Fifty years after Apollo 11 landed a manned vessel on the moon, an alien craft lands on the island of Madeira! Yes, we have arrived with the Lamborghini at last. It was quite a journey over 7 days and 2,700 km. We stayed two nights with friends in Normandy, followed by a night in Bordeaux, one near Segovia in Spain and one in Alentejo in Portugal. Each was lovely in its own way, as were many of the roads between them.
As planned, we picked up a second, more sensible car in Portugal and I drove that for the last couple of days. It wasn't as bad as I had anticipated, once I had stopped grazing my left hand knuckles on the door every time I went to change gear, and helped by largely quiet roads. Also Dave is a good lead driver as he only overtakes when there is enough space for me too. I feel a bit guilty that he had to drive at a more sedate pace than he normally would, on some lovely roads, so he could keep me in view. The car was supplied by the father/father-in-law of another couple of friends, and they kindly hosted us for lunch at his beautiful villa before we set off for the next stage of our journey.
We arrived at the port of Portimao in good time for our ferry which set off perfectly on time at 2pm. The journey took 25 hours so we had booked a cabin which was right at the front of the ship. We were just settling into the journey, waving goodbye to the Algarve over a beer, when Dave started to suffer from a dreadful bout of seasickness. Sadly he suffered for pretty well the whole journey, so it turned out to be a little less romantic than we had hoped. I kept him company or wandered around the boat, managing to turn up at the restaurant when it was just closing. Fortunately I wasn't particularly hungry so did not mind missing my evening meal. Dave was not eating anything! A kind Madeiran saw Dave's plight during one of his rare trips to get some fresh air, and gave him some travel sickness pills which didn't help the sickness but did help him sleep through it. I'm relieved to say that he had recovered enough to drive by the time we arrived.
Dave's seasickness has confirmed what we already thought, that we will actually ship the motorbike to Madeira in our removal crate rather than ride it. We realise it is just too much time, money and energy to expend a second time.
We pulled into Funchal at 3pm on Wednesday 16 July and, by some amazing luck, I was the second car off the ship. I parked to one side to wait for Dave, as he had been on a different deck and got off around 10 minutes later, and was met by Nelio, the builder who will be building our future house, and his marketing manager Robert. They will garage the Lambo at their office until they have built our new one. Much to our amazement the Lamborghini had already become a Facebook phenomenon by the time we arrived, as people had photographed it at Portimao, and some were speculating on whether it was headed for Madeira or Tenerife where the ship was going onto. Several people seemed to claim they owned it too!
Once at the port the BMW was parked in the nearby CR7 car park (yes, not only have the Madeirans named their airport after their famous son, Cristiano Ronaldo, but they have also named a car park after him!) so that I could join Dave for the Lambo's first trip on the island. It certainly did cause a stir as we went along. My worry is that people will have accidents staring at the car instead of the road!
Now the car is housed at the builder's office until our new house is built. Dave took Nelio for a brief drive before washing it and putting it to bed. Even that became a spectator sport! Our car is rapidly gaining celebrity status on the island.
We then had four busy days talking to the builder, looking at building sites, and meeting our tax advisor who is helping us import the car. It is apparently a very laborious process with pitfalls all along but, for us, worth the effort to have our car on the beautiful island with us. We popped by to visit our plot but got sidetracked by our future neighbours and a very large gin and tonic. The future looks very promising....
Now I am back home and we are on the final straight before moving out there for good. The house is on the market and has had around 10 viewings so far. Dave has booked the packers to pack up and move our possessions, and our one way flight out. Yes, we have a leaving date! It will be 29 September. I am just about to list a load of items to sell online and we have had two mega-trips to charity shops with one more to go. Now that we have a deadline it has really focussed our attention on what still needs to be done.
One last bit of news. My younger daughter, Tania, passed her motorcycle test last week and has now taken possession of her brand new bike. I am so proud of her.
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