the longest day

From a 3 am start at Heathrow to arrival in Signature Resort Vancouver at 9pm (5 am UK) a 26 hour day of travelling, a marathon of travel if you will.

Wakey Wakey

Bleary eyes and a taxi to a subdued Heathrow, where not even the check ins were open when we arrived.  That's what happens when you are the first flight of the day I guess.  Also reassuring to know there would be no hold ups with that one.  Grabbed ourselves a Starbucks, getting ourselves into US Mode and all that.

Mr Stinky Feet 4 am Heathrow

Bagel Time

BA flight to Madrid less than 2 hrs and a simple first flight, with knowledge that we were arriving in plenty of time for connections.  Obviously didn't get to see much of Madrid apart from the flight in, last time I was there was for a stag do (Club Campo, insults and the stags leather pants the key memories of that) so didn't get to see a whole lot then either.  So will make it third time lucky next year and do a Spanish road trip south starting in Madrid I think.  Always looking to the horizon me, and the next adventure.

Gin Bar

Is that Jim Cheesemans house we wondered ;)

Chrissi very taken with the airport, might have been the Sevilla gin, the tastings on our walk through all very welcome.  American Airlines to Dallas was boarding ridiculously early so prevented us really soaking up the airport atmosphere, but that too meant the flight left on time, which, with all our connections could only be a good thing.  Getting a bit twitchy about the luggage, the BA staff who checked us in raised more than a quizzical eyebrow at the nature of our route, and that didn't fill me with confidence.

Airport Wifi

Transatlantic friend

The long haul flight of around 10 hours was pretty good.  Everyone got a bit of shut eye, indeed, most of us also got some of that on the Madrid flight.  Well looked after as we have found in the past on American Airlines, and plenty of in flight entertainment.  I watched Ready Player One which to be honest was a bit of a disappointment having read the book.  The subtle '80s geek references were there, but not as subtle or plentiful.  Soundtrack was quite good though, a bit of Twisted Sister , pretty much my first Heavy Metal single, so the book gave lots of Dungeons and Dragons, the film the musical influence of my youth.  The other film I watched was a dour, arty affair called the Party, quite grim insights into the ethics of humans and politicians, everyone's human frailties exposed; only watched it as Tim Spall was in it, Auf Wiedershen Pet it was not.  In danger of being a bit of downer after that, but then a lucky break saw me watching live football in American Air Space.  Timings meant they were showing the Chelsea/Arsenal match which called for a visit to the galley for a beer and a nice way to see out that leg of the journey.  Didn't realise you can watch live TV on flights these days, but the times they are a changing, although might need a lot of stars to align for that to happen again.

And it's live!

Have found you football,cheer up

Air hostesses loved our accent and gave me beer

Touched down in Dallas with loads of time to spare, and had big plans to sit down with coffee and a lap top, observe a few oil barons, find out who shot JR etc  2 hrs later we were still trying to clear immigration and getting very sweaty and worried in the sweltering heat.  In the end, all running skills put to a test, as we had to visit baggage reclaim, clear security again, and get a skytrain to the other side of the airport in about 20 mins.  Big kudos to Chrissi here who not only took the situation in hand but set a high tempo parkrun pace to get us from terminal to terminal, I had pretty much assumed we had a night on South Fork to look forward to.  It was lucky our flight to Vancouver was delayed as there was every chance the gate would have been closed as we arrived 5-10 mins before our scheduled departure.

Didn't even see the Dallas Cowboys Stadium from the air

Sighs of relief all round, can't say I was impressed with the US immigration lack of interest in helping us make our connection, but that's the way they roll. And at least we knew we would get to Vancouver all in one day.  Still some doubts about luggage as we had conflicting messages about having needed to have re assigned it at Dallas, which we had neither the time nor inclination (being told otherwise earlier) to do.

The last leg of the journey, 4 hrs on a basic 737 was ok, bit of reading, bit of snoozing, bit of snacking.  A local we were sat next to pointed out a few of the sights as we descended into the south of Vancouver, in particular the haze in the air from recent forest fire smoke that has drifted onto the coast.  Customs at Vancouver highly friendly and highly efficient.  How 2 countries can be so different, and so near, I put it all down to their respective leaders.  It was then all eyes on baggage reclaim, a delay in any bags emerging, all adding to the suspense.  And then, all very simply, our 4 lovely bags emerged, looking far more chipper than we were after a full days travel.  Have no idea the miles we have covered to day, but Carys is going to look into all of that.

Blurry, but totemic welcome to Canada

Bryns confidence in 4 sets of baggage handlers rewarded

We made it

Taxi to the Signature Sandman Resort in Richmond, a rather weathered hotel, but more than serves our purpose for our period of adjustment.  As did a visit to the Denny's diner next door to fill our faces with junk food before a long overdue sleep.  Interesting fact for the day, Denny's opened its first restaurant in the UK last year, it's first one opened in California in the 1950's.  Guess where it opened, that's right, SWANSEA #uppajacks

Healthy Eating Begins

- Carys -

24 hours
4 countries
3 planes
2 continents
1 family


Well, what a hectic day that was! I'm writing this the following day because of how tired I was when we eventually went to bed.

The day began at 3am, a time I never wake up at, even though I'd class myself as an 'early bird'. We moaned, we yawned and then we got up, got dressed and set off for the airport. It was oddly quiet, a scene I hadn't seen before as we usually travel in the daytime.

After a smooth ride through customs and security, we bought a lovely Starbucks to fill us up. I had pancakes and syrup, which was something I didn't realised I loved so much until I'd ate it.

WE took off at around 6am, and 2 hours later we were there. It was a simple flight, and I got a window seat which made me very happy. We flew into Madrid, the sights from above were beautiful. So tranquil.

Our Madrid airport experience was quite relaxed, strolling through duty free and buying a few bottles of water at the gate. Before we knew it we were back in the air, flying with American Airways rather than British Airways.

We managed to convince a nice Spanish boy to swap seats, so we could sit as a four together, so all worked out in the way of seating. Then our 10 hour journey began. I watched 4 movies overall, all but 1 i had seen before. Marley & Me was a movie I'd never watched, but I'd read the book. (Don't worry, I didn't cry).

Using my travel sickness bands (a 'medication' I had never used before) and tablets I managed to escape any disgusting situations throughout the whole day - which I'm sure mum was pretty grateful for. I barely felt queasy at all, and managed to eat most of the things on my dinner menu (even though I avoided the shepherds pie, as In just don't like it).

The staff on the flight were lovely, constantly offering drinks and snacks, and chatting to us pleasantly. I love American Airlines.

Even though the last few hours of the 10 hour flight seemed like a while, we reached Dallas, Texas - a destination I've always wanted to visit, and was excited to have a look around the airport. W arrived with plenty of time in Dallas Fortworth, but our high hopes were crushed when we realised what we had to do to reach our plane.

IT was a mad dash, tbrough security and customs, gaining advice from staff as we went along. We raced off the skytrain, to our gate (which happened to be the furthest away of our section) and sighed with relief when we realised they weren't boarding left. I was a bit gutted we didn't get to look around, but I'd rather make sure we were actually on our flight.

Still uncertain about whether our luggage had made it, we boarded the plane, another AA flight. I slept for most of this one, as I hadn't rested much on either of the other two flights. I woke up, slightly refreshed, and it was time to land.

After a delay in baggage claim, we were finally reunited with our luggage and we'd arrived in Canada in one piece!

A taxi took us to our hotel - quite old-fashioned and modern at the same time - where I collapsed on the beds. They felt like quicksand, as you just seem to sink into them.

Halfheartedly, with food in our minds we hopped off to find Denny's, a diner that sort of reminded me of mcdonalds, I enjoyed some chicken strips and bbq sauce, along with garlic bread and 'fries'. Ou first meal in Canada.

We all fell asleep pretty soon back at the hotel, a whole day of travelling, now behind us.

Song of the day for all manner of reasons ....