WELL, every good thing must come to an end! So to a conclusion our trip of a lifetime came to at 12:45am on July 10th when we got back to our (under renovation) building in Vancouver, BC.
We had gotten up early on Saturday, July 9th, to get to breakfast at 8am when the buffet opened and we enjoyed a LARGE meal! They even sent me with some GF goodies for the road which was nice considering the fiasco the previous night. Off to the airport we drove, where we got lost as we did not know if we were Terminal 1 or 2 – our boarding pass did not tell us, and checked in just in time! That really is my motto! Nothing like traveling with Lynda at times – that Just In Time theory follows me around a bit too much sometimes!
Air Canada told me that it was quite a distance to the gate so I should take a wheelchair as that would also get us through security faster. Well, yes and NO! Yes, through security (they have a special security for accessibility) and then we waited and WAITED – basically taken hostage of the wheelchair pusher people! They had us all in a group (plus Andrew and another accompanying person) of different people for different flights. When I pointed out after 20 minutes that the Air Canada agent said our gate was going to be a distance and it was 5 minutes to boarding all of a sudden there was ACTION! Through Passport Control and from Gate 52 down to Gate 11 – basically as far as you can go in the Barcelona airport and yes, they were holding up boarding for the 2 wheelchairs that were arriving. I volunteered to walk down the jetway with my walker if it would be faster and they said “you do not do stairs it says” which confused me as this was a jetway! I was wrong. Jetways in Barcelona have 2 flights of stairs DOWN to the plane! So the elevator and wheelchair it was with Andrew pushing my walker behind us.
Got onto the plane with some issues – lets just say that the flight attendants were not too receptive to late arriving wheelchair passengers – then within 30 minutes we were on our way! It was an Airbus 330 that we were on and the captain’s name was Steve. Steve and I had a couple of chats before, during and after the flight. We determined that as I was in 1A that his seat was 0A. He likes flying Airbus planes and is yet to fly a 380- which he hopes to do even if in a simulator. He asked if I had seen one and I responded not only have I flown in one I saw them being built in Toulouse! That he had not done and he was impressed! Score one for Dad and I going out to the Airbus Plant the day we were in Toulouse in 2002 and taking the tour in French just so we could see the plane!
The flight out of Barcelona and over Spain was beautiful and then over the ocean (as we were flying with the sun) was very bright so we all had our window shades down so we could watch movies or sleep. Coming into Montreal was also very green and colourful – we arrived about 30 minutes early and had to sit in the parking lot about that same amount of time before getting to the gate. As I was traveling with limited medication in me as in theory we left at 2pm and were arriving at 9pm I was quite sore and thus used a wheelchair to get from plane, through customs and back to our next flight (or in our case the Maple Leaf Lounge for Business Class passengers). We flew through customs and ended up in the lounge for an hour prior to our 6:30pm flight. At 6pm they delayed it to 8pm. Lovely – the 777ER we were taking next was not even at the gate at 6pm! So back to the very pregnant lounge again….
At 8pm we boarded our flight home to Vancouver. I think I was asleep before it took off – already wearing the blanket so all I had to do was put back the seat. It was 5am for my body after all! Great flight – what I remember from my dreams! We landed and again were waiting for a gate at YVR as we were almost 3 hours late at that time. I was worried about our luggage considering all that we heard in Spain about the Toronto and especially Montreal airports and their luggage backups (we heard nothing about YVR on the CBC news) and sure enough – when we got to the carousel – there was our luggage already coming down the chute! Nothing like priority luggage tags 🙂
Out to the taxi line which was LONG and then even LONGER as I needed an accessible cab. There were others with lots of luggage also waiting for accessible cabs and the transportation staff kept assigning the accessible cabs to others! I am going to have to speak to YVR about this! On the other hand, I cannot complain as last time our luggage was delayed for months and this was only a moment in time to wait compared to that experience coming home from New Zealand!
So thanks for partaking in our journey – I have a few more blog pages to post about gluten free, accessibility and our actual itinerary now that we are home. It has been fun and see you on our next adventure – no idea when yet!
