October 9 (Coming Home)

Our final morning started with rain but it cleared by 11AM when Trevor arrived to collect us. We had a leisurely time in the morning, getting packed up and ready to leave. We were a little worried about our luggage weight (although we tried to keep our spending to a minimum) but figured we would just pay the penalty for the flight home. We knew we were over the limit on the flight from Paris so we were expecting the worse. Trevor drove us to the Station in Darlington, and we bought some sandwiches there to eat on 2.5 hour train ride. We met a couple of sisters from Wales on the platform by commenting on their two dogs, Honey and Jack. Honey was a Westie and Jack was a Yorkie. One of these days, we’re going to get a dog … :)

We arrived Manchester airport without incident and our flight left exactly on time (without any excess baggage charges for either of us) and, in fact, we arrived 45 minutes early at 6PM. The Thomas Cook flight home was a dream compared to the flight over -- roomy cabin, great food (on an airline!) and fun crew. The only negative thing was the fact that the movie was Shrek III. Is this movie playing on every single airline in the world right now? LOL When we arrived in Toronto, there were HUGE lines at customs. I don't know the reason for that because it was a Tuesday night. But after a 1/2 hour, we were through and our luggage was already there, waiting. The carousel had stopped before we got there. We grabbed a taxi, got caught in traffic on the 401 (what a welcome home!) and arrived home at 7:30PM. The only time I used my MasterCard was to pay the driver and when I checked my account online the next day, I found $60 in fraudulent charges from the taxi company, supposedly for the day before when I was still in the UK. I am fighting that out with Bank of Montreal as we speak.

Our trip was over but we have so many wonderful memories. This blog is a great way to help us remember what we did and where we went. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

JAM xo