The Amazing Race Series 2 - Day 1 - Fly to Montreal

[neilhd]

Ok, here we go. The Amazing Race Series 2 is about to air! If this means nothing to you, check out the Pre Trip, and last year's trip as well.

We had finished the previous evening with a traditional pre-holiday takeaway. The cases were packed, my meticulously fastidious planning had been completed, and several ring-binders worth of planning documentation had been printed.

On your marks, get set…… go!

We were up at 5am. Showers were had, toothbrushes were packed, cases sealed for the final time and the humorous "Not Your Bag!" luggage tags attached. We have the 4-wheel Tripp suitcases from Debenhams. Yes, the same ones everyone else has. Getting brightly-coloured suitcases because "they will stand out on the carousel" was a waste of time when pretty much every person in the airport has the exact same ones.

We ate bagels for breakfast, and then my mum came to pick us up at about 06:30 and take us to the airport. We gave Joe his first Amazing Race clue:

He hadn't known we were doing it, but wasn't quite totally surprised. More like "Cool, I wondered if we would do this again".

Off to Gatwick and we arrived by 07:15. We wandered through the airport trying to find the Air Transat desk, and eventually discovered it hidden in the back behind BA, where they had converted an unwanted basement or something and given it to the lowest bidder. We had checked in online, so bag drop was quick and painless. They did make us weigh our hand luggage though. Fortunately I am wise to these airlines and had made sure I weighed everything before we left.

We went through security, which was also very quick, and then went off to find the No. 1 Lounge. As part of Ele's Amex gold card she gets 2 lots of lounge access per year. I reckoned we could use both of those for me and her, and then pay for Joe, which as a child should be only £15. This is exactly what happened. I did wonder for a time if we had got away without paying for Joe as they didn't charge us, but it just charged her Amex automatically.

The lounge was ok. Not as good as the BA Club World lounge at Heathrow, but decent nonetheless. It had been about 2 hours since our first breakfast so clearly we needed a second one. We ordered some bacon rolls, and ate pastries and drank coffee and orange juice and it was a nice enough place to sit for an hour or so. We couldn't get a table overlooking the runway unfortunately.

Sadly, as is the way in airports, the free food had to end and the duty free makeup shopping had to begin. I reluctantly agreed to leave the life-giving coffee machine and the unlimited cheese and crackers, and allowed myself to be dragged into the smelly confines of the YSL counter. I know what YSL stands for, but I can't spell it, so I've abbreviated it here.

Ele actually only bought one thing, which wasn't horrifically expensive, so I considered that a lucky escape and suggested we go and buy some sweets for the plane, because Ele can always be tempted away by sweets. Basically, she is a grown-up kidnap risk.

Based on the feedback of a fellow Dibber (Mel) we also bought some sandwiches in case the plane food was not enough, and the obligatory bottles of water.

We got to the gate on time and took a seat. We were delighted when a very large contingent of teenagers on some kind of sports tour all turned up being very loud. Eventually they announced pre-boarding for Club World, so we went and hung around the gate as I had joined Joe into the Kids Club which gets you, among other things, priority boarding. We were allowed on once the Club World people were on and settled into our seats. Our seats had 2 defining features:

1 - Loads of leg room. I mean loads.
2 - Very little butt-room. These were seriously narrow seats. Honestly, if you are even slightly on the large side you'll have serious problems squeezing into these.

The leg room though, was great. I had pre-booked (and paid more for) the extra-legroom seats, and they backed onto the Club World seats, which meant the seat in front was Club World, which meant we had the better quality seat-storage and so on. Our seats actually had more legroom than the Club World seats:

Their Club World is not that great. The seat is wider and the food better, but the legroom not amazing, and certainly no flat bed or anything. For the price difference, I reckon my seat was probably better.

We settled in, making sure to stretch our legs out fully to show the passengers walking past all the room we had that they didn't. We pushed back from the gate precisely on time, but there was a bit of a traffic jam getting to the runway. We were in the air 20 mins later.

The meal was served fairly quickly. We all had the chicken parmigiana which was ok. I had some red wine with it. There was no IFE on this flight, apart from the handful of screens dotted around, but we had iPads. Their selection of movies to stream via their app was fairly poor, so I watched Arrival which I had put on my iPad. Ele watched The Girl On The Train on her iPad. I dozed for a bit towards the end. I then watched the Oasis documentary Supersonic which was quite good.

We got given a pizza calzone towards the end of the flight that was passable. We landed early after 6 hours and 30 minutes, which isn't too long a flight at all.

Montreal Olympic Park from the air:

Being at the front of the plane we were off almost first and we marched over to immigration. We waited only a couple of minutes for an officer and were processed quickly.

Our bags, or any bags for that matter, were not through yet as we'd been so quick, so we had to wait for them. Still, better to wait by the carousel than in an immigration queue. Eventually they came so we went through customs and grabbed a taxi from the rank.

The ride to downtown took only 25 minutes or so, and cost a flat fee of $40. I gave him $50. We were staying at the Marriott Chateau Champlain which is right in the downtown. The hotel was nice. I'm not totally sure what time it was, but we were early to check in. Our room was ready though, so we had a bellhop bring our bags up and up we went.

Hotel:

The room, on the 23rd floor, was really nice. The window was a huge, single, arched piece of glass and gave us a lovely view over the park and cathedral in front of the hotel:

We unpacked a little (due to packing cubes no need to fully unpack!) and freshened up and then went out for an explore. We walked up through the park in front of the hotel which contained some war memorials:

Presumably not a confederate general:

Ronald:

We then decided we wanted to eat an early dinner, so looked around for somewhere to go. With no real clue, we ended up at a place called Houston Avenue which looked reasonable. We sat outside. In fact, they told us we had to sit outside because we had a child with us, despite the fact that there was at least one child eating inside at the time. Still, outside in the sunshine was nice after being cooped up on a plane all day!

Joe and I ordered steaks, and Ele ordered some sort of salad with steak in it. Frankly, I lost interest in her order after the word "salad". That should not be a word that is allowed on holiday! I had a couple of beers and Ele had a G&T. The food was pretty good actually, and a good first meal. I forget how much it cost. I could look it up from my credit card statement but I can't be bothered and I'm sure nobody cares that much. It wasn't cheap but not expensive either.

This was mine:

We had a little wander around some of the downtown, and bought some dessert from a convenient Ben and Jerry's that we went past. We sat by this fountain for a bit in a plaza between some office buildings:

I got all arty and took a photo of the building in the reflection of the building:

We walked back to our hotel and in an attempt to stay awake a bit later we went to the pool for a swim. The pool was really nice and warm (indoors). We stayed as long as we could but as we risked falling asleep in the pool and drowning, we called it a day and were upstairs asleep by about half past eight.

[Melbatb]

I got a name check The question being- did you eat them? Or should I keep my advice to myself next time?

We literally walked upto the immigration agent the day before you - who didn't say a word! Though we did wait a while for the bags!

I recognise so many of your Montreal pictures - the view from your hotel is fab!

Looking forward to reading the rest!

[neilhd]

Originally Posted by Melbatb

I got a name check The question being- did you eat them? Or should I keep my advice to myself next time?

We literally walked upto the immigration agent the day before you - who didn't say a word! Though we did wait a while for the bags!

I recognise so many of your Montreal pictures - the view from your hotel is fab!

Looking forward to reading the rest!

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Joe ate his, but Ele and I didn't!

I didn't realise you'd done your whole TR already - putting to serious shame here! I'd better get reading so I can steal anything good!

[Melbatb]

I did my live No way I would manage otherwise!

[KarenG]

What a great report! Loved it. Off to look for the pre trippie now...

[jocat]

It sounds a really good travel day. Packing cubes made our road trip so much easier.

I love that photo of the reflection of the building.

[mossyflossy]

What a great start!

[neilhd]

Originally Posted by jocat

It sounds a really good travel day. Packing cubes made our road trip so much easier.

I love that photo of the reflection of the building.

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Packing cubes are an absolute godsend. I don't go anywhere without them now. We went away (just Ele and I) for a single night in London at the weekend for our anniversary and I even used them for that! It's only half an hour away on the tube!

[neilhd]

Originally Posted by KarenG

What a great report! Loved it. Off to look for the pre trippie now...

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Thanks Karen!

[Pussycat Doll]

Great travel day!