December 21, 2008
Steve and I are never sure if we are supposed to go through customs together when we travel because every country has different requirements. Usually we guess wrong, as was the case in London. Steve had wanted to go through separately so he could "joke around with the customs agent", but he was required to join me at the counter. When the woman asked what we were planning to do while in England, Steve provided a short list of items, beginning with Big Ben and ending with "paying a visit to the Queen Mum". The agent asked for him to repeat that last part, and then pointed out that the Queen Mum had in fact passed on quite some time ago. First case of foot-in-mouth for us on this trip, but she was a good sport about it and let us through. Afterwards, Steve explained that he thought Queen Elizabeth II was the Queen Mum because she had kids (but anyone who knows a thing or two about the Royal Family knows that the Queen is just the Queen). Quite an amusing way to begin the London portion of our trip!
Steve and I really enjoyed our 24-hour stopover in London. This was my first stay in London and was happy to have Steve there to take care of our itinerary as he's been there before. We were staying right at Green Park on the Piccadilly line, which is convenient to everything. We packed a lot into one afternoon... Royal Palace, Canada Gate, Big Ben, London Eye, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Millenium Bridge, London Tower, Trafalgar Square, Shopping in Piccadilly Circus, etc. Also enjoyed my first pint in a British Pub (the seasonal "Sleighbell Ale") along with some fish and chips. Delicious! We were quite exhausted as we had flown in on the red eye and packed in a lot of activities, and managed to get in about 9 hours sleep. The next morning was quite relaxed as our flight from London to Riyadh did not depart until 11:30am.
As you have no doubt noticed, I am already quite behind on my blog posts and don't think I'll be providing summaries of each day's activities. Instead, I'll stick to some impressions and interesting events. Steve has been quite diligent about recording our travel; however, and you can check out his reports over at activesteve.com
Friday, December 26, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Adventures to Start One Day Early
For those of you who have been following the weather forecasts, you'll know that Ottawa is anticipating a big dump of snow on Sunday, December 21st -- which was of course the date we were originally scheduled to depart for Saudi Arabia. Our original plans also only gave us a little over 1.5 hours in London's Heathrow Airport to change terminals and make our connections, meaning even the most minor of delays would cause us to miss our flight to Riyadh.
I have to say that Air Canada did something very decent this year that I cannot recall them doing in the past. Due to the high volume of holiday travellers and the heavy snow experienced or anticipated in Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal (and Vancouver a bit earlier on), the airline was allowing passengers to move up or postpone flights that were scheduled to depart or land in these cities on or before December 22nd without penalty -- provided there was actually room on other flights.
I heard this reported on the news, but it took me awhile to realize that there might be other options for us to explore. At first, Steve did not want to change flights but it didn't take him too long to be convinced that this was our best bet. The question was whether Air Canada would actually change the flights as we were booked to fly with bmi (a Star Alliance member), even though the flight was operated by Air Canada.
After spending 1.5 hours on hold, we spoke with a very helpful agent named Patricia. When I first called, the website was showing 34 empty seats on the Saturday flight we were hoping to book. Patricia worked her magic and managed to secure us two of the last seats on the flight. A big THANK YOU to Patricia and Air Canada for making this happen.
So, what now? We are scrambling to get ourselves organized to leave 24 hours earlier than originally anticipated. The kennel was able to take Jonah a day early, and we are slowly working our way through an enormous pile of laundry. I think we'll be ready to go (we don't really have a choice!) but it may be a challenging to get to that point.
I've never actually been to London before, and am looking forward to a whirlwind tour of a few sights and enjoying my first pint in a British pub. Steve found a great hotel deal through Priceline.com in a central London location, which should make this pretty easy. The weather forecast for London is cloudy and +13C, which is pretty decent for us tacky tourists!
I have to say that Air Canada did something very decent this year that I cannot recall them doing in the past. Due to the high volume of holiday travellers and the heavy snow experienced or anticipated in Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal (and Vancouver a bit earlier on), the airline was allowing passengers to move up or postpone flights that were scheduled to depart or land in these cities on or before December 22nd without penalty -- provided there was actually room on other flights.
I heard this reported on the news, but it took me awhile to realize that there might be other options for us to explore. At first, Steve did not want to change flights but it didn't take him too long to be convinced that this was our best bet. The question was whether Air Canada would actually change the flights as we were booked to fly with bmi (a Star Alliance member), even though the flight was operated by Air Canada.
After spending 1.5 hours on hold, we spoke with a very helpful agent named Patricia. When I first called, the website was showing 34 empty seats on the Saturday flight we were hoping to book. Patricia worked her magic and managed to secure us two of the last seats on the flight. A big THANK YOU to Patricia and Air Canada for making this happen.
So, what now? We are scrambling to get ourselves organized to leave 24 hours earlier than originally anticipated. The kennel was able to take Jonah a day early, and we are slowly working our way through an enormous pile of laundry. I think we'll be ready to go (we don't really have a choice!) but it may be a challenging to get to that point.
I've never actually been to London before, and am looking forward to a whirlwind tour of a few sights and enjoying my first pint in a British pub. Steve found a great hotel deal through Priceline.com in a central London location, which should make this pretty easy. The weather forecast for London is cloudy and +13C, which is pretty decent for us tacky tourists!
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