Canada House Sitting transportation travel

Back to Canada….for now

First off, I would like to apologize to those of you who received a notification of a post only to find it inaccessible. Amateur error on my behalf, my apologizes.

So here we are, safely back in the wintery grasp of our home and native land, Canada. Very happy to be here mainly for the fact that after 3 years of delays due to COVID, illness, and travel I finally am scheduled to get a hernia fixed. This is a massive reason for celebration.

The main purpose of this post is to talk about travel though. Over the last year or so as the world has slowly opened back up, it has seemed to me that we have been assaulted by a never ending stream of nightmare stories of air travel, cancelled flights, and lost baggage. I am sure some of you may have been the victims of this nightmare, but this is a tale of hope.

Sunset from Argostolion
It was a bit of a sad day as we prepared to head off our Greek Island. Watching this gentleman mend his nets was a wonderful reminder to take a slower pace in life and enjoy the process.

We began our three day journey back to Calgary with lovely weather to send us off. Due to logistical challenges we had decided with the homeowner to do the handoff of our house sitting duties on the neighbouring island of Kefalonia, which is where the airport is located that would be taking us to Athens.

The first travel day started with one last walk up the hill to the local monastery with Basil and some last minute tiding up around the yard.
The 30 minute drive to the ferry port was made more eventful by the fact that the cat we were bringing with us to take to the vet chose to express his displeasure in a very earthy manner which required a couple of stops to clean up.
Fortunately we had plenty of time to clean up before the ferry arrived and boarding commenced.

Once on the island of Kefalonia we made our way to the main city of Argostolion. Did the handoff of the car, dog, and cat to the homeowner and enjoyed a lovely dinner updating her on the events at her home.

Were were able to spend a couple of nights in Argostolion before boarding our Olympic Airlines flight to Athens.
As we walked around town sampling the various cafes we walked across the 690 metre De Bosset pedestrian bridge. A beautiful place to take in the scenery from.

Once we were finished in Argostolion we boarded our Olympic Airline flight to Athens. We departed 5 minutes early and arrived 30 minutes early which we thought was pretty impressive for an hour and 5 minute flight. We then transferred to our Aegean Airline flight of 4 hours to London. It departed on time and I have to say that both were amongst the smoothest landings we have ever had. On top of the on time performances, all our bags arrived without damage in London. Hats off to the Greek airlines.

We chose to overnight in London at a hotel a short bus ride from the terminal. Everything was going perfect until we got off the bus at Heathrow to take our flight and I realized I had left one of my bags at the bus stop by the hotel. The look on Karen’s face when I announced my error was priceless. Sometimes I wonder why she keeps me around. However a quick chat with the transit info guy and a return bus ride and run had me retrieving the bag with no harm done. Ah, that is why she keeps me around.

After all of our flights over the last several months and the fact that I always seemed to be in the middle seat with a larger stranger beside me, I had been working on Karen to agree to a treat for our 8 and a half hour flight to Calgary.

You can to image my pleasure when she agreed to splurge and go Business Class for the flight. Cheers to that!
The flight attendants were awesome, and the food was incredible. The appetizer was a great way to start.
The Tuscan Braised Beef with red wine for the main course.
And chocolate cheese cake with a port, or two for dessert. Life is very good.

Our flight attendant, Maureen, came and asked me why I was smiling non-stop through the flight. How could I not be. I certainly couldn’t justify this for shorter flights, but for extended ones I have to say it is worth every penny.

In the end we arrived a little late, but I was totally fine with that. All our luggage arrived undamaged and to top it off we had a fantastic Uber driver pick us up.

It was the perfect way to wrap up this adventure. Now to catch up with family and friends and investigate some new areas of our native land.

Welcome to our travel blog. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to say, "I'm out of here?" Well we did, and in 2013 we made it a reality. We sold or gave away all of our possessions other than what fit in our luggage and we set off on an endless adventure. Part of our goal is to share our experiences with others and hopefully provide some information, motivation, or just a moments escape. The general idea was to look for a place that would be ideal to settle down in. However in the meantime it is about experiencing life in different countries amongst different cultures and learning how to understand and appreciate each other. A large part of our time is spent housesitting which provides an excellent opportunity to experience more of the "normal" neighbourhoods as opposed to the tourist locales. Though we make sure to enjoy those as well. So through plenty of photographs and a running commentary come and share with us our life on the road.

5 comments on “Back to Canada….for now

  1. Anonymous

    Welcome home you Buisness class jet setter
    Did you get out of Greece ok?

    Mike and Jan Dingle

  2. Jenn Pecksen

    So glad you had a great flight to YYC !! I will note that it is HILARIOUS that little metal crochet hooks aren’t allowed through security but the give you full on silverware with knives and forks 😂😂😂

    • The theatre of security has always been quite a joke on airplanes, but I must say it was lovely eating with proper utensils.

  3. Anonymous

    Great read as always! Welcome back both of you to Canada.
    As promised/threatened some time ago, I will message you to arrange a coffee/lunch and chat.

    Garry

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