Funchal's Forte de Sao Tiago

Built in 1614 to defend the city from pirate attack, the fort later became home to 3,500 British troops during the Napoleonic wars.

Thank you for all your kind birthday greetings yesterday - it was a lovely day!

Steady fine warm rain for most of today - even when the sun came out, as it did quite often. Then, late afternoon, the sun won the day and the sky turned blue.

We walked to the old part of Funchal and looked round the old fort, which also houses an extremely modest modern art gallery. And after failing to see any yachts or sea-sport activity when we looked out to sea yesterday, today made up for it: there were a couple of yachts and quite a few surf-boarders with sails for us to watch. Then we heard the long, deep horn of the last remaining cruise ship and watched as the Black Watch (Nassau) left the harbour and sailed off till it fell off the edge of the earth.

Looked it up and it seems that it set off from Southampton UK four days ago, stopped at Funchal for the day and is now heading off again all over the world, winding up in Singapore. (You can see its timetable here if you're interested.) Cruises don't appeal to me or Mr PP at all, but it's fascinating watching them come and go and realising how huge they are.