May 18, 2011 | Written by Patricia Murphy

Day 6 Funchal to Lisbon

We had half a day more to explore Funchal, so we scheduled a trip to the market (you know how I love a market) and a tour of the Madeira wine making process. We also planned to visit an ancient fortress.

The market, frankly, was full of French people, which seems right up my alley, except that since we’re not in France, they are tourists from the cruise ship that landed this morning, and they keep standing around in packs, especially in front of doorways, smoking. Okay. So today I’m grumpy. What could make me feel better? Let’s look at the seafood! John and I have been eating a delicious fish called Scabbard. We walked further into the market to see some. Before we found the Scabbard, we saw this tuna. Can you say sashimi?

Perhaps we should have stopped there. Because Scabbard fish, my friends, looks like this. He is not a very pretty one.

We had a 10:30 appointment to tour the Blandy Madeira wine company. So we wandered through the charming streets until we arrived for the tour. Once the tour began, we were treated to an insider’s view of the madeira making process. We also learned about the origin of Madeira wine. It was sent on 16th century ships stopping over at Funchal. But since the wine spoiled before it reached its destination, winemakers started adding spirits to it to stop the fermentation process. Today, Madeira is made from 4 different grapes, so you can get it in sweet, semi-sweet, semi-dry and dry.

After the wine tour, we walked up a massive hill to a Fortress, where the men doing construction told us to “come back in 2 hours.” Hm. Can’t do it. Better head back down.

On our way back to the hotel we grabbed a quick bite to eat and went back to Reid’s Palace to pack for our flight to Lisbon. It’s sure hard to say goodbye to you, view.

The flight to Lisbon was uneventful. Soon we were back in our Lisbon hotel, the Lx Boutique. Since it was raining we decided to have dinner right across the street at Oliviers. We had a quick dinner then went back to the hotel to sleep. Tomorrow is our big day to “Do Lisbon.”

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