Leavin' on a jet plane

Can't wait 'till we get home again.......

We've had a wonderful, relaxing time visiting family and friends in Ontario, beginning with the cottage in the Kawarthas and then to Burlington, Oakville, Toronto, Etobicoke, London, Dundas, Oakville and back to Burlington, giving and getting hugs. Walking and cycling with my sister, having dinner on the rooftop at Chris' building in Toronto, meeting up with camino friends in London while also visiting fav cuz, Doug. So many good times and meals. But now, we're in Pearson airport in Toronto, waiting for the plane to take us to Vancouver and yet more hugs from Noëlle & Simon, and squeezes to and from our grandchildren. On Friday, we will finally sleep in our our bed for the first time in 10 months!!!!

Remember this picture? Here's Les with our luggage at the end of September, when we arrived in Paris, waiting to catch the train south to Montpellier. Two small packs on the chair and 3 suitcases on the floor.

And this is the luggage this morning......we've added the pink backpack and the Salamanca bag, which was IN the luggage on our way to Europe.

Out of the picture is one of Stefan and Hannah's suitcases which we are bringing home for them. Note Les' brilliant locking system.......string......in a bunch of knots! More deterrent to baggage handlers than anything else.

But we are really looking forward to Victoria and our home, which will seem so huge compared to the apartment in Montpellier. We are also looking forward to an English language newspaper but it will be a long walk for croissants I think ;-)

Happy Birthday Les!

I'm so glad that we are in Canada for Les' birthday as it provided a wonderful excuse to invite my siblings for lunch and share some of the types of food we had enjoyed in Spain and France. Thanks to my sister Jan and her husband Bill in Oakville, for opening their home to host the others.

So here we are, Les blowing out his candles and most of us (Jan is behind the camera).

O Canada!

We started our journey back leaving St. Helen's with Lynn and Mel dropping us at  Manchester airport, where we met a lovely young Australian, six months into her nine month holiday. She had fallen in love with Spain, so we had lots to talk about. At the two hour stopover in Iceland she sought us out and we chatted again. After an exchange of email addresses, she flew to New York and we flew to Toronto. Flying for us has now become almost like getting on a bus. Checking in is easy and the food is all the same. When we left in September, Icelandic air served a lovely hot meal and wine. Now they charge for everything, but are generous in the luggage department, two checked bags and two carryons. Air Canada is going to charge us $25 for each piece of luggage. Frankly, I can't think of a better way to spend money, especially with the four suitcases we have. 

So, we arrived in Toronto at 7:30pm, a bit late as the pilot had to circle around a bit to wait for the lightening storm to pass. The customs lineup is very efficient and moves hundreds of people quickly, but we had to go through an additional auxiliary line to give more detail on the cheese we had brought......just a bit for the weekend at the cottage......and the can of duck confit. Quite a laugh actually, although we kept straight faces.

After searching through car rental companies, we had decided on Zoom, as they were 1/3 the price of Hertz, etc. They gave detailed instructions on where we would find the shuttle and we shared the van with a family from Los Angeles and all their luggage. Six adults, plus driver and masses of luggage, very efficiently packed. The mom from LA had grown up in Vancouver and was blown away that we were just returning after ten months away. One son (16?) asked what we did that we could be away for so long. I explained gently that we just got old and we're now retired. Nice to think that he thought we were still of working age! The van took us out of the airport and to the office near the Best Western. After I had signed the papers, the lovely Mom asked us if we'd like some chicken for the long drive to the cottage. Wow. The kindness of strangers. She had make some breaded chicken breasts in the morning for their flight from LA and they had a few leftover. She searched around, found napkins, and handed me two beautiful tasty chicken breasts. We finally left the office at 9:15, followed my cousin's perfect directions and pulled up to the cottage just north of Peterborough by 11:15 (4:30am our time). A beer, a short chat and bed.

It's now 8:30am, a few birds are tweeting (not electronically, the old fashioned way) and this is the view from our bedroom.

Coronation Street

For all those who are fans of this 'longest running soap/series', you'll appreciate what we did today....took a tour of the set and studio, in Manchester. It was a blast and our tour guide was wonderfully campy.

Brother and sister getting ready to walk in for a pint.

And Mel, thinking about applying for a job.

When we returned to the house, we checked our email and our youngest sent us a picture which really defines "outside the comfort zone", at least mine, as a mom. Yes, that's Dylan hanging off the helicopter about to drop to the ground, which he did in a short video.

The race for the train!

The conference was a success, although we, Wendy and I, have some suggestions. Perhaps when 'dinner' is on the menu, there could actually be food? Last night's dinner at the parador there were tiny pieces of empanadas, a mussel in a spoon, some tortilla, some pulpo and potatoe on a stick and some cheese......and of course, lots of wine. It ended with the queimada....

This morning, we slept in and then enjoyed a breakfast at the outside table with our hosts, Lanzada and Victor and our friend from Hungary, Csaba.

After an eventful morning, Csaba left to get his luggage and I finished packing mine, meeting him at the Plaza Galicia for the bus to the airport. There, we saw Johanne from Québec and some of the board from Hungary, all on their way to Barcelona, on a plane that was delayed almost two hours. No problem for Johanne as she was staying in Barcelona for a few days, but a real worry for the two women from Budapest who needed to make a connection in that lovely airport..........the place I lost my passport.

BTW, the Hungary group made a great presence.....9 altogether, but only six in this shot at the poster exhibit.

Our flight was 15 minutes late leaving and arriving. On arrival, Csaba had to go to the EU side, and I went to the "all passports" side, we didn't see each other again so I was happy we had shared our abrazo before we got on the plane. The line for passport control was over an hour, so it was 6pm before I was through. I ran to the train (Stansted to London Liverpool), patting myself on the back for buying the ticket ahead and printing it out. Then, on arrival at London Liverpool at 7pm, I raced outside, ran to Moorgate underground, blessing Wendy and Marion for giving me an Oyster card with some credit on it. I raced down the three flights, the tube arriving less than a minute later, got off at Euston, slapped down the Oyster card again and then proceeded to run UP the left side of the next three escalators. Followed directions to Euston station, saw that my train left in 7 minutes, at 7:28 and ran to the platform. There, there were three lovely ticket checkers, leisurely checking tickets, so I caught my breath. I handed over the ticket I had bought and printed beforehand and the only fumble was trying to locate my Railcard, which I did. On to the train, where my seat was occupied by a young lovely who said she had booked the seat across. Frankly, I didn't care. I was on the train.

So now, I've been to the bar/food car to have dinner. Not much choice, but I managed.

They had run out of champagne flutes ;-)

Twenty minutes to go and I should be in Warrington Bank Quay. Even with the time change it will be early for me as every night has been till 1 or 2am and up before 8am.

Three more sleeps before we fly to Canada!!!!!

In Santiago

Yes, I'm back in Santiago, but Les is enjoying the caravan in Wales. I'm attending the First Global Conference in Galicia of Friends of the Way of St. James Associations. Quite a mouthful. There are 300 attendees from 24 countries. The presentations over the past three days have been mainly very good and informative. There are still some, who have an small issue with a small item and when they have access to a microphone it becomes a bit tedious, but the moderators were good and the conversations in the hallways were most productive.

There is a poster exhibit from associations that will be displayed for another week, so hopefully pilgrims who pass by will stop in. Here is a photo of Wendy and I with the posters that Joerg put together for us.

We've also been to lunches, where the noise was deafening, but the conversation we were able to have with others was worth it. And this is how the reception wound down last night.

And just settling down on the first day.

In between, there were discussions of the care and maintenance of the camino, the relations between of the various associations of the way of St James as they have grown like tops of the past years. The Victoria chapter alone has more than 800 on the mailing list. Safety on the camino was also addressed as was the future and the spirit of hospitality. All very interesting.....at least to us.

So today is a travel day and the last day with Lanzada and Victor. Lola, aged 10, and I are supposed to be making a tarta de Santiago this morning, before I go to the airport, so it should be fun.

Nîmes, our last stop in France

Why Nîmes? Because there are flights directly to Liverpool and that's very close to where Les' sister and family live. And we LOVED Nîmes. Such a beautiful city and so many interesting things to see.

Yesterday, we walked along this lovely street, and visited the Roman temple, then climbed through a huge park to another Roman tower at the top of the hill. After a bit of huffing and puffing, we enjoyed great views of the city and could see Pic St Loup in the distance. On the way down through the park, we heard a lot of dog barking and once we drew closer we saw this......

Two men had stripped down, gone swimming and were offended when the swan wanted them out of its territory. The dog was in the water barking, running along the edge and barking and the men were shouting at the swan and splashing it with water. Perhaps they were not entirely sober.

Speaking of which, did you know that in France, it is the law to carry two breathalyzers in the glove box of your car? If you think you've had too much to drink, then you blow into one. If over the limit, then you are expected to hand the second one to your passenger, who likely has had more to drink than the driver. What a system! These, of course, are disposable breathalyzers, so need to be replaced. As we were leaving the hotel this morning, I took a good look at the machine across from the elevator just around the corner from the lobby. Replacements!

So, a toothbrush will cost 3€, but a condom or breathalyzer will cost 2€.

So we leave France with the sun shining, stomachs full of great food and minds full of wonderful memories. On to England now.