The Longest Day! Edmonton-Toronto-London-Dublin

Image by MomentaryShutter via FlickrAlthough it took over 30 hrs. to finally get to Dublin - the main thing is that we made it! and are having a great time! 2 planes had problems - because of the first one - we missed our connection to Montreal & the 2nd flight out of London was delayed by 3 hours.... We had visited 4 different airport lounges by the time we finally arrived in Dublin!
Luckily the was room up front on our flight from Toronto to Heathrow, we were upgraded and had pods to sleep in during the flight to London and had been able to sleep for a bit.
We still weren't quite sure what day it was by the time we got to our hotel around midnight - we walked around O'Connell St. for awhile though just to take a look around for a little bit and were surprised to see so many young college-aged people out and about (turns out Trinity College was just up the road). We grabbed a bit of dinner at a US-style diner and then headed back to the hotel to get some sleep.
It felt so good to finally be in Dublin!

Related articles

• Top 5 Must-Do's in Dublin (hotelclub.com)
• WIN! A three-night break for two in Dublin (independent.co.uk)

On the Way Home - Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) & Greenland from above

Image via Wikipedia

Pit Stop in Aachen

It's time to head home . We have time before catching the Eurostar in Brussels, so we drive a few kilometers from Maastricht to Aachen in Germany.
You may know Aachen by its more historic name of Aix-la-Chapelle. It was a favoured residence of Charlemagne who happens to be one of my ancestors. As such, I figured it would be worth looking at the cathedral where he rests. It was raining cats and dogs, so our stay was very short, just enough to get soaked and catch a quick visit to the awesome cathedral. Worth returning for a proper visit some day.

Return...

The rest of the trip was painless. A quick drop off at the Hertz counter; a coffee at the gare du midi prior to getting processed onto the Eurostar and a quick smooth ride back to London. We returned to the Novotel St Pancras as it's a short walk from the station. This time we get a nice room,complete with view, on the 11th floor. We get some more (shopping and supper) time with Bryn before passing out in our room.
Saturday morning consists of a nice breakfast with Bryn at the hotel and them being picked up by our driver for a trip back to Heathrow's T3. Air Canada recommends arriving 3 hours prior to departure, but today's intake goes smoothly and we're through all the hoops in no time! thank goodness for Maple Leaf Lounges! (although the 'new' lounge in Heathrow is shared with SAS and is more Scandinavian-minimal than the previous oak-paneled version).
Our flight is Air Canada's 899 from Heathrow to Edmonton. As we approach Greenland, the cloud cover lifts and we get an awesome view of Skjoldungen Valley before the clouds return.

That's it for this trip :-)