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Aix-en-Provence, France is as good as its fame of beautiful lifestyle. We had a wonderful and slightly wet trip there.

27 years later, Barcelona has a different vibe. We took the time to explore some new places and we were totally in awe!

Cartagena, Spain is an unexpected stop, but brought us more into the European ruins-seeking mood.

Today is our destination expert Jessica’s last presentation….. She will disembark in Florida and we will get a new one…. We really like her presentation as she did it with such fervor and joie de vive… Through her presentations we are seeing the places we traveled through her lenses and they are amazing!!

On every segment of the trip (this world cruise has 5 segments) there’s an invitation to go to the captain’s circle party where they give out sparkling wines to lucky draw winners and surprisingly we got picked this time and won

Jessica was also at the party and her 40th birthday is just 2 days away, we gave the prosecco that we won to her and thus concluded a happy festive day.

Not many things to report here except the usual….. Zumba, ukelele, enrichment class, quiz,dance parties… Etc… Btw We managed to finish the champagne that P won couple of days ago🤪

Many fellow ship mates who are leaving us in Florida are getting nostalgic about leaving the ship already….. Their world cruise started 13 days earlier than us in Florida… Some said they will miss the buffet, some said they will miss the friends they made on the cruise… After all it’s 111 days on the ship, more than a quarter, almost 1/3 of a year on the ship… I asked a friend who left us in south africa and then rejoined us in Rome what home felt like, as if it’s something exotic and unreachable … I guessed we all miss home alot, can’t wait to get back but also hard to leave the life we were already acustomed to…

Great sunrise show today 🌈

Also saw some whale activity from afar in the afternoon

2nd time in Lisbon allowed us to go outside the city, like the famous Sintra. Still the foods in Lisbon got us really hooked. Many people said they have friends who live here. We can see some of their friends’ joys in the sweet tarts and great dishes.

This is our truest Arabic experience in this trip. The desert, camels, souk, rub el hizb (octogram), … all remind us where we have been.

First time trying the ship’s salon service since $50 spa certificate was one of the item in P’s winning package from art trivia.  I’m way overdue for a hair color service… I was amazed that I don’t even need to move from my seat to have my hair washed, the hair washing station is movable and they situated it right behind, I just need to lean back. Very cool!

Also we indulge ourselves with another seafood bucket lunch, same as the one on day 67…

Other than that it’s ukelele for R and Ping pong for P and trivia games and karaoke (we haven’t summon up the courage yet to sing but watching others perform with friends is fun enough already) and the nightly performance… Before you know it, one sea day is over..

An autonomous region of Portugal on an island off the northwest coast of Africa… People called Madeira the Island of the eternal spring….and it surely lives up to its name…Funchal is the capital of Madeira and that’s where we stopped today

Ever heard of toboggan? Neither did we… And its the first thing we target since many ship mates who did it before highly recommended it and warned us of likely long lines…. .. We hailed a taxi as soon as we get off the ship and arrived second on the line… It’s super fun indeed where two crew members who dressed like gondoliers with thick shoe sole helped navigate a sledge like basket where you sat and roll down the hill for 2 km…. We enjoyed the thrill of sliding down the hill and the scenery…. Not scary at all

For those interested to know more about Funchal’s toboggan ride, here’s a link to a youtube video that has already garnered 1.5 million views: https://youtu.be/19o8yPaVp58?si=DrOqI6ss_fX-SI-R

After the ride we walked down the hill to the city for a little sight seeing in the historic city area

Coffee stop next to the Jardin municipal

Rue de Santa Maria for lunch… We found a restaurant at the famous Narrow alley of rue de Santa Maria and had a feast while tourist walked by taking pictures of the alleys painted doors

Mercado de Lavradores, biggest fresh produce market in town

Also, we need to mention the painted doors trend of Funchal and here’s just a few examples… It was started by a Jose Maria zyberchem back in 2010

This final stop of Europe ended with a bang! Funchal Madeira is glorious and memorable…

So next will be 5 sea days until Bermuda…. Hopefully we don’t pull a dissappearing act in Bermuda…. Lol