Day 224 - The Home Stretch

After seeing the sunset and the sunrise within about 2 hours (probably less) of each other we landed in Reykjavik, Iceland. We disembarked the plane, went to the toilet grabbed a sandwich to share and were very quickly boarding another plane. Thankfully, this flight was only to be about 3 hours and we were sat together this time – which pleased Corrie.

We both tried catching some ZZZZs on this journey, as we both got a bit distracted on the previous flight by films or books, but this was unsuccessful.

At 11:30 we landed in London Heathrow airport. First stop was the toilet…. Which turned out to make Corrie’s day, and gave her a claim to fame! As Corrie walked into the toilet, and was about to stand and wait for a cubicle, Emma Watson came out of one! Corrie used the toilet Hermione Granger had just used! 

It’s a bit sad, but after a long flight it really cheered Corrie up and it seemed to be a good, albeit very odd, way of ending the travels! Corrie spent the next few minutes trying to point out Emma Watson to Danny as we went down the escalator to baggage claim. He didn’t believe Corrie until he saw attendant pointing as Watson got of the escalator and made a hasty exit!

We didn’t have to wait long for the bags, and soon enough we were through the exit and being greeted by Andy and Josh, who had very kindly driven to London to pick us up. The journey home was spent catching up. Dan seemed to think that the only way he wouldn’t fall asleep on the journey was to talk nonstop!

We got to the Waterman household at about 16:00, and we were both relieved that we had arrived.

It’s official now……the travels are over =(

Day 223 - Time to say goodbye

As our flight wouldn’t be leaving Sea-Tac until 16:30 we thought we would take it easy this morning and wait until the last minute to check out of our motel. It turned out taking it easy was still too quickly as we left at 11:30 (check out wasn’t until noon!). We had already decided yesterday that there would be no point trying to do anything today, so we knew we would have quite a long wait for our flight. We had a quick change of plan as to where we would spend some of the wait, as we decided to pop into Dennys Diner on the way to the airport for some breakfast/lunch.

After having our fill, in record time (within about 20 minutes much to our dismay) we headed off to the airport, and we trying to mentally prepare ourselves for the very long wait we had in front of us.

It turned out we weren’t the only ones to get to the airport stupidly early,  and once the check-in gate was opened there was soon a small queue. Going through security and getting to our departure gate was a breeze, so all we had to do now was sit and wait…. For 3 ½ hours!

Eventually 15:45 came around and we were allowed to start boarding. And yet again everyone displayed their animal traits, lining up before anything had been called, and not moving to one side when told to do so three times so the people who were actually meant to be boarding could get past! It really baffled us why people just don’t sit and wait patiently for their section to be called. We decided (while we were sat, waiting patiently) that the airport should have a new way of boarding planes – treat everyone like primary school children and make them sit quietly with their fingers on lips, and only when they are being quiet they will be chosen to board the aircraft! After coming up with the new master plan for airport, our section was called…. So we boarded.

On board, once everyone was seated and the majority were behaving like school children should do, an air hostess came down the aisle telling everyone that headsets would cost $7! Immediately we knew we would go hungry on this 7 hour flight as they seemed to be out to get all the money they could from their passengers. None of our other flights have charged us for meals or snacks, so we were a bit disgruntled that we would get charged an extortionate price for tiny plane food on our last flight!

We settled into our seats, and Corrie got straight into watching films, while Danny got chatting to the couple he was sat next to. What was also to Corrie’s disappointment was that we were not sitting next to each other for this flight!

And so we flew towards home…..

Day 222 - Time Flies…

Well this is it, our penultimate day of travelling. We leave tomorrow and then all is done for now. Today we had set ourselves only one challenge, well two if you include packing, to find the last Dairy Queen of our trip! We had looked it up on a DQ finder app for the iPhone and so set off to see if it was where it was meant to be. We did have reservations about the location as it appeared to be on a random street though we couldn’t just eliminate this and had to see for ourselves what was there.

About 1.6 miles later we arrived on a random street and were stood looking at our destination – a very average looking house. We then resorted to plan B which involved yet more walking. A further 1.9 miles later we arrived at the local shopping mall and went inside to check out the list of food stores. 

HALLELUJAH! Here was a DQ and so we made a beeline for the place where we each ordered a large Blizzard. After these we then decided to walk back to the motel so as the help our bodies deal with the 1200 or so calories per Blizzard, never mind the lashings of sugar and dollops of fat!

Our 6 mile walk had been nice and all we now wanted to do was relax, though packing was an ever present horror chore that would soon have to be tackled. Blog first though.

Day 221 - Strangeness in Seattle

After getting ready we walked down to the light rail station where we bought a couple of day tickets so we could venture into Seattle’s town and back. This train thing was pretty good for the price and we had soon made the 14km trip into town and began to look around. The weather was much cooler today and we were just hoping that the heavens wouldn’t open until we had done with our exploring.

One of the first things we noticed when roaming the streets was the large population of homeless people. We recalled San Francisco and how we had disliked it for a day or two before we had come to quite like the place and so we kept open minds as we walked along the streets. The first major place we came to was the very famous Pike Place Market so we crossed the road to have a look-see. This place was heaving and there was lots of shoving and many irritated people trying to force their way through the gawping tourists stood around. We were such tourists as we bided our time in front of the Pike Place Fish Market waiting for someone to place an order – someone did. The cry of fresh salmon was echoed by all the staff and then the salesperson flung the fish 15feet over to one of the others who caught the fish in some outstretched paper before finging the wrapped up bundle straight back. At this moment lots of camera flashes went of and we realised that everyone else here had been waiting for this moment also. This happened a few more times; with different cries being hollered and echoed as different orders were placed but it all happened to quickly for Corrie and her camera so we moved on. We continued through the market and eventually made it back outside where we saw what is, supposedly, the original Starbucks. Danny got an ice-cream from a neighbouring shop and Corrie got herself a milkshake before we continued our walk.

We soon found our way to Seattle Center which is a large campus type space with museums and other places of entertainment. It is also the location for the Seattle Space Needle tower. We had a look around here, not failing to note yet more strange people roaming freely around. After grabbing some pizza and sitting for a bit we decided to give the EMP (Experience Music Project) Museum a go and purchased our tickets to have a look inside. The museum was quite good but would really appeal to die-hard fans of: Jimmy Hendrix, Nirvana, Rolling Stones and AC-DC.

After here we discussed going up the Needle but decided against it as we have been up many towers during our travels. Today though was overcast but another strong reason we decided against it was due to the fact that this tower was actually a lot shorter than the rest of the cities buildings so we thought the views wouldn’t really be that great. All the other towers we’ve been up have allowed us to look out over the cities themselves and take in the views for miles around. We thought we’d make our way back.

En-route we came across a large flow of people, all were dressed in one of two ways: Very strangely or like gangsters! This flow of people all seemed to be heading in one direction and so we followed them. We soon arrived at the entrance to the hemp festival in a huge queue which involved a suggested entrance fee of $10 each, and a bag check. We decided to pass on this event; it probably wouldn’t be the best of ideas to be surrounding ourselves with thousands of paranoid and crazy people two days before we would be heading home. So on we went.

We took the route along the waterfront most of the way back to the station, passing many more bizarre humans along this route. We thought that on our travels we would have also seen the majority of strange people that are out in this world but clearly we were wrong about this too; We guess that you’ve never seen it all!

Back at the airport area we got a Subway for tea and then chilled the night in the motel.

Day 220 - Arriving in Seattle, WA

One thing we’ve come to realise on our travels is that getting up at 04:45 is horrible no matter where you are in the world. We grabbed our belongings and then caught a taxi to the train station. Here we went through security and then boarded the train we left on time at 06:40. The Amtrak journey went smoothly really and the customs check at the US border also went swiftly with seemingly no hassle for anyone.

About five hours later we arrived in Seattle and, felling very tired, we couldn’t bothered with the hassle of catching public transport to our motel and so hopped into a taxi and paid the fixed rate fee to be taken down to the airport location where the Motel 6 awaited us.

After checking in we crashed in our room for a while before eventually heading back out to get some lunch. 

This came in the form of a Denny’s which was just down the road (there’s very little choice in this area.) We were pretty stunned at just how busy this place was though very quickly noticed a similarity between all the other diners here – they were all geeks! Well geekish; the all were clearly here for some sort of convention and all wore or held some form of merchandise relating to the convention’s subject. The theme seemed to be a pony looking creature and so we joked about what it could possibly be, concluding that it would be great if they were all here for a My Little Pony convention. We couldn’t see this though as most of the people here we males in their twenties so we figured it was just some strange Japanese Anime craze. The waitress brought us our food and so we asked her to spill the beans on what on earth was happening. She seemed only too eager to talk and plonked herself down next to Corrie where she tried to explain. She likened what was going on to being much like people who take pleasure in watching animal pornography to which here and Corrie snorted out in laughter, immediately drawing everyone’s attention to us three in the centre of the diner. She then whispered to us that it was in fact a gathering for fans of… My Little Pony and that it was a big deal here! We thought we’d go and check out this convention later but for now just went back to the motel.

We didn’t really do much for the rest of the day but Danny did research the convention and found that it was a private event and tickets were all sold out!

We later found a nearby Subway for tea and then had a nice evening in front of the TV. During this TV time we caught on the news that a hemp festival was in town and seemed to be a big event. It seems we have picked one of the weirdest weekends to be in Seattle!

Day 219 - Another Walk in Sunny Vancouver

Again we slept in a little today but we only had a walk planned for the day. We set off and made our way across to Granville Island where we had a scenic walk along the water’s edge. It was a nice day once more and so there were lots of people making the most of this rare good weather; sunbathing, walking, or out in boats etc on the water.

After the long walk we thought we deserved another DQ and so got one (the road to recovery is going to be a long and painful one we’re sure.) Later we got some tea but then spent the night back in the hostel; packing and getting an earl night’s sleep in preparation for tomorrow’s early rise.

Day 218 - HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANNY!

Today is Danny’s birthday though he had succumbed to the tell-tale signs of a cold during the night and was not feeling brilliant. Also, due to the fact that he is a guy, the cold symptoms were much more severe than Corrie would believe! We spent the morning in bed and Corrie made a quick trip to the shop for some supplies to aid Danny’s recovery, along with some birthday muffins!

Not wanting to spend the entire day in bed, we ventured out at lunch time and went for a wander around the town. We didn’t have a set destination and so aimlessly strolled about until we felt we’d had a good walk.

For a birthday treat we went to a nearby French restaurant and ordered a slap-up meal for two. The food was really good here and we also purchased a nice bottle of white wine to wash it all down with.

We spent the rest of the evening back at the hotel so Danny could recover some more, though he did make a trip out on his own to visit the local comic book store where he treated himself to a graphic novel for his birthday… it was on sale.

It’s just sod’s law that Danny caught a cold for his birthday but it’s pretty good going for us really to say that having a cold each (Corrie earlier on in the travels) is the only illness either of us has had whilst travelling other than the food poisoning we both experienced back in Orlando.

Day 217 - Stanley Park

We’d had a look online at things to do in Vancouver, and there only seems to be a few things that we want to do (and that are free) Downtown. The place to go seems to be Vancouver Island, but we feel we don’t really have the time to do it justice. Once we arrived in Vancouver, we realised we only have 3 days here rather than the five we thought we had, so we have decided to give the Island a miss this time, and save it for one of our future trips!

It was a beautiful sunny day, which we’ve been told isn’t a common thing here, so we decided to make the most of it and spend the day walking around Vancouver, and Stanley Park. As we weren’t really in a rush today, we thought that walking around the whole of Stanley Park would be a good idea. A nice leisurely stroll. Corrie stopped quite a lot to take photos of the views of the city and the mountains in the distance around the first half of the park. The second half of the park surprised us a little, with how many industrial import/ export docks there were around. They kind of ruined the view of the mountains a bit, but surely we’d have had enough of mountains by now wouldn’t we?!

14km later we arrived at Dairy Queen! We decided that we deserved one this time after our epic walk. Although we probably would have had one today regardless of if we did a 14km walk or not!

After our reward we headed back to our hostel to chill out for the evening.

Day 216 - Arriving in Vancouver

Not a very productive day really. We started off by leaving the train and then going to collect our luggage. Corrie noted that all the people looked like animals at a feeding trough waiting for their food. Everyone was leaning over the belt staring longingly at the flaps through which the bags would come. This only made it harder for everyone whose bags came through first as there was now no room for those people to get to their bags! We just stayed back and waited patiently. This took the best part of an hour but our bags eventually made their way onto the conveyor belt and we swiftly cut in to snatch them up. We then caught a cab to our hostel and, due to being slightly early for check-in, had to go get some lunch first.

After checking in we didn’t really do much… Danny fell asleep! Corrie entertained herself by doing some of the last washing we’ll have to do in a sink. Danny was awakened by the sounds of a hairdryer and found Corrie in the bathroom attempting to blow-dry her hoodie as her puny arms could not successfully wring it out!

Not much else for today really.

Day 215 - Edmonton to Vancouver – Back on the Train

We had a very early start to the day as we had been told to arrive one hour before the train was due to depart from the Via Rail station. Our train for the second leg of our Toronto to Vancouver trip was due at 06:30 and so we were down in the hotel lobby at 05:20. The great staff here gave us $10 for the taxi fare and put us in a cab to take us the short way to the station. We both expected the train to be late as it was when we were dropped of here last week. That was due to traffic and it was late by a good few hours so we figured something similar would occur this time though we couldn’t take that risk… turns out we could have as the train arrived at 08:00!

Another Sunrise!

We boarded the train at about 08:30 and it was still a while before we were on our way again. We settled back into our bunks, newly made by our carriage attendant and then went for brunch. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and taking in some of the familiar views of Jasper NP as the train eventually passed through here. More time was spent: reading, chatting, picture taking, and taking it turns to abuse the complementary biscuits and fruit on offer at the dome cars. We did this a lot actually and so ended up having to alternate which carriages we went to gather our supplies from! We ended up with about 15 packets of biscuits and 5 apples!

The train stopped in Jasper where Danny got off to go and explore a little while Corrie took this chance to go and get a seat in the much sought after dome car. Whilst she sat there she realised that once the train set off she’d only have about 10 minutes before the call for tea so she went back to the bed! Danny took a few pictures and soon hopped back aboard as this was only a brief stop.

The railway line then took us through some very nice parts of the park that we hadn’t been to when we had the car including some bits that you cannot get to unless you’re on the train such as: Paradise Falls. The rest of the journey into the night was very scenic as this section of the trip wound its way through the Rocky Mountains.