I smell like the airports of the world, but I'm home.
Well, at almost exactly 24 hours after we left the cruise ship, Amanda and I made it home!
Initially, Amanda was worried that we wouldn't have enough time to get to the airport once we disembarked, but Princess did our entire itinerary so I was sort've going with the concept that enough time would be allocated to travel, check-in, and all that other good stuff.
We did get to the airport in time, but apparently there was a bit of an issue with our ticket information. Like, that we were really listed to fly with Lufthansa from Barcelona to Frankfurt. There was record of the purchase, but the Air Canada supplied numbers were not accepted by the system at all. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting the woman at the Lufthansa desk worked things out so that we could actually get boarding passes, but it felt like a good 15 minutes had passed, and we were a little shy on time in the first place. Our plane was scheduled to leave at around 10:15 that morning, and we still had to complete the baggage check, go through security, go through passport control, and then find our proper gate!
Despite what initially looked like bad news, we did get on the Luthansa flight and happily winged our way to Frankfurt. The one draw-back was that Luthansa could not issue boarding passes to us for the rest of the legs of the journey (unlike Air Canada could going the other way). So once we were in Frankfurt we had to figure out how to go about getting new boarding passes based on our itinerary. Lufthansa could send our luggage through all the way to Toronto, but not us. Yeah, I dunno either.
This was our flight from Frankfurt to Toronto, so was the really big deal. Mandy worked with the new agent at Frankfurt who was able to give us boarding passes, but not able to supply us with seat numbers. This was a little bit troublesome again, since it was such a long flight it'd be nice to be sitting beside each other! We then did the routine of security, passport control, and then finding the next gate. Since it was still a couple hours until the flight left, there was nobody at the gate to speak with so we decided that it was time to stop for some lunch. And what would be better than having a big helping of wienerschnitzel and a large beer? Well, okay... Mandy had the beer, I had the latte. But you haveta do what you haveta do! Extremely tasty!
So then, it was back to the gate to see if we could get our boarding information sorted out. Apparently the lack of assigned seats sort've put us in the position of last come, last serve. Even though in reality we'd booked this whole thing over a month ago. That was extremely disappointing, but the agent did say she would see what we could work out, and to come back in half-an-hour.
Doing as we were told, in the end we were rewarded with seats together. This would've been enough, but we were also aboard a brand new Boeing 767 where everybody in economy class had seat-back entertainment systems with your own selection of TV, movies, music, and the whole works. Man, needless to say that made the whole flight back to Toronto extremely pleasurable. Though I do have to say that having the choice of lamb or lamb for supper wasn't that good, but that's just the way things go!
Once we set down in Toronto, it was back to figuring out how to get onto the last leg of our flight, to Winnipeg. In Frankfurt they were able to give us our boarding passes both to Toronto and Winnipeg, but in Toronto we were required to go through Canadian customs. This isn't entirely unexpected and was hassle free, but then we had to pick up our luggage in the international section and wheel it through was amounted to a large loop, and then check the luggage in again for the regional flight.
That done, I celebrated with a latte and we waited for the final flight. And much like coming back from Australia, it seems to 2 hour flight is the longest flight ever. Plus, somebody else on the plane smelled like the toilets of Barcelona airport. Of course, I wasn't a rose by that time, so I kept that to myself.
We safely landed in Winnipeg (despite some gusting winds that made things a little bumpy at the end), and Amanda's parents picked us up and took us home. We did the little unpack, fired up the air conditioner, turned the water back on, and will now see if it is possible to get into a normal sleep routine.
We shall see.
One great thing about flying back to Canada in the afternoon that I we got to fly over the southern tip of Greenland. It was pretty amazing to see, with the snow capped mountains and harbours full of icebergs moving out to sea. Of course, I did get some photos of that as well, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow. I've got about 9 DVDs worth of photos to work through and pull out some winners!
Now, the only thing left is to collect the pets from our respective parents. I miss lil' crazy Elsabeth, and will probably drive out to my parents' place soon to collect my little girl!
Initially, Amanda was worried that we wouldn't have enough time to get to the airport once we disembarked, but Princess did our entire itinerary so I was sort've going with the concept that enough time would be allocated to travel, check-in, and all that other good stuff.
We did get to the airport in time, but apparently there was a bit of an issue with our ticket information. Like, that we were really listed to fly with Lufthansa from Barcelona to Frankfurt. There was record of the purchase, but the Air Canada supplied numbers were not accepted by the system at all. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting the woman at the Lufthansa desk worked things out so that we could actually get boarding passes, but it felt like a good 15 minutes had passed, and we were a little shy on time in the first place. Our plane was scheduled to leave at around 10:15 that morning, and we still had to complete the baggage check, go through security, go through passport control, and then find our proper gate!
Despite what initially looked like bad news, we did get on the Luthansa flight and happily winged our way to Frankfurt. The one draw-back was that Luthansa could not issue boarding passes to us for the rest of the legs of the journey (unlike Air Canada could going the other way). So once we were in Frankfurt we had to figure out how to go about getting new boarding passes based on our itinerary. Lufthansa could send our luggage through all the way to Toronto, but not us. Yeah, I dunno either.
This was our flight from Frankfurt to Toronto, so was the really big deal. Mandy worked with the new agent at Frankfurt who was able to give us boarding passes, but not able to supply us with seat numbers. This was a little bit troublesome again, since it was such a long flight it'd be nice to be sitting beside each other! We then did the routine of security, passport control, and then finding the next gate. Since it was still a couple hours until the flight left, there was nobody at the gate to speak with so we decided that it was time to stop for some lunch. And what would be better than having a big helping of wienerschnitzel and a large beer? Well, okay... Mandy had the beer, I had the latte. But you haveta do what you haveta do! Extremely tasty!
So then, it was back to the gate to see if we could get our boarding information sorted out. Apparently the lack of assigned seats sort've put us in the position of last come, last serve. Even though in reality we'd booked this whole thing over a month ago. That was extremely disappointing, but the agent did say she would see what we could work out, and to come back in half-an-hour.
Doing as we were told, in the end we were rewarded with seats together. This would've been enough, but we were also aboard a brand new Boeing 767 where everybody in economy class had seat-back entertainment systems with your own selection of TV, movies, music, and the whole works. Man, needless to say that made the whole flight back to Toronto extremely pleasurable. Though I do have to say that having the choice of lamb or lamb for supper wasn't that good, but that's just the way things go!
Once we set down in Toronto, it was back to figuring out how to get onto the last leg of our flight, to Winnipeg. In Frankfurt they were able to give us our boarding passes both to Toronto and Winnipeg, but in Toronto we were required to go through Canadian customs. This isn't entirely unexpected and was hassle free, but then we had to pick up our luggage in the international section and wheel it through was amounted to a large loop, and then check the luggage in again for the regional flight.
That done, I celebrated with a latte and we waited for the final flight. And much like coming back from Australia, it seems to 2 hour flight is the longest flight ever. Plus, somebody else on the plane smelled like the toilets of Barcelona airport. Of course, I wasn't a rose by that time, so I kept that to myself.
We safely landed in Winnipeg (despite some gusting winds that made things a little bumpy at the end), and Amanda's parents picked us up and took us home. We did the little unpack, fired up the air conditioner, turned the water back on, and will now see if it is possible to get into a normal sleep routine.
We shall see.
One great thing about flying back to Canada in the afternoon that I we got to fly over the southern tip of Greenland. It was pretty amazing to see, with the snow capped mountains and harbours full of icebergs moving out to sea. Of course, I did get some photos of that as well, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow. I've got about 9 DVDs worth of photos to work through and pull out some winners!
Now, the only thing left is to collect the pets from our respective parents. I miss lil' crazy Elsabeth, and will probably drive out to my parents' place soon to collect my little girl!