Travel day started late Tuesday with a note from Air Canada that there was some sort of staff problem (pilots) that would delay our ten past midnight departure from Calgary to Montreal. This was after the good news we got earlier that an equipment change in our favour was going to assign a dream liner to leg one and our seating situation had improved. Decided not to change our driver plans (Matthew) since he was on a work schedule and the initial notice was for only 30 minutes delay. So we got to the airport at around 9:30 and checked in/through security pronto. Awaited the arrival of our travel mates Bob and Rose Rokosh who had provided the impetus for this unplanned adventure by inviting us to join them on a Caribbean Cruise. It was no surprise to me that our departure kept on slippin, slippin, slippin into the future. I was watching my watch as our layover in Montreal started to shrink and lost luggage anxiety was creeping in. The crew showed up at the gate and we departed just over two hours post schedule, and hoping that our 3 & a half hour layover would be enough. With a slow start (de-icing) and a slow arrival at PET (high traffic), we hustled between gates to immediately board our next flight to Bridgetown, Barbados. This leg was lengthy but comfortable and departed and arrived a few minutes early. To my great relief, our bags dropped onto the carousel almost first off the plane so all that anxiety was for nothing! The arrivals and customs at BGI went off very smoothly and efficiently and we found the queue for cabs at the curb and worked our way to the front to hop in a rickety old van and the interesting transfer to the Barbados Hilton at Needhams Point where we got our introduction to “island time”. We waited in a short line for a long (very) time to check in to find our room wasn’t ready but they would call me when available. This ultimately resulted in a bout of “tired, hungry and thirsty” (English spoken here!) before the first day was complete. We were able to enjoy a couple of “Banks” lagers with Bob and Rose poolside until we got the keys to our ocean view room on the top floor!
Sadly dark by then so no sunset but likely a great place to see the sun rise. Once out of the far north travel clothes and into some more suitable island attire, we reconvened with B&R for a short stroll down the road to the Bali Beach Club, which looked interesting (we were told our first notion to walk back to a little out door food court we had noticed from the taxi would be closed). Checked the menu and with some trepidation grabbed a table for what turned out to be an outstanding meal (blackened snapper for me, tacos for the rest), albeit with island style pace of service. What a great ending to what had turned out to be a very long but problem free travel day.
After a comfortable slumber, I am posting from the veranda and enjoying a very pleasing sunrise just after 06:00 AST c/w a beautiful crescent moon from atop the beautiful Needhams Point Hilton overlooking a really pretty beach. And so, our next experiment in retirement living commences! Hopefully I’ll manage to get some photos with B&R included as we explore Bridgetown and embark on what looks to become a very special adventure in this tropical locale.
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