All riding today was done on planes and in cars.

The shuttle from the hotel to the airport was effortless. The shuttle driver even got us a cart at the airport! Unfortunately, we were too early to check in. The check-in kiosk only opens 3 hours before scheduled departure, so we had an hour to wait around with all our bags. Once we had done that and were through Security, we had time to visit the duty-free shops.

Al had been looking at watches last year and knew what he wanted, a very nice solar-powered one with altimeter. I have to say, I was tempted by the women's model but since I never wear a watch skiing, I managed to resist. Backcountry skiing is the sport for which either of us could use an altimeter. Al got his watch.

Then it was passport control and on to the gate, where there was another passport control conducted by the airline. Funny, nobody wants to look at your passport when you leave Canada.

We boarded and now the real fun began. What we gathered from the pilot's announcement was that the engines wouldn't start and some other method was going to be used to get the engines going. In any case, we finally took off after we had all been sitting there about 2 hours late and of course, arrived in Montreal about 2 hours late.

In Montreal we learned something new. As a Canadian, if you exceed your customs allowance returning to Canada, even though your bags have been checked through to your final destination, you need to collect them at your point of entry so that you can pay any duties or taxes owing on the excess. Apparently this cannot be done unless you have your baggage with you. You then need to recheck your bags for your onward flight. All of this was kindly explained to us by the customs officer.

We had already missed our connection, as had most people on our flight from Geneva. Air Canada put us on a later flight, but it too was delayed. At least the delay was announced before our boarding passes were issued so we didn't have to rush to the gate.

When we finally arrived in Vancouver, it seemed that most of the baggage handlers had gone home. Bags arrived at the carousel in small batches with long gaps between. Finally, all four of our bags appeared, a first for us! Out of 3 cycling trips to Europe together, this is the first time all our bags arrived home on the same flight as we did.

Many thanks to our son who collected us and brought us home so late.