06 June, 2012

O Canada!

Or where there is a will there's a way.

Yesterday morning at 11 am we hopped into our car service to drive to Newark airport in New Jersey for our 3:30 flight to Ottawa in Canada to go and get new visas. We had an appointment at the embassy for 9 am this morning which we had to make.

We got to the airport by about 12:30, only to find that our flight had been cancelled "due to weather", that all later flights had been cancelled and even though they tried to re ticket us to get on the 1:15 flight, it was closed.

Eventually, after Matt was on the phone with our relocation consultant and the travel agent that was doing all our flights for AGES, we managed to get a flight to Montreal at 5:50pm with a car booked to drive the 2 hours to Ottawa.

We then sat down to eat some lunch. In the mean time, the travel agent had cancelled those flights in order to book us on another flight to montreal at 4 pm with a different airline. So we rushed up to that airline to get new boarding passes, only to be told by them that there was no record of that new booking. Much more talking on the cell phone went on, with us insisting they check their records again; still not in the system and anyway that plane had finished boarding so now we couldn't get on it anyway. We found out later that the two airline computer systems had not been interfacing for some reason.

So now we had NO tickets. We did (earlier in the day) contemplate driving the 9 hours ourselves, but you can't rent a car easily to cross the international border. So, more calling and waiting.

I should say at this point that my shingles came back on the weekend and I had to run to the doctors on Monday morning to get stronger drugs, so I was feeling crappy. Kit has been sick all weekend with the fluey thing that's gone through us all and Ella started getting a sore throat. And it was all pretty stressful.

At 4:50 we were booked back on our flight to Montreal. But of course, it was delayed and we didn't even get in the air until nearly 7pm. We had spent nearly 6 hours at the airport.

A short 50 minute flight to Montreal. Walking out with all the chauffeurs holding up signs for various grand prix drivers and finally we got our hire car. By that time we needed to eat. And then at about 9 pm (we had a few wrong turns, but thankfully had paid for a gps) we finally hit the road.

The road between Montreal (which I wish we'd had more time to explore) is long and straight and Matt and I were both struggling to stay awake, but we managed to get to the motel just after 11pm. Straight to bed for all of us.

Fortunately our appointment at the embassy this morning went so much more smoothly than yesterday. Gorgeous day (no idea about the weather cancellations yesterday) today and we walked around a lot. No photos, because you can't take ANYTHING electrical to the embassy including car keys. But we were all so tired that we all had to come back to the motel for naps. So now we've missed a lot of the day here.

I really like Canada. It has a more cosmopolitan feel to it than the US. We had such fun trying to read all the French in Montreal. And Canadians are SO friendly.

Anyway, off to go for a drive around and have a look. We are here at least until Thursday (depending on when we get our passports back), and hope to be able to get out and see some things. With my camera...


Posted from my ipad

6 comments:

  1. Surely you had your phone camera with you...most photos on the planet are taken with phone cameras. Does seem somewhat frustrating a sort of a day, but I know I would have wanted to drive the whole trip. Are you going to drive home. Sounds like a fabulous if too short an adventure. Will you be making it to Georgia before leaving for Singapore?

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  2. Dad, i have the cheapest phone possible which doesn't take even slightly decent photos, and, as i said you are not allowed absolutely ANY electrical device at the embassy. Because we had to walk there ( no car keys) i couldn't get my camera until we got back to the hotel. Not driving back...once again no rentals across the border ( we don't have our car any more). Plus the kids are missing school this week so we need to get back as soon as we can. Absolutely no chance of making it anywhere before we leave. We have SOOOOOOO much to do.

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  3. That's a LOT of stress in so short a time, Georgia. Eeeeesssshhhh! Thank heavens the locals are friendly. Good luck. xx

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  4. That's a LOT of stress in so short a time, Georgia. Eeeeesssshhhh! Thank heavens the locals are friendly. Good luck. xx

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  5. nice to see Grandma commenting regularly! I love Montreal. I stayed in Ottawa and Montreal when I was 18 in the middle of winter. Ice skating along the canal in Ottawa, the old cathedrals in Montreal, more ice skating... We never made it up that far when we were in NY... wish we did though. Have fun, can't wait to see pics xx

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  6. Wow, that sounds challenging and what a shame you didn't get to tour Montreal

    Good luck for a better day tomorrow!!

    mum xxx

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