Romantische Straße and the Mittelrhein : 2017-06-01 : Fly to Germany

Tip
Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Notes Actions
General Info Polarsteps Trip Loaded in 2023 - tracking feature not used $0.00
Travel
Type Name Service Provider Origin Destination Cost Notes Actions
Flight Laura from YYC Air Canada / Lufthansa YYC FRA $0.00 AC 844 depart YYC 05:50 pm, arr FRA 10:55 am (June 2)
Flight Brent & Rhonda from YEG Air Canada YEG FRA $2200.00 AC 332 depart YEG 7:40AM, arr YUL 1:36PM
AC 874 depart YUL 7:20 PM, arr FRA 8:20 AM (June 2)
Service
Type Name Description Service Provider Cost Notes Actions
Other Baggage Fees $50/ea for second piece of luggage and $100/ea for bicycle. Air Canada $300.00


Trip Log

Notes Actions
"Operation Germany Brain" complete. Brent, Doug and I all actually got up at 11:30PM (Wednesday night). I've been getting up earlier and earlier all week to switch myself to Germany time before the trip. I'm not sure why Brent and Doug are up at this time... maybe they have "Sympathy Germany Brain".
We had a very smooth start to this trip. We were loading Doug's truck by 5AM and pulling away by 5:10. Pulled up to the Edmonton airport at 5:40, exactly two hours before our flight. There weren't too many people at the airport and we went through check-in quickly. The guys questioned us a couple of times to make sure we weren't carrying camping fuel (I'd mentioned that we're camping), which we weren't.

We then had to take our "moving" boxes and the bike boxes over to the super-sized (not really) x-ray machine. The U-Haul "Large" boxes are just under the maximum size for luggage on Air Canada, so they make for perfect boxes to take all of our gear. We had to pay a 2nd Bag Fee ($50/ea) and Bicycle Fee ($100/ea) each for the bikes, though. $150/ea one-way. Flying a bike is getting expensive! The U-Haul boxes went through the x-ray machine, but the bike boxes wouldn't have stood a chance. The x-ray machine they have now is just too small. I'm sure there was a bigger one when we went to Australia several years ago, and the bikes just went through. So, in 2015, that's what I was expecting was to put the bikes through the x-ray machines and I had stuffed old towels and all manner of other padding throughout the box. When the lady in 2015 had to open the box to inspect the bike, we had to take everything out and then re-assemble it all because of that stupid padding. So, this time we were prepared for that and didn't use all the ridiculous padding... just a few pieces of awesome cardboard and styrofoam that Brent had gotten. The lady this time opened the boxes, visually inspected the bikes, and used her "drug detection" wand to check for contraband. Then, she taped us back up with her fancy tape that says "Inspected" on it, and away we went.

Once we had dropped the U-Haul boxes and the bikes, off we went through security where Brent got "busted" for carrying powdered Gatorade in a used "Ensure" bottle. The lady asked him what it was and opened it up to have a look. Brent explained that when we'd toured in Europe before, we couldn't find anything like Gatorade ANYWHERE so, being the smart travelers that we are, we brought our own.

A very smooth departure, indeed. Yay!
Our original departure time from YEG was 11:30AM, which gave us a two-hour layover in Montreal before we continued on to Frankfurt. Over the intervening months, AC changed the itinerary several times until we were leaving YEG at 7:40AM... meaning a SIX-HOUR layover in Montreal. Ugh. What a waste of time... and one of the main reasons I'd chosen the original itinerary was so that we wouldn't have a frightfully early departure in the morning. My best-laid plans can always be thwarted by an airline.


Photos