Expedition Canada

 And a glass or two of wine! Happy hour! Proper food Tired of our hotel room and requiring a change of scenery and rations we made an early escape to the airport once the negative Covid tests arrived.   Imagine our delight, after 2 days without a drink to ease the frustration, to find the airport bar was doing Happy Hour.  Given the absence of passengers, it was probably doing it all day!  Several glasses of Sauvignon later and a few nibbles, spirits were restored.   Never has airport food tasted so good. As a domestic arrival in Vancouver we had bags collected and were in the back of a taxi in all of 15 minutes from touchdown.   The drive across to North Vancouver in the Blueridge area, just east of Lynn Regional Park took about 40 minutes.  It is a quiet, residential, tree-lined neighbourhood which we knew from past walks in Lynn.  Fred chose this accommodation because we have seven days of remaining quarantine after Jack arr...

Negative Test Results Breakfast Rations Which means no more quarantine rations as we head off to Vancouver later today and into our rented accommodation with garden in the Blueridge area of North Vancouver. Our room was OK, but it's strange not being able to leave it and go for a wander or walk, the gym or the pool.  The results came through in a little over 24 hours which is what it was in the UK.  Pretty impressive.  We won't miss the food!  There has been no choice, you just get what you're given, or more precisely left by your door.  Yesterday's breakfast was a vulcanised omelette with a processed cheese slice glueing both sides together.  Different.  Today's fare was no better.  Oh for a glass of wine or a beer. The only downside at the moment is that Canada appears to be having a further Covid peak, just as numbers in the UK start to fall.  A few more restrictions are being put in place, closer to the situation we had when leaving the U...

  Quarantine Begins If the scarcity of people at Heathrow and on the plane made pandemic travelling a pleasure, Toronto Pearson was in stark contrast.  A smooth 8 hour flight was followed, by a 3 hours and 20 minutes being processed through the airport.   I am not one of life's queuers.  I will go somewhere else, go without, pay more or do something different.  This was not an option.  If the number of people arriving made the queues inevitable, the way arrivals were processed was extremely well organised.  Passport control was well, like most passport controls for non-nationals.  Thirty minutes later and purpose of travel quickly established, we were directed off for an immigration interview.   The all important six month stamp Documents reviewed, son's Residency confirmed, pre-arrival application numbers noted, quarantine arrangements checked, and an hour  later we had the all important 6 month passport stamp After immigratio...