Day 1: Toulouse, France

I’ve Arrived!🥱😃

I managed to wake up in time on Wednesday morning to quickly shower, dress and meet my Uber driver at 4:25 AM. Except that the Uber driver I’d pre-booked cancelled my reservation. Fortunately another driver picked it up which was a bit of a relief.😮‍💨

You might have noticed the early pickup time. Yes, I was supposed to fly out at 15:00, but when I by chance checked my flights on Sunday night I was a bit surprised to find that my flight from Munich to Toulouse had been cancelled and replaced by a much later flight which would have seen me arrive in Toulouse at midnight instead of 17:20. Oddly, I didn’t received any notice. A call to Air Canada resulted in a reshuffle of my flights, hence the early morning departure. For the record it was actually Lufthansa that messed up. That said, travel is full of adjustments, and even the best laid plans are subject to change. It’s just part of travel, but I was very happy when everything was sorted out!

I’m sitting at YVR in Vancouver waiting for my flight to Montreal where I’ll have a few hours to change planes with a direct flight to Toulouse. Munich was cut out of the equation, and instead of 24 hours to get to Toulouse, I’ll fortunately be there in just 17.5 hours. Much better except that I arrive just after 8:00, meaning it will be a long day until I can finally turn out my light later tonight. Time to find my way into town, drop off my gear at the hotel then go for a stroll with about 6 hours to wander before I can access my room. However, it will help with the jet lag.

Later: I’m presently sitting in the Montreal airport (named after the senior Trudeau) waiting for my next flight. I’m told that Wednesday is always very busy here as there are more planes arriving and departing than on any other day of the week. This means long lineups for all the lounges so I decided to forego this pleasure and it won’t be very long until my flight launches at 19:30 local time. Hey! That’s one hour and 45’ from now. Maybe I should have taken on the lounge lineups?😬 Oh well, I ate something resembling food and now I sit writing the next phase of this post.

I just looked at the Toulouse weather forecast and found that a mixed bag of conditions awaits. Oh well. I’d best get use to this!

I’m hopeful that my next flight will remain quite empty as it was when I checked in. At that point my three seat row had only me in place. Wouldn’t it be amazing to have the whole row!! Don’t want to jinx it, so I’ll just wait and see what happens. A comparatively short leg anyway. Just 6 hours, 45 minutes.

Later:

I wasn’t able to have the seats to myself, but at least there was good company for a while. The lady beside me from New Jersey seemed to enjoy flying all over the world and somehow she manages to enjoy sleeping on airplanes. A rare gift. My friend David can do this. I snatched bits and pieces of sleep though it didn’t register on my Garman watch.😉 I did finally get to watch the movie about Bob Dylan’s early years. I thought it was pretty good. Of course the music was the best part.

We eventually cross the French coast and in the process we passed over the Vézelay route from last year and also the Le Puy chemin from 2015 and 2016.

I will get in just after 8:00 and I start to make a plan for the morning. Drop off my gear at the hotel and beg to get into my room as early as possible!😂 Then find a cup of tea and of course something to enjoy with it! Then I need to sort out a SIM card and will again use the same company as last year. My report on all this to follow. 

Toulouse:

As you can see, I arrived in Toulouse and after taking the shuttle bus into town I got down to business. I’ve just finished arranging a SIM card with 200 gigs data for 30 days with phone and texting for just €9 or CDN$15. Amazingly inexpensive! Once again ‘mobile’, I found this nice little patisserie shop where I’m enjoyed a small, but tasty second breakfast. Once I finish here I’ll walk back to the hotel to formally check in. I went there earlier to drop off my pack, and when I explained my jet lagged situation to the front desk folks they kindly arranged for my room to be ready in just an hour. So nice!

Once I finish my tea I’ll walk back and sort myself out then go for a walk to begin seeing this city. It’s my third visit here, but will really be my first real look see. More on that later.

Still Later at 13:40: I did make it back to the hotel where I emptied my pack. I then made the mistake of sitting on the bed and woke up 30 minutes later!🤣 After all, I’d been awake for 24 hours straight. Damn, but I love travel!

I’m going to get a bit organized now and go out for a bit of a walk. I’ve decided to go to the nearby Carrefor City grocery to see if there is something there that might be ok for my dinner. Falling that I’ll see what else is around.

I don’t think much more is going to happen today. My usually razor sharp brain🙄 is a bit foggy today. so I’ll sign off for today.

Cheers!

Geoff🥱😴💤