June 7 Europe here we come June 7    Seaday June 8 Our next port is Funchal, the capital city, on the island of Madeira, part of Portugal and the EEC.  It is located 600 miles west of the Moroccan coast in the Atlantic Ocean.   The island has a population of 250,000.  Funchal is the capital city of 106,000 people. The island is a quietly classy tourist destination.  In its history, sugar cane gave way to wine, and Madeira wine is now famous.  We have been here before and taken the famous gondola ride to the church at the top.  That is where many take a wicker sled down the very steep and twisty hill again, controlled by two expert drivers.  We passed on that.    Our tour involved six two-seater tuk-tuks, which allowed us to zip around the city, dogging traffic and passing down very narrow, quaint streets.  We waved to our fellow shipmates as they walked through the city.   Our first stop as a grou...

  May 31 -West Africa Today, we arrived at a country which the ship called “The Ivory Coast” with a population of 32 million, but the official name is “Côte d’Ivoire”, that’s the French name they prefer internationally.  The port city is Abidjan with a population of 7 million.  It is built around a very large “Ebrie” lagoon, rather like the San Francisco Bay area.  The city became important once a deep-water canal was dug, connecting the lagoon the short distance to the Atlantic Ocean. Yellow fever devastated the city in the past, and as a result, a new capital city, “Yamoussoukro,” was established farther inland, but after the yellow fever left the area, Abidjan remained more important due to its location and port.  The country in the north is a savanna, and in the south is mainly forest.  In 1960, it gained independence from France.  To go ashore, we needed to take a quick trip through the immigration line, which was a breeze this time, and w...