Once again the Hilton Garden Inn Terminal 2 & 3 takes the “convenience” award 🏆!!! Two things made the stays there super easy; #1. All flights commenced / ended at Terminal 2 which is rarely the case and #2. Using Scene+ points for purchase. Waking up, checking out, and walking to departures is definitely the bomb too! Security went well. No line-ups and no pressure (when it’s full I tend to rush and inevitably, make mistakes). Janie cobbled together a couple of breakfast sandwiches / coffees and we settled into a set of reclining chairs we’d located last wait here. Good pre-flight setup!
We hustled to the B-Gates when today’s flight was posted and took on the 10 minute walk to cozy up in front of views of planes loading, taxiing, and de-icing. The infrastructure here at Heathrow never fails to impress! Air Canada AC869 plane was already at gate, prepped for the 9:00 AM departure and hopefully 12:50 PM arrival in NS (with time change factored). Of note, lots of AC staff slithering about eyeing the size of carry-on bags that some folks were lugging. We are always within our allowable amounts, and really appreciate when some “enforcement” goes on (some folks are just dragging too much and it slows loading/unloading, overfills the overheads, and adds to overall congestion). We boarded normally, even running into multiple folks from home on the same flight.
The infamous “London Fog” seemed to slow down flight departures, however, and we were delayed about 30 minutes jockeying for runway time. All good in our books with no connections except a drive home to Antigonish. Clear skies over Southwest England and to the Irish Sea. We both noodled with the Seat Back entertainment systems before lunch crossing south of Ireland. I followed the track of this flight and it proved quite different than normal (see photo). It will often follow an arch across Ireland and swoop along on a curve just south of Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland and over Cape Breton into Halifax. Today’s route took us much further over open water… my guess was avoiding some sort of weather / turbulence conditions. The result was an extra hour in the plane which got pretty long. Oh well… safety first.
Landing was good after a smooth ride over Cabot Strait & Eastern NS. When we hit the ground I completed the ArriveCan Declaration and we breezed through customs, validated parking, and hit the highway in about 20 minutes! We logged two more hours driving, knowing we’d navigated a challenging 10 days of some pretty solid travel. In fact, I took the opportunity to “tally” an approximate distance total for Balkans ’26, coming up with some 13,662 kms (incl Flight, Driving in NS, Tour Groups, Transfers & Tube in London). For perspective, that would be a tad further than a one-way trip westward to the Philippines 😳!! We move well as a team… I’m usually the planner and Janie is the extrovert and problem solver. We had a few planning hiccups along the way, in transport and accommodation, but always managed to resolve and move forward. When one of us gets down, the other picks up the slack. We know our style of travel isn’t for the meek… but I don’t think we’d have it any other way! Cheers all… we’ll drop some reflections, later in the week, once we get some time to mull this monstrosity of a trip over.
We’ve always been a fan of the Heathrow or Paris CDG for our Halifax direct flight as well. Just can’t handle flying over NS on our way to Toronto. A little extra research and planning make it so worth it. And I think you’ve convinced all of us to consider the Hilton ‘in airport’ Hotel. One less thing to worry about each way, giving you a chance to just breathe a bit.
I’m not the one to judge, but this trip seems like it might be one of your best planned and busiest excursions. But you both make busy look comfortable rather than hectic. That’s the sign of seasoned travellers.
We think alike on these flights. To go a little further on the YHZ to Toronto or Montreal, then back to Europe… It’s buggering for the environment as well. Huge waste of fuel… both resources/time. Truly doesn’t support our local airport service capacity either. We buy the Saturday ticket and avoid the airport fatigue! We purchased the Garden Inn with Scene+ points… it was a perfect use for some rewards. And yes to the “busiest”… I’ve started articling that very idea in the Reflections page. This Europe trip was more complex for many reasons… will do my best to break those down on that page. As for best planned… we definitely had a couple of things we would like to have changed / do over. However, sitting at home now and looking at what we navigated without a major issue is a good feeling. Most travel you and I do is afforded long range planning time and we were months planning. Great when it works out, and heart breaking when you miss something you had control of!