Wow, is the Frankfurt airport ever huge! Is seemed a very long trek from our hotel to the international departure area. Of course, to get to Air Canada's check-in, you have to go past what seems like hundreds of Lufthansa's. We got there, got our bags checked and ourselves through security. Al was relieved of his sunscreen and his toothpaste (must have had those in his checked bag on the outbound trip) and we congratulated ourselves about having eaten before security because there wasn't any food after. Not like Canadian airports, where there are multiple places in the departure areas that will prepare meals and snacks to go.

Our flight left a little late and arrived in Toronto a little late, but the seatbelt lights stayed on. Finally there was an announcement that we should all remain in our seats until told otherwise. Then a couple of police officers boarded and escorted a passenger off. No further announcement, but after a short hesitation, everyone started collecting their belongings and leaving.

At immigration, there was a separate queue for passengers with connecting flights. It was, for some reason, noticeably slower than the other queue, but it didn't matter because nobody's bags had arrived at the carousels by the time we got there and we waited quite a while. (I heard later that when a passenger is removed from a flight, his bag is removed too.) In any case, we missed our connection and were squeezed on to a later flight. At least there are plenty of AC flights between Toronto and YVR.

We finally arrived in Vancouver but only one of our bags made it. Al was so tired when he completed the report that he wrote a wrong digit in his cell number and didn't realize it until he called to learn when our other three bags would be delivered, since we had been told they were on their way to Vancouver before we left the airport. He got them to correct the report but we discovered later that Air Canada contracts out the delivery of delayed baggage to a courier company and the courier company was never given the corrected phone number. When I finally got a contact number for the courier, I was told that they had been trying to contact us for three days! Trying the wrong number, of course. It was an active number, with voicemail, so they didn't realize they were calling the wrong person (whom I also called, and who didn't check their voicemail regularly).

In the end, we got our bikes and bags, and were glad that this happened on the way home rather than on the way to our destination.