May 1, 2022 to May 2, 2022
YVR to Florence
This was a very long day, as trips from the Canadian west coast to Europe always are.
We started off with a taxi at 0830 taking us from our home in North Vancouver to a Canada Line station in downtown Vancouver. The Canada Line is rapid transit to the airport, completed prior to the 2010 Winter Olympics. It was built with space for bicycles and passenger luggage so was easy to navigate with our bicycle cases.
Once we got to the airport, it took an hour and a half to check in due to a combination of factors. We always check in at a counter when travelling with our bikes, rather than a self-serve kiosk. However, most passengers seemed to be doing likewise because Air Canada recently changed its policy so that no free checked bag is any longer included with an economy ticket, even for an overseas flight. An Aeroplan credit card, however, entitles its user to a free bag, but you can’t get that and save yourself $70 at a kiosk. Add only two counters open and slow computers, and you have yourself a slow-moving line.
On to the most intense inspection of our bicycles yet. Oversize luggage is inspected manually at YVR so, as requested, we opened our cases and removed everything except the bikes. After inspection, we put it all back in and put the cases on the belt to start on their journey.
Security was quick, despite local headlines about people missing their flights due to exceptionally long lines just the day before. We’d arrived at the airport 4 hours in advance of our flight and got to the gate with almost 2 hours to spare. You never know!
Our seat-selection gamble paid off and I got my window seat, Al got his aisle seat, and we had an empty seat between us. Someday transatlantic flights will all be full again but it’s nice like this while it lasts! It was still a very long time to be sitting in a not-that-comfortable seat.
We had over 4 hours for our connection in Frankfurt. Passport control, another security check, and we still had plenty of time. There weren’t a lot of amenities in the terminal and we should have taken the opportunity for a nap, as others were doing. Then a relatively short 90-minute flight and we were in Florence!
Our bikes arrived too, on the carousel with all the other luggage. A taxi to our apartment finished the journey got a total of 21 hours door-to-door (though it felt longer).
A walk around and dinner at an unmemorable tourist restaurant ended the day.
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