Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Quebec to Florida, by Sea (2019)
Prologue
My outbound journey consisted of three separate segments, completed on the leisurely (and risk-minimised) basis of one per day.
Friday 18 October
I
took a train from Edinburgh's Haymarket station to Inverness,
arriving shortly after 2pm, and checked in for a night at the
Premier Inn on the left bank of the River Ness. After sitting in a
train since mid-morning, I was glad to have the opportunity to take
a lengthy walk in the Highland capital before daylight was lost.
After a fairly early evening meal, I made an early night of it in
order to ensure a continuation of the minimal-risk approach the next
morning.
Saturday 19 October
I
got up nice and early and had a quiet breakfast at the hotel before
heading off to catch the airport bus to Inverness Dalcross. I was
there in plenty of time to relax for a bit and to watch the arrival
of the inbound aircraft. Apart from anything else, it was carrying
my friend Bruce, who was doing what's known in the frequent-flyer
world as a 'turnaround'. Not that I make a habit of panicking, but
it was something of a relief to see him coming down the steps, and I
knew at this point that Airport Security was basically empty. So he
was definitely going to make it back onto the aircraft, and there
was even a crew change to spare any embarrassment on re-boarding!
We
enjoyed our joint Club Europe flight to Heathrow. The Do&Co light
lunch was excellent, and when I asked for some champagne I was
surprised to receive two airline-size bottles -
just like old times, before the 'race to the bottom'. (Bruce was
having G&T, and he got two doubles - yikes!)
On arrival, we relocated across London to Bruce's lodgings from the previous night, the Hilton Canary Wharf. We didn't really do very much, apart from going for a Mexican dinner at a nearby branch of Wahaca.
Sunday 20 October
The
clear highlight today was our flight to Toronto, on which we
experienced one of British Airways' new Airbus A350-1000 aircraft,
fitted with the airline's much anticipated new Business Class 'hard
product', Club World Suites. This flight is covered in detail in the
'Flights' section - see black menu bar above.
On arrival at our destination airport, we took one of the fairly new 'UP' trains into town. (The 'UP' stands for Union-Pearson.) After settling into the Westin Harbour Castle for a four-night stay, we went out for drinks and dinner in the Church & Wellesley 'village'.