After a month away, the pleasures of home were calling strong. The journey involved three flights: Milan - Rome - Toronto - Seattle. Milan departure time was 9AM, so the alarm was set for 6AM to allow time to complete packing and set off for Linate airport. [There's another airport for Milan, but it's considerably further; Jon suggested Linate as the better choice.] The scheduled arrival time in Seattle 7:45PM, which adding the 9 hours time zone difference between Italy and the US west coast translates to 4:45AM Monday in Milan. Or, that I'd be travelling for almost 23 hours after the alarm went off :-(
Traffic was light and we reached the airport with plenty of time to spare. I thanked Jon for his hospitality over the last 10 days, and headed into the terminal. Checkin was fine, but I think this was a flight without pre-assigned seats. In any event, no window seat for me.
Arrival in Rome was on time, but since the flight from Milan was on a budget airline owned by Lufthansa, I had to check in again in Rome. I joined the line at the Air Canada counter, and slowly reached the agent, who then said that since I had a business class seat, I could have used that (very short) line; it wasn't obvious to me that I had a business class seat... Well, at least not until I had a boarding pass!
From there through security (slow moving) then into the boarding area, but to reach the gate from which my plane was departing there was yet another checkpoint - this time for "passport control", or something like that. These were probably for overseas flights, although I don't recall any signs to that effect.
Finally made it to the boarding area for the Toronto flight, where I could relax for a while before boarding. Once again, Air Canada showed its difficulty understanding time. At one stage there was an announcement to the effect that if we don't pull away from the gate soon, we'll miss our take off slot, and have to file again and wait some unknown (but lengthy) period to get another one. I don't recall the reason(s) for the delay, if I ever knew them. We did eventually leave more or less on time - about 12:30PM.
Sitting on the left side of the plane, I had a view of the Mediterranean Sea after leaving Rome. We then crossed over land, but it was mostly cloudy, and hard to spot any landmarks. My GUESS is that this photo includes Mt. Blanc, on the French/Italian border. That's based mostly on the observations about the location of the next photo, and the message from the steward on the inbound flight about passing Mt. Blanc.
Not long after the above photo, the view of this lake opened up. From here on it was pretty much cloudy the rest of the way - at least as far as the Atlantic Ocean. Toronto was quite sunny. I think this is the Swiss lake, Lac Leman; the cities of Thonon and Evian are on the left shore at the bottom of the photo. Not visible under the clouds and at the far end of the lake (and probably off the photo) is Geniva.
The flight to Toronto was fine. Air Canada's cabin staff are friendly and courteous, and I was never lacking for anything I wanted. Toronto, however, was a bit problematical. Air Canada reservations were never able to say whether the time on the ground in Toronto was acceptable to make the flight to Seattle. I was anxious to resolve this, as it meant the difference between spending the night in Toronto or at home in Seattle.
And there's another complication in Toronto at present - the international terminal is a temporary one on the other side of the airport, with a bus service connecting to the main terminal (where, of course, Canadian Customs is located!). As with any aiport, there is construction aplenty, and the new part will become the international area.
Questions about making the connecting flight were resolved at the terminal. In Toronto, passengers bound for the USA go through US Immigration control at the airport. SO, inbound passengers from the Rome flight headed to the USA went one way, and those going elsewhere catch the bus to the regular terminal. I went the US way, but an Air Canada representative caught me and said that my Seattle flight was cancelled, and that I should go to the regular terminal, where my flight had been changed to Vancouver, and luggage redirected. OK. I should have worried, but figured this wasn't too hard. Initially I assumed the message meant the plane was not flying, but I think it meant that they didn't think I could make it, and so avoided the (probable) mess of going through US Immigration and having no flight to catch.
There was no problem going through Canadian Immigration, even though the form I filled in on the plane said something to the effect that I wasn't staying in Canada at all! Down to the luggage hall to await my luggage. Well, only about half the luggage from our plane arrived at the carousel; the rest was "lost" somewhere at the airport. I think it quite an achievement to loose luggage at the airport. So I had to wait about an hour until the rest of the luggage arrived. Of course, mine was not there. I presume that, despite what I was told when getting off the plane, my luggage was waiting for the flight to Seattle. Or rather waiting for me to collect it and present it to US Customs.
When it was clear that my luggage was not coming out, I went to the "service" counter and retold my story. "Go to the counter in the connecting flight area". Outside the luggage area, of course; meaning it's a one way journey, but I suppose there wasn't much else to do, and it got me out of their hair. I found the counter, told my story, and was promptly told there was nothing in the computer about it, and that I would have to go to the new ticket counter to get a flight. Sigh.
At least the lady I spoke to at the ticket counter was helpful, and quite apologetic. The only Air Canada ground person to do so. Now I had a problem: there were no more flights to Seattle today, and no flights that would connect to a flight to Seattle. SO, it was either spend the night in Toronto or Vancouver. Only minor problem was that I had no luggage, so no change of clothes.
Enter St. Bill. My good friend Bill McKinley had offered to pick me up at Seatac; this was expected to be about 8PM. There was one more flight to Vancouver, BC this evening, but it didn't get in until quite late - 11PM or so. I called Bill and asked if he could pick me up from Vancouver Airport that night. Which, very much to my relief, Bill agreed to. So I told the helpful lady to put me on the flight to Vancouver.
From memory there wasn't too long to wait, but once again Air Canada's organising skills shone forth, and we had a gate change as well. The flight to Vancouver was OK, and coming out of the terminal it was nice, nay wonderful, to see Bill waiting for me. The trip to Seattle was uneventful, and with little traffic on I-5. Customs at Blaine was fast, and I was finally home after 1AM, thanks to Bill's very generous offer of assistance.
Of course, I still had no luggage! But being home solved that problem in the short term. And I did have all the compact flash cards for my camera! I had to go to Seatac to file a lost luggage report with United (Air Canada's agent at Seatac). Filling in the appropriate form, I was given a receipt, which included a case number and a URL to check on progress.
I checked daily on progress, but basically for several days it said the same thing - basically 'no progress'. But there's another element to add here - I arrived in Toronto on Sunday; Monday afternoon an Air France plane ran off the end of the runway (no casualties, fortunately) which resulted in the airport being closed for 24 hours! [The Air France plane arrived a little before the Air Canada flight from Rome; they were awaiting their luggage at the same time I was]. By Wednesday, the web site had changed, but the change did not seem very significant.
Thursday morning, there's a knock on the door, and there is my luggage. Travels finally over.
Italy In July