Day 27: Departure

Already when getting up it is clear that our flight is almost 2 hours late. But if that's the only delay, it's bearable. We take advantage of the free time in the morning and walk through Richmond. 60% of Asian immigrants live here. This is noticeable in the street scene. In the shopping center we see many Asian signs and it is cheesy. Then we return to the hotel, freshen up and leave our hotel at 12 o'clock. We take the shuttle to the airport. Now we have 5 hours at the airport. Time passes quickly, we have lunch, walk through the halls and watch the hustle and bustle. Today the children end their 4-week TV/tablet abstinence. Because we want to reduce consumption and what better way to start than on vacation. It doesn't make a difference to David. Erik shows withdrawal symptoms. He is often irritable. We also reduce our consumption.
The flight goes by relatively quickly, the children can sleep for 4-5 hours, René sleeps for 2 hours, Regina and I unfortunately cannot sleep. We are supposed to land in Frankfurt shortly after 11 o'clock. But suddenly the flight time changes by 30 minutes and the plane takes off again. We take off, the pilot explains that a plane that was supposed to take off was late, so there is not enough time to land. I feel sick from this long turbulence. Unfortunately, the children feel the same and David vomits. Then we can finally land. Now everything goes almost smoothly. After a short wait, we get our suitcases and look for the shuttle. Now René has the difficult task of driving us home safely for almost 3 hours. My eyes keep closing, but René masters this task and we reach Erfurt around 5 o'clock.

Now it's time to draw a brief conclusion.
The Canadians are very friendly and helpful. They are also very considerate and considerate in traffic. Pedestrians are always taken care of. The Canadians are similar to the Americans. They drive large SUVs, are often on huge RVs and/or boats, but much friendlier in their manner.
The landscape is very beautiful with its lakes, rivers, snow-capped mountains and forests, there is always something to discover. The diversity of the animals we were able to discover in the wild is very interesting. Not only our 7 encounters with black bears but also the small squirrels in different species and bald eagles remain memorable. Overall, we like Canada very much. But the big but, it's not cheap here. Food prices are three times as expensive as in Germany. Especially dairy products and fresh vegetables are expensive. For example, a carton of milk costs 2.30€.
Of course, a trip with a large camper is expensive. The gasoline costs alone account for a third of our travel budget, at 37 cents per kilometer for fuel costs.
But which trip is cheap? We knew that and gladly accept it for this beautiful adventure.

Now our top 3 experiences on our Canada trip:

David:
1. Visit to the fire station
2. Campfire and camping
3. Observing animals, especially squirrels and bears

Erik: 
1. Downhill carts in Calgary
2. Animal watching, especially bears
3. Swimming

René:
1. Bears close by
2. Emerald Lake
3. Jasper National Park

Regina
1. National parks
2. Bear encounters
3. Diversity of wildflowers

Anna
1. Bear encounters
2. Hiking at Lake Moraine
3. Jasper National Park

Thank you for following along... see you next time