Canada 1/21 - Arrival

Everything went very well in the morning. We left on time and arrived at the airport without any traffic jams, feeling relaxed. Those who know us understand that this is almost a miracle :D

Since Basti had to bring our car outside to the parking lot, Larissa waited with the kids and the luggage at the airport.

From that point on, it became a bit tedious. All the baggage carousels in our departure hall were broken. Three large suitcases, three pieces of hand luggage, a stroller, a luggage cart, and two whirlwinds had to be transported to the nearest hall. There was no sign of assistance or consideration. When we finally reached a functioning baggage carousel, Larissa briefly turned to the service staff, and then Leo was nowhere to be seen. The airport was packed due to the end of the holiday. After a brief shock and excited searching, he joyfully came toward us walking. Fortunately, we had taken a few precautions beforehand: a bracelet with his name and our phone number, an AirTag, and noticeable clothing. Better safe than sorry :D

After we managed the pile of suitcases and the baggage carousel, Basti arrived, and we continued to the oversized baggage department to check in the stroller. Then on to security control. More bad luck. The security control at our gate was closed, and we had to walk to the next gate. There was a line of over 100 m of people, and doubts were slowly creeping in whether we would make it to boarding on time. After standing in the family security check for more than an hour, we quickly headed toward our gate - very quickly, in fact. That was quite a distance without a stroller and with all our hand luggage and the kids in our arms. Then came passport control. 2 minutes after boarding had ended. Panic was written all over our faces. A few kind people let us go ahead, and then we had to run to the right gate, thinking we had no chance of catching this flight. Sweating profusely, we arrived at the gate, and the flight was delayed by 20 minutes. Luck in misfortune; otherwise, we would have missed the flight. Note: 3 hours before departure is hardly enough due to the high travel volume. Next time, we'll plan to arrive even earlier. We can improvise, so the changing on the plane was done standing up, since Leo no longer fits on the airplane changing table. Finally, we were off, and we could have cried tears of joy, as we were certain that flying wouldn't happen today.

The flight was great and went by quickly. Both kids were awake the entire time except for a short nap by Leo. They occupied themselves wonderfully and enjoyed the relaxed media rules during the flight.

We had super nice flight attendants who were quite taken with Anni and Leo. The food was excellent, and a nice flight attendant brought us two glasses of champagne. The flight route was thrilling as we flew over the North Pole. After 10 hours, we arrived in Vancouver somewhat tired but very happy. All our luggage showed up very quickly, and everything went smoothly with the rental car.

The drive to the hotel was beautiful. By the time we got to the hotel, we were all exhausted. A little more tidying up, showering, and ordering food via delivery service to the room followed. After that, everyone wanted to go straight to bed.