Woke at 7ish and after showers and dressing had a quick cereal breakfast before finishing off the cases. Taxi arrived at 10.15 and we had no traffic on our trip to Heathrow Terminal 2 Bags deposited we were also lucky with not much of a queue for security. Once through we decided to have a second breakfast at the perfectionist cafe. We had a breakfast bap and latte each which was really good but ... not happy about the charges they include at bill time, a £1.50 per meal cover and a £4.50 service charge, total £43.50 sounds steep for what we had!
By the time we had finished breakfast our boarding gate was showing, Gate B42, which meant we had a long walk to reach it. Boarding was swift and the flight left slightly late but was relatively uneventful once confusion over seat swappers was sorted (not us thankfully!). We were seated near the back of the plane as the last 3 rows have pairs instead of three's which give a little more elbow room and no strangers sharing your row! Meal, we both chose was the teriyaki chicken, rice and veg, cucumber salad, roll, cheese and lemon cake, plus some red wine. All OK apart from the veg! We had a snack of Apple waffle with tea and then about an hour before landing we both had a coconut chicken pastry, again not too bad. Keith watched a film and some Disney documentaries, whilst I read for most of the flight but did watch a couple of the Disney programmes as well. We did hit a bit of turbulence on and off throughout the flight but nothing severe.
Coming into Vancouver over the Rockies was spectacular in the afternoon sunshine with snow still on the tops of the mountains.
We landed about 4.30pm local time and being at the back of the plane we waited patiently before it was finally our turn to go. Security and customs was amazing here. Loads of electronic gates for security which I assume checked our visas (eta) and took our photos, very efficient and simple process. Once done it issues a ticket that you hand in later anfter bag collection. We waited a while for our cases on the carousel but once done we were soon heading out of the airport to a warm afternoon, around 18 degrees. We followed the signs to car rentals, Avis was the first office in the garage. Being a preferred member meant Keith skipped the main queue and we soon had the keys to a Dodge Durango. Its huge! Brand new with less than 500 miles on the cllck, leather with lots of toys and gizmos! Happy hubby. We had booked a Ford edge or similar, this must have been a free upgrade. Was nice that there was no issues with 'upselling' by the hire company, much appreciated after a long flight.
Heading out of the garage we hit Vancouver traffic at rush hour. The sat nav zig zagged us across the city to the Holiday Inn at North Vancouver. It took us an hour to do 11 miles but the scenery looking at the mountains was amazing.
Only one night here. After the long day we decided to pop to the hotels pub/grill for dinner. 10 salt and pepper chicken wings to share, Keith had chicken burger with fries, I had beef tacos with ceasar salad, all washed down with some Budweiser.
Now ready for an early night, Keith is already snoring!
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