It was a very long day. We were up at 0230 for a taxi to the airport an hour later to catch our 0600 flight to Paris.  Nothing was open at the airport to even get coffee and we had to wait until 5 to be able to check our bikes as the oversize baggage desk doesn’t open until then.  Then Air France only gave us each a small packet of cookies for breakfast and there was no milk for the coffee.  We were hoping to get something during our 90 minute layover at CDG but no, we spent all of that time in queues of being bussed to a different terminal. 

The flight from Paris to Vancouver was much better. Newish aircraft (everything worked), our hope that nobody would book the middle seat between us was fulfilled (the plane was far from full), and I saw our bike bags out on the tarmac by the plane, presumably about to be loaded.

Even though it was quite comfortable as economy air travel goes, it was a relief to finally get off in Vancouver.  We weren’t sure how the newest Canadian Covid rules were going to work, but this is what happened:

We made the usual long trek following signs for Canadian connections and were told to go that way.  We arrived at a queue for customs and were sent back to go to a different one because (and this is what bugs me) our flight to Victoria was on Air Canada and not WestJet. This meant we had to walk back past the agent who’d given us the direction and then go to a different level, through a different set of declaration kiosks, and then through passport control. We then had to exit the secure area, pass the baggage carousels (our bags were checked through to Victoria), and go back in through security. I fail to see why passengers of these two Canadian airlines are treated differently. 

In any case, we would have just made our connection to Victoria if it had been on time. The plane arrived late, and then was surrounded by maintenance vehicles.  Mechanics fiddled with the door. Eventually the baggage and passengers were loaded and we began to taxi out. But the pilot wasn’t happy about something so we went back to the gate, the plane was unloaded, and all transferred to a different plane. 

You would think with all the delay in Vancouver that our checked bags (two bicycles and one suitcase) would have made it to our destination with us, but but no.  Fingers crossed that they show up tomorrow.