. I’ll try to include some.

Even though it is gigantic, I can feel the gentle rocking of the ship as I sit on the bed. I can hear steps of children in the room above us. But I see the camera and feel the gentle care of the Savior. I read from the devotional book and hear: “Jesus says, I made you in My image, and I hid heaven in your heart…do not be afraid to be different from other people. The path I have called you to travel is exquisitely right for you.”! I believe that for me, for Jon and me and for you. His path is uniquely right.