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.