The long trip.....

Friday, April 14, 2017
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
2017 September 14 - Thursday
Everything went well on departure day and I was able to get out of the house at 06:15 as planned.   I stopped for a quick breakfast at A&W which didn't take long.  I had one minor scare on the drive to the airport.  I had just come through Winfield onto the straight stretch where everyone ramps their speed up.  A pickup flashed his lights so I thought it would be a good idea to slow down.  As I passed the Holiday Park Resort, I noticed a black SUV parked on the right side.  Just as I passed he flipped on the red & blue lights and pulled out.  My first thoughts were, “oh sh**, I’m going to miss my flight.  Fortunately, it turned out that he was after a pickup truck behind me.  Whew.....
Valet parking went quickly and I walked straight to the WestJet kiosks.  A nice woman employee helped me print my luggage tag and boarding passes, and I proceeded right to security.  Of course, as usual I was selected for a “random screening” and had all my bags, my DSLR and my hands swabbed.  I must look awfully suspicious as I get selected for "random" screening just about every time I go through security at YLW.
I bought a water and a coffee and sat down to wait.  There was an Air Canada flight attendant sitting beside me and I had a short visit with her.  She was heading to Vancouver first and would then be working on a flight to Frankfurt.  I experienced a moment of nostalgia as I’ve made the flight to Frankfurt many times, and in one sense I was wishing that I was heading back to Europe this year.
Finally it was time for boarding and I hadn't bothered to pay extra for seat selection, so on this flight I was assigned a window seat in the very last row (23A).  Except for the fact that the set didn’t recline, it wasn’t all that bad, despite being next to the galley and washroom.  There was no one in the middle seat which was great, so the guy in the outside seat and I had lots of elbow room.  It was cloudy during most of the flight so I wasn’t able to admire the magnificent views of the prairies or Ontario. The flight to Toronto took about 3H:45M.
I didn’t sign up for the inflight WestJet Internet service, but I did try the Wi-Fi entertainment service using my iPhone and it worked remarkably well.   I had previously downloaded the WestJet app, so was ready to go.  The “new release” movies they had were rather uninspiring and limited, so I didn’t bother with those.  However I did watch live news on BBC and CNN and that was quite a novelty.  I suppose that’s going to be the “new normal” with air travel so that airlines can dispense with the movie equipment and seat back screens.  The technology seems to have advanced a lot since they first implemented this type of service and the live map display also worked well.  I’ve encountered an increasing number of aircraft lately that have seat back AC and USB power, so leaving the phone or tablet powered on for an extended flight isn’t a problem.  I must remember to always pack at least a charging cable in my carry on!  For most of the flight, I just listened to music on my phone.
It occurred to me during the flight that as of today, it has been exactly one year to the day that I had my surgery in Italy.  It’s interesting to reflect on that, and remember all that has transpired since that day last year, and remember all the hard work that I’ve done to get my knee back to normal.
The flight arrived in Toronto right on time and I had about two hours until the next flight.  It was thankfully only a short walk to the next gate.  I was ready for lunch so stopped at a food stand called Smashburger and ordered a chicken burger.  The chicken tasted like it was boiled and it was bland and dreadful!  At that point I was thinking the restaurant could more aptly be called “the Toronto airport gag & puke”. There was a Chinese food place next to that, but the food looked even worse!  There was a Timmy’s of course (isn’t there always at least one in every Canadian airport?), and in hindsight that probably would have been the best choice.
Thankfully for the seating on my next flight I had upgraded to the “Plus” seating with the lard ass wide leather seats, an extra $50 charge.  There’s a shelf in the middle seat with a couple of small bottles of water so it’s a good choice, especially as it includes free food (although I didn’t take advantage of that as I was “between meals” on B.C. time and not really hungry) and I believe free booze as well.  The guy seated beside me took full advantage of the free booze.
The flight was only about two hours but for some reason it seemed longer and seemed to take forever.  By the time the flight arrived in Halifax, it was about 21:00 so was pitch black.  My pack seemed to take forever to appear on the carousel, but it eventually showed up in about 15 minutes, and I was sure to affix the bright yellow Insight Tours tag to the handle
I was hoping that the pre-arranged transportation to the hotel would be well organized and easy, as I was tired and starting to get very hungry. That turned out to not be the case.  I went outside to see if I could spot a Shuttle but there was nothing apparent so I called the number listed on the Voucher.  The woman who answered said that she was just inside the terminal a few feet, so I should come in and get this sorted.
As it turned out, the Shuttle had left at 20:15 and the next one wouldn’t be until 22:00 (by this time it was just after 21:00).  I was NOT in the mood to put up with a long wait and then a 45 minute drive into Halifax, so I decided to take a Cab.  I hauled my bags outside and a brand new white SUV pulled up within a minute or two.  The usual flat rate charge for Taxis is $68, but at that point I didn’t care what the cost was.  The drive was uneventful but also took at least 30 minutes.  The airport seems to be quite a way from the city centre.
Check in at the Prince George Hotel was quick and easy.  I handed them the pre-paid Voucher and they handed me my room key.  I asked about any restaurants in the vicinity that were open for a small meal, and they provided a couple of suggestions but also mentioned that their Bar does light meals.  I dropped my bags in the room and then went down to the Bar.
One nice feature of the room was that there were outlets installed both on the side of the bedside table and the side of the desk.  These included two AC outlets and two USB outlets.  That's a very convenient feature!
There was a very pleasant girl named Allie working and I decided on a Caesar salad with chicken, along with a glass of Merlot.  The salad was rather dreadful, but at that point I was glad to get anything.  There was no Kale with the Romaine (as specified on the menu), and the cook must have applied the dressing with a medicine dropper as there was virtually no dressing.  The Romaine was soggy and the cook forgot the cheese (Allie brought me a bowl of shaved Asiago so that helped).  I finished that with my usual after dinner coffee and then went back to my room to get organized.
It’s now after midnight local time so I should probably get ready for bed so that I can get some touring done tomorrow.  The tour doesn’t get started until Saturday afternoon, so I have some time to look around.  My P&S Camera is ready to go but I’ll have to re-assemble my DSLR and re-format the memory card in the morning.  So far I haven’t seen much of Halifax as it’s dark, so it will be interesting to see the city in the daytime.

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2025-02-16

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