Pillars Of Hercules

We passed through the Pillars of Hercules about 11:45 PM Tuesday night. Lots of people were up on the 15th floor looking for the famed Straits of Gibraltar, including me, but it was pretty dark out there. I alternated between port and starboard and got at least a few decent night shots.

Ships passing in the night

A town on the Spanish side

A big town on the Moorish side

Next day, in the sea lanes 

Close by the coast of Spain, a white city in the haze...

Funchal, Madeira Islands

Our one port of call was Funchal, capital of the Madeira Islands. The Madeira Islands were the first of the "discoveries" of the Age of Discovery, in the earlier 1400s, by a team in the employ of the Portuguese prince, Henry the Navigator. (We visited the site of Henry's School of Navigation, near Sagres, in 2010). Among the Madeiras' other many claims to fame are 1) they make Madeira wine, 2) Funchal is the annual site of the world's largest fireworks display (according to Guinness), 3) the place is really scenic and beautiful and semi-tropical and historic, 4) Funchal is the #1 Portuguese port of call for cruise ships (sadly for Belem and Lisbon; and for the cruisers who miss them), and 5) the port McDonald's has free and unlimited wifi. Having been starved for nine days by slow ship-board wifi and high ship-board prices (75 cents per minute plus a $3.95 "set-up" fee), we concentrated on 5). Oh yes, the Madeira Islands are way off the northwest coast of Africa, about 500 miles west of Casablanca.

Debarking/embarking, more chances to be impressed by
the Epic...

Funchal Cathedral, 1506

Spring well underway in Funchal; more likely, it's never
anything but spring or summer in this place

Street scene

Nice Portuguese tile

In the fish market

Hasn't changed much over the centuries

Really ugly fish

We tried some Madeira (fortified) wine and
decided to wait until we get to Spain or France
to buy wine; I did sneak a small bottle of Ginja
back aboard...the wonderful cherry liqueur we
were enchanted by in Obidos in 2009

The flower market was pretty neat

Returning to the harbor, another view of the Epic, across
the marina

From the ship: Funchal is not a small place; said to be
110,000, but it seemed larger than that to me

Panoramic view from the 15th floor...wait!...what's that coming
up on the left, I mean, port?!

It's Funchal's Exact Replica of the Santa Maria, taking a load
of Epic cruisers on another cruise

Sailing away...more islands in the Madeira archipelago; nice
respite

Aboard The Epic

The Epic had more venues, restaurants, stores, theaters, facilities, etc., than I got to and certainly more than you want to see pictured here. Nevertheless, here are a few...

Any number of demonstrations, here, French cooking, most
a soft ad for the ship's many services, etc.

Or merely entertaining; all kinds of movies were shown...

Part of our stateroom/cabin/whatever

Ditto

Ditto again

Staff were helpful, cheerful, attentive

15th floor festivities...music, dancing, waterslides, pools,
hot-tubs, climbing wall, basketball/volleyball courts, etc.

One of the larger casinos afloat; Vicki says we lost either
$6 or $23, depending on accounting methods...

We took in most of all the entertainment

Thus

But the best-on-boat, by far, was this rock n' roll dueling
pianos thing, all requests, incredible voice/keyboard talent,
who could do anything from Bertold Brecht/Kurt Weill to
Billy Joel and Elton John, and more recently too (so I was
told); they did a very credible rendition of my request for
Blues Image's "Ride, Captain, Ride, Up On Your Mystery
Ship" which no one else in the audience really seemed to
appreciate...

And most especially this Michigan lady, Rhonda Hughes, I
think; her rendition of  "What a Wonderful World," part Louis
Armstrong, part Bert Lahr (Cowardly Lion) was a KO

At Sea

So every day I checked with the bridge to make sure everything
was OK; steady as you go, etc.

And to learn many, many interesting facts about the Epic;
personally I think the beer bottle statistic is misleading since
most of the beer I saw consumed was Foster's, which comes
in cans and is the choice of cruisers everywhere (bigger cans)

Bow hot-tub apparently reserved for Leonardo di Crapio and
Kate Winslet

Most of the 9 or 10 days crossing looked like this

But some days it looked like this

I spent not nearly enough time here, the 7th floor jogging
track on the starboard side

The port side was reserved for shuffle-board; but no one
plays shuffle-board anymore, so I made it my own personal
walking/jogging strip

Salt spray on one of the 7th floor life-boats; the weather was
marvelous for the whole crossing, but for one front we passed
through in a day; the Epic rolls a bit in even the calmest seas,
however; 14 of its 18 decks are above water line, and the higher
you are the more you feel the roll

Embarcation In Miami

So Carole and Jim drove us from Coral Springs to the Port of Miami, and with little ado, we boarded the Norwegian Epic and checked in...then had lunch, moved into our cabin on the 10th floor, explored a bit of the ship, found our travel companions and guides, Norm and Marie (Vicki's sister and her husband...on their 8th cruise in the past year), watched the ship's departure, and settled into our 11-day routine at sea. All excitement, since this is our first cruise of any significance, and despite being somewhat atypical--a re-positioning cruise, getting the boat back to its summer waters, the Mediterranean, with only one port of call--we are regarding it as a foray into yet another style of travel. The cruise is a little atypical too in that the Norwegian Line's "freestyle cruising" is a departure from customary notions of cruising (formality, propriety, dinner-seatings, dress code, etc.) The Norwegian Epic is the third largest cruise ship in the world, nearly 1100 feet long, displacing 155,000 tons, with the usual amenities, and all that added to the excitement.

View from the jet-way (boat-way?); perhaps all cruise ships
are on the colossal side, but parked along Miami's nearly mile-
long quay, with two Carnivals and a Disney for comparison,
the Epic seemed quite as immense as the billing suggested

Us, boarding

The Epic is apparently 4th for take-off; the two Carnivals
are off...

Followed by the Disney Wonder...

Panoramic view of downtown Miami, from the port; Vicki
and I both were born in Miami, and I was raised there; she
returned to South Florida for high school; and me

And a bit of south Miami Beach, and some of the 1920s
islands dredged up from Biscayne Bay

The Julia Tuttle Causeway, connecting Brickell Avenue and
environs with Key Biscayne (think: Richard M. Nixon, Bebe
Rebozo, et al. (if you're old enough); well, maybe best not to
think of any of this, regardless of age)

We have embarked and are heading for Government Cut...
more of south Miami Beach and the islands

A bit of South Beach...some serious Art Deco in there

South Beach itself..."well I been thinkin' 'bout/ all the places
we surfed and danced and/ all the faces we miss so let's get/
back together and do it again"...well, actually I didn't surf
all that much (like, none) nor dance...but it's nice to regard a
place like South Beach somewhere in one's life portfolio

Our jet-ski escort has departed, we are past the jetties and
out into the Atlantic

As we turn northwards, views of North Miami Beach,
Aventura (right, Carole?), and

Sunset over south Florida

Interim Update

After our voyage and stay in Barcelona and a fast ride on the Train of Great Velocity--all to be recounted soon--we are now in Paris. We moved into our apartment in the 11th Arrondissement Municipaux and are having an early dinner at a bistro up the street. More, hopefully, tomorrow.

Train of Great Velocity...300 kph! Not a lot of
sight-seeing at that speed, though we did enjoy
seeing Sete, bits of the central massif, miles of
early spring green everywhere