Our Travel Day …

November 11th, 2021 

Today was the long anticipated day of departure or in our own terms “the Hurry Up and Wait Day”. 

We had a smooth drive / ride to the Toronto airport with plenty of time to spare which worked to our advantage as we were first in line when the TAP Portugal counters finally opened (3 and a half hours before takeoff).

We had checked in online however we were still required to go to the counters for another check/ confirmation of passports, vaccination certificates and baggage drop off. 

Next was security which also went smoothly for us although a bit chaotic (think it was more people not understanding what was required).

From there we headed to our gate, finding a comfortable area to ourselves to wait for the boarding call. 

We had been cautious in all our planning so it wasn’t time to stop now.

We had pre booked our seats in hopes no one else would be seated next to us and it paid off as each couple had three seats to themselves. 

Then it was “Up, Up and Away” time. 

Certainly a different travel experience during the pandemic.

The seven hour flight to Lisbon seemed to go quickly …

 When we arrived in Lisbon we had an hour and 50 minutes layover to get our connecting flight to Funchal, Madeira Island.

As it turns out there were many other flights that arrived at the same time with many passengers needing to get through customs & immigrations.  

Today the workers, employees were holding a strike so there were not many immigration police check points open to deal with the influx of arriving passengers. 

In the end we missed our connecting flight … only to be be booked on the next flight out approximately and hour and half later. 

Finally, our one hour and 45 minute flight arrived in Funchal shortly before noon (originally 9:15 AM) 

The view from the airplane window as we approached for our landing …

Some of the gorgeous tiles lining the walls at Funchal (FNC) Madeira airport.

Now it was time to find our bags and hopefully head to our house rental (we had missed our prepaid car/ driver pickup) … after grabbing our luggage we had one more stop. 

Our passports and the Madeira Safe QR code for our vaccines were scanned to ensure that we had the proper documents, then one more step …  follow the green line & one more document check by a nurse on our exit.

All of us were cleared and we quickly grabbed a cab for a short 25 minute ride to our Downtown villa near the Municipal Gardens. 

A little down time, unpacking, freshening up and we ventured out for some lunch and grocery shop.