Canada

Monday 16th October - On Our Way

Well, here we go! We got up at 3.00 a.m. after a very busy weekend with the 125th celebrations at school. Good old Raylene and Frank took us to the airport for our 5.40 a.m. flight to Sydney. We booked our luggage straight through to Vancouver, which made it much easier. In Sydney we caught the shuttle bus to the International Airport where we lined up for our boarding passes. We had a lovely girl who gave us middle seats, with no one next to us which meant we could put the arm-rests up, spread out and have a snooze. Heaven! The flight was smooth but pretty long - or so I thought, but worse was to come. We arrived in Tokyo and waited about three and a half hours for our next flight to Vancouver. While we were waiting, we were chatting with a Canadian couple who had been to China and I gave the man a Kangy fridge magnet when he asked where we were from. We took off for Vancouver at 9 p.m. Japanese time. On this leg we had the back row before the exit, which gives you more leg room. We also had three seats, thanks to our lovely girl in Sydney. They served us delicious meals and the service was wonderful. By this time we were pretty tired so I popped a pill and slept for a few hours, as well as you can on a plane. Woke up to sunshine and we were served a snack. I dozed again and soon we were arriving in Vancouver. We landed in rain and caught the commuter bus to our hotel, The Century Plaza in Burrard Street. It was pelting down as we got out of the bus on the wrong side of the street and dragged our luggage to the hotel. We could see so much from our room, with a great view over the city. We'd only just settled in when there was a rumble and crack, which I thought was thunder and lightning. However, it turned out to be something falling off a building being constructed across the street, all over the pavement. Ambulances, fire trucks, police cars all converged on the area and gave us something to watch for a while. Luckily, nobody was hurt and everything settled back again. It was pouring so we looked at tours, booked a city one for the next day and confirmed our Victoria tour for the Wednesday. We enjoyed dinner in the Coffee Lounge of the hotel, showered and fell into bed at 8.15 p.m. A very long day!

The OGD's personal guide in BC.

To 17th April - Vancouver

[ Back to Top] [ Home ] [ Vancouver ] [ The Rockies ] [ Calgary ]