Air Canada's reputation management is atrocious

Well, we got to Montreal yesterday: Jan got her boarding pass 5 minutes before the plane was to take off - her checked luggage however was not put on the plane.

At arrival we learned it might come in on the 6:30 pm flight. So, off we go to our hotel check in and call the bride of the wedding we are here for to find out the start time. It is now! We change clothes - smartly we packed our wedding attire in carry on - and head off to the wedding, arriving on time even! Yeah! It was a great wedding :)
This morning there's still no bag and AC central baggage centre is proving less than service-oriented. One of the best lines: "Maybe the courier company doesn't work Sundays - you can call to find out." They would give a decent voucher for clothes shopping except Jan doesn't remember her Aeroplan number and they cannot look it up! WTF?!  

Maybe that number is the secret to our troubles: Jan didn't have it handy when we booked our tickets so didn't enter it, but I entered mine. Who knows. Transparency is not an AC strength.

They seem hell-bent on turning us into something other than customers in a few short moments.

Reminds me of their attempt at a huge money grab at the end of our South American trip. Instead of paying them thousands of dollars we paid a local airline a few hundred to spend a fine day in Buenos Aires. Long story that one.

St John's

We spent the last 2 nights at Cabot House in St John's. A lovely inn very well appointed indeed. We took in a boat tour, some music and generally sampled the local flavour.

Now we're on stand by at Air Canada - they have overbooked their flight again and we are with one seat instead of the two we paid for. We're on our way to a wedding in Montreal this evening and there's no other AC flight that could get us there today.

We're supposed to be patiently waiting until 30 min before departure to find out if others will "volunteer" to stay behind.

It's hard to see how the AC business model of overbooking makes sense. The stress they induce in their passengers and the palpable hate they foster because of their choice to treat customers like cattle is apparently still worth it for their bottomline. So much for all their talk about respect and service quality.

To boot this airport has 1 Tim Horton's and nothing else. I guess that's to make sure irate customers don't become drunk irate customers.

Green Garden hike

A couple of pics from along the Green Garden Trail below the Tablelands south of the South Arm. Lovely day again after 2 rainy ones

Tablelands and more :)

Yesterday we broke our ocean camp at Green Point and headed to the other side of the bay at Trout River. With rain in the forecast we efficiently took down, drove about 100km to the other side of the Tablelands and set up camp. By then the drizzle had started but we set up in record time and avoided getting the tent interior wet. :)

Then off to the Discovery Centre to discover and charge batteries. Very handy those wall plugs. We hiked the Lookout Trail in the rain and then headed into Trout River for an early dinner. We went to renowned Seaside restaurant with great food and excellent musical additions by Kendra, future owner of the establishment.

This was followed by a great night in the cooking shelter meeting travellers and talking over beers and such 'til after 1. What better on a rain-drenched night?

This morning I made breakfast, we got all showered up and headed for a hike to the Tablelands (that's where we took these puics). It's trying to clear up and we are hopeful for sun tomorrow.

Camp fire

Today we went on the western pond boat tour and did the coastal hike.
Here's a fine pic of Jan by our campfire. Tomorrow we move camp to the Tablelands area.

Sunset - aaaaahhhhh

Well, we've lucked into some great weather so far: check out this sunset :)

Tomorrow we will take the boat up Western Brook Pond and do some shorter hikes around the coast.

Then off to the Tablelands.

Gros Morne

Since I can post from here I am! Just got back to bottom of mountain. Still 4 k to parking lot. Great hike!

Gros Morne Day 1

Yesterday we drove from Placentia after an awesome breakfast at Philip's Cafe to just outside Gros Morne where we stayed at the Old Lincoln Cabins (apparently named after its old Lincoln car yet using a Pepsi can as its signature turn off - go figure). Danny, the owner was a fountain of knowledge about all things Gros Morne.

This morning after a quick breakfast we headed into the Park and got the lay of the land Part 2 at the Visitors Centre. Proud owners of a 1 year group pass to all Parks Canada sites across the country we went to Green Point and set up our camping site right by the ocean.
The pic with the ocean show you the view from camp.

We also took in 3 hikes (#7, 8, 9 on the park map) for a total of about 3 hrs of hiking plus sightseeing over almost 13 km. Easy stuff that's high reward :)

Regatta Day to Cape St Mary's

This morning we awoke to the most annoying alarm: beep-beep-beep pause beep-beep-beep. Jan said it woke her at 5:15 am! When we finally went out at 8:30 we smelled smoke and saw several fire trucks. The church behind us had caught fire and at least 4 trucks were still on scene!

After breakfast we headed off to Regatta Day. That seemed like a fine party already at 11 in the morning.

From there we got our car and then headed to St Mary's Bay ecological reserve about 175 km from St John's at the southern tip of Avalon Peninsula. Those bird colonies were awesome.

We're overnighting in Placentia Bay with a view of the ocean. Tomorrow we're off toward Gros Morne.

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St. John's dinner

It's a foggy day in St. John's so no outdoor pics as yet. (Apparently Halifax where we came from is having some severe weather, so I suppose we're lucky. )

We enjoyed a great dinner at Sprout Restaurant on Duckworth downtown. Great food. If you ever go here check the drawers in the tables for notes from patrons. We left one of our own of course :)

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Heading to St John's, NL

A night in Halifax: checking in at our friend's apartment, heading around the corner to Henry House Pub for dinner and drinks, then back to cajole our friend into Guitar-playing until 1. That seemed all like low key, reasonable fun :) Today we went to Argyle St and then the Wooden Monkey for lunch.

In a couple of hours we will land in St. John's and will set out to discover a whole new province.

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Church Point, NS

We've started our 2-week-east-coast-trip with a jaunt to Little Brook near Church Point, Nova Scotia. This weekend the Acadian Festival started so we took in the Parade. Definitely a community event.

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Mavillette Beach (Nova Scotia)

I've never been in this part of Nova Scotia: old Acadia. We visited Grand Pre from which the deportation of Acadians began in 1755 - the Museum and grounds are really well done. We took in the Acadian festival parade in Church Point. Now we are back at high tide to the beautiful beach in Mavillette. Apparently there's a sandcastle building competition going on just a bit up on the beach. We'll walk by there shortly and see what wonders have been shaped out of sand and water. All in all a fine start to our 2-week vacation. Tomorrow we fly to St. Johns, NFLD

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