“Night on board”: an interesting description of our first day.

We had an extra early start. Our plane was scheduled to leave Vancouver at 9:10 a.m., meaning being up at 4:30 a.m., into an Uber by 5:30 , and at the airport by 6:30 a.m.

No time wasted on breakfast at home. As was the case on our flight to San Diego in January, we chose to eat at Purebread Bakery and Coffee in the airport. Their sweet and savoury baked goods are all absolutely delicious, and their coffee is pretty good too. As I’ve said many times, we genuinely enjoy YVR’s airport experience, from food to shops to customs and security clearance.

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Our feelings about Air Canada are distinctly less enthusiastic, but at least for this trip we were offered the option right at online check-in to check our carryons at no charge – a bonus since our ticket class included no checked luggage at all. For us, checking luggage is not about suitcase size (since we generally only have carryon size cases anyway) but about not having to put a piece of luggage under the seat in front of us, creating at least a little bit of oh-so-essential legroom.

The 3 time zones we crossed flying over Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario meant that our scheduled 5 hour flight would land in Montreal just after 5:00 p.m. local time for a 2-1/2 hour layover. A strong tailwind took 40 minutes off our flight time – and then we sat on the tarmac in Montreal for a full hour waiting for our gate.

Since we didn’t get fed on our cross-Canada economy flight – not even pretzels! – we needed to grab something at the airport. We’ll get fed on the overnight flight to Rome, but Air Canada’s economy class food is often not great, so it’s better to board the plane not craving sustenance.

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I’m posting this between flights. Our next one (the same plane, from the same gate, but with fuel topped up and a crew change) leaves Montreal in 90 minutes (7:30 p.m.) and lands in Rome around 9:30 a.m. tomorrow, having traversed another 6 time zones. Total travel time since climbing into this morning’s Uber 18-1/2 hours. Total “clock” time just over 27 hours. Effectively a day AND night “on board”.

Day 2 (which I honestly think should have been referred to by the tour company as Day 1, but whatever) will be an independent exploration day while we wait for the rest of our tour group to arrive. We’re hoping to be able to access our hotel room in Rome early for a quick nap before checking out the area near our accommodations.

Ciao for now!