First stop of the day, Jo and I walked to the good coffee and doughnut café we’d previously found a week earlier, to collect a snack for the airport. A nice 45 minute walk in the morning sun to Neate Donuts, with excellent coffee and a box of doughnuts, was a good start to the day. The coffee gets a picture by itself, it was that good.
We then headed down 8 floors to the hotel “restaurant” by which I mean a small conference room with a very small selection of not even close to the advertised continental fare (4 cereals, yoghurt pots, toast, small selection of fruit, small selection of pastries/muffins). It was rubbish, made worse because we sat at a table in the corridor between meeting rooms!! Appalling in every way, not a good hotel (see blog review for more).
We finished packing, checked out and ordered an Uber to the airport. We checked in to the flights with a person, as apparently we couldn’t do what 95% of other passengers were doing checking themselves in with the machine. Still not sure why, but our luggage got PRIORITY tags so perhaps only the person can issue that. Unclear. Our boarding passes were similarly PRIORITY. Perhaps they knew who we were.
Once through security (yes, I kept my 100% record of having my bag forensically analysed by latex-covered hands) we went to the gate and ate our doughnuts – 2 Boston cream, 1 raspberry with sprinkles and 1 ring.
Before long we were in the ridiculous scrum of people to be put on the plane, despite being famous passengers, and we took our seats – Premium Economy on the way back as we wanted to sleep. And because we’re famous.
Our drinks and meal arrived quickly, and the food was actually very good. After 4 hours we were ready to land in Toronto to change onto the Manchester flight, which left just 1 hour 40 minutes later.
Except it didn’t as it was delayed almost 4 hours. New departure time 1am Toronto time. At least we got meal vouchers, which allowed us to get some free food whilst waiting. It wasn’t bad at all.
The flight didn’t leave until about 1.30am. They had to bring a plane from a domestic stand by towing it, then they had to check it was cleaned, cater it, and the crew had to prepare and check it. It’s unclear why they couldn’t have done that in the many hours they had spare, especially as one of the crew told us he’d been at the airport for 7 hours by the time we boarded.
Once underway it was a quick flight, less than the 7.5 hours predicted. This time we didn’t eat the main meal, it was all about trying to sleep…mostly unsuccessfully. Eventually we arrived home at around 3pm.
