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Day 30 ... highlights the journey home ... transportation and "The Canadian Customs Experience"
06h30 GMT Cannes to Nice, France Aeroport
... we awoke Aug 29 05h15 (GMT timezone) which is Aug 28 21h15 (SK timezone ... still love the fact that our little rectangle has its own timezone ) and had a taxi waiting for us at reception - was totally winging this ... during our Aug 27 walk around the Cannes Mandelieu Aeroport I was quasi-looking into transport options to the Nice Aeroport [most options were too expensive]. I approached the row of taxis and spoke to the friendliest looking driver and asked about making a reservation ... he said, "yes, yes" and wrote my room #, date and time ... I asked for his card and he gave me one indicating this is his company and yes he will see me on Thursday. Well sure enough, there was a taxi & driver here at 6h20 for Room 74 ... start to the journey all good thus far ...
... we arrived and checked in for our first flight leg via EasytJet from Nice, France to Paris CDG ... we were sharing a croissant when Sabine was asking about timing and length of each flight, etc., so this is how I explained it to her ...
- right now it is yesterday in SK about 23h30 ... we arrive today which is tomorrow in SK at 23h30 which appears to be a full day of travel but ...
- Bean looked up, then left, then right ... processing the "yesterday-today-tomorrows" ... and then we both burst out laughing
11h00 GMT Paris Charles de Gaule Aeroport to Montreal, Quebec, Canada
HOLY MOLY!!! We thought for a number of moments [and landing attempts] we weren't going to be able to land in gay ole Paris this morning ... the cloud ceiling was so low and visibility on the ground was even worse the pilot had to pull up and out of his flight path twice ... it was funny because as we were travelling over a mountainous area Sabine and I were observing the weird cloud formations [kind of reminded me of rolling, crashing waves in the ocean ... like the perfect surfing clouds] ... then come landing time, 20-30 minutes later ... t-r-o-u-b-l-e !!! I must be getting used to flying because in the past I would have needed a stiff drink or two but instead I started snapping pictures of weird cloud formations and then low visibility shots once we were close to landing and more pics once landed. Of course most of the passengers burst into relief applause once we were on the ground ... I know sometimes this is normal for trans-continental flights but this applause really was for the pilot and co-pilots of EasyJet Flight #3986 and the amazing job they did in getting us safely into Paris. Here is a quick synopsis of our flight .....
/ ~~~~o^o^o
The transcontinental flight Paris to Montreal was smooth and the time flew by - we did our puzzles and watched a couple of movies together ... mostly kid movies, one that was really good "Rise of the Guardians" which I highly recommend.
The "Customs Experience" ...
I tend to forget how truly lovely this experience is ... and lack of sleep likely doesn't help much either ... so inadvertently I fibbed on my Customs Declaration form and indicated I had no produce - not realizing that 1 of the 2 Gala apples I purchased at CDG Aeroport was in Bean's backpack [we only ate 1 on the plane] and was sniffed out my "Hunter" the cute Customs Canine [he really was a cute little Beagle with great floppy ears ] ... along with the Customs Officer, me and Bean we were all telling "Hunter" ... "Good job fella!!!" ... but for us that ended up tagging our Customs form with G-R-E-E-N marker ... oops!!! So we got pulled aside into the special security area where they open all your luggage and go through it ... all ... A-L-L ... once again still learning those lessons the hard way -- thankfully, we made our connecting flight's scheduled boarding time with 15 minutes to spare ... ... truly fascinating that there are five security checks for returning Canadians -- although with apple smugglers [product of Chile by the way] like me I see why!!!
17h00 EST Montreal to Ottawa, Ontario
Then came the Montreal to Ottawa - non-eventful but rather turbulent ... pretty much just got to our soaring altitutde and then started the descent ... seems like such a waste to plane, deplane, and wait some more for the actual flight home via Ottawa ...
20h20 EST Ottawa to Home
And so here we wait ... or rather I sit ... Bean is passed out on the bench ... awaiting the last leg of our passage back to Regina
Back in Regina
The 3+ hour flight back to Regina seemed like the longest leg of the passage back ... probably because I was dog-tired ... had reached the being awake for 24 hours point in the Ottawa airport and it caught up to me ... but this will definitely work at ensuring no jet lag .
We arrived at Regina's tiny little "pocket airport" and again ended getting our luggage right away [bit of a score on this all day even when travelling with 400 other people our luggage tended to come out in quick order ] ... snagged a taxi and we were at our front door before 22h00!!
Today's Photo: quite fitting with all the cloud activity today ... the convergence of two cloud formations @ Baie de Cannes a couple of days ago ...
Cheers - RGR
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