It was first thing Saturday morning that I left to go back to Canada. I flew directly out of Birmingham International and had a little layover in Zurich. I got to Birmingham airport just under 3hrs in advance for check-in, just in case there was a line or a long delay at security, but surprisingly Swissair didn’t open there counter until 2hrs before scheduled departure, so I managed to have a coffee and I watched the huge line of people trying to check into KLM. Once I checked in I went to security which initially looked like a short line, but turned out to be about half an hour to go through the line. It was kind of weird because during my whole trip to and from it ended up being this first security check at Birmingham’s little airport that I had to wait for more than 5minutes. I then just sat in the departure lounge and watched the sunrise and all the planes take off and land. My flight was scheduled to depart at about 9am, and so at 8 I watched the plane land, unload, and my luggage get loaded on.
It turned out that the plane was a few minutes late departing Zurich because of some snow and de-icing in the morning. Ultimately I boarded at 9am and got into Zurich about an hour before my flight was scheduled to depart. The funny thing about Zurich airport is that they never tell you in advance which terminal or gate your flight is going to leave from so as soon as I got off the plane I checked. There were three big screens and I had heard and seen that several flights were being delayed because of a snow storm working its way into Europe. It took me probably about 10minutes to finally find my flight on the screen (it was way further down than I had thought) but it was still on time. I went to the gate, and on the way went through another security check and then a passport check at the gate before boarding the air Canada flight.
It was kind of cool because I noticed that it looked like the Swiss Junior hockey team was also on the flight with me (and for any of you who don’t know they ended up being huge under dogs in the world junior’s hockey tournament this year, but shocked everyone by knocking off some great teams and winding up 4th!). Once boarded on the flight we were told that there would be about an hour delay because some other flights were delayed due to the weather and Zurich airport has some weird regulations so they had to wait for these flights to come in before we could leave.
I was lucky as I was given a window seat over the wing, so lots of leg room and there was only one person next to me.
Compared to the Thomas Cook/Air Transit flight I took coming to the UK this was definitely way better, as they constantly gave us tones of food and we had the little TVs so we could watch TV, movies, etc. (I think I ended up watching 5 or 6 movies in total during the flight). It was a very smooth flight and we then landed in Toronto only about 30 min late.
I was fortunate to leave on the Saturday as the snow storm hit Europe on the Sunday morning and several of my friends had long delays at the airport and one even had to spend a night in Heathrow.
Actually during the whole Christmas holiday there was a tone of snow that fell in Europe which caused lots of train and plane delays and cancellations, but luckily for me even when I came back it was never an issue. Actually it’s kind of funny to think about it since a week after I got back all the snow had completely melted and it was around 8°C and felt like spring…actually it still feels kind of like spring.
Over the Christmas break I worked a fair bit, but also spent a lot of time with my family. Christmas Eve and day I spent down in Brantford with my dad, sister, brother in law and his family.
Oddly enough there was no snow in Brantford for Christmas (unlike England which had a very white Christmas). But on the 28th on my way home to Collingwood from work I was fortunate enough to drive through a blizzard/snow squall.
It seems that every year I get to drive through at least one snow squall where the visibility is almost zero, but unlike last year I actually enjoyed the drive as it was nice to see the snow again. On the 29th work was closed as the Olympic torch went through Collingwood, Alliston and the Barrie region. So in the morning I went out and saw the torch come through Collingwood. It was the perfect day for it as it was snowing a bit and was about -10°C plus a nice wind chill on top of that; I don’t think the weather could have been anymore Canadian. It was amazing to see the number of people who turned out first thing on a cool Tuesday morning to watch it, and even in many of the store fronts you could see employees at the windows watching it go by.
On January 2nd I then went back down to Brantford and we had a nice Clarke family get together with all of my uncles and most of my cousins and family. It was the second year in a row that we have managed to do it and it was a lot of fun.
On the Sunday I then drove back to Collingwood with my sister. On the way back we stopped off in Toronto and I visited an Optician friend of mine and he showed me his new optical store that he is opening up soon. He managed to get a great space and it sounds like it’s going to do really well, so I can’t wait to see it when it is done. It was great to catch up with him and see what he was up to. Afterwards we continued up to Collingwood. It was snowing a bit in Toronto when we left so I listened to the radio on our way back and it turned out to be a great idea as it was snowing fairly heavily and there were a lot of snow drifts along the roads. Also basically all of the main roads except for Airport road were closed to Collingwood; which is kind of odd as airport road usually closes before the others. We stopped in at a Tim Hortons in Stayner (about 15-30min away from Collingwood) and a police officer mentioned that even airport road would likely get closed down in the next hour or so, so we just made it back in time.
The rest of the time back in Canada the weather wasn’t really an issue, but I kept my eye on the snow in Europe, because my flight was scheduled to land in Birmingham Sunday afternoon, and then first thing Monday morning I had a midterm, so I didn’t want to miss it. Fortunately the trip back went very smoothly, as all my flights were essentially on time and there was never a wait at the security checks.
The only delay at security was for me to explain what my Ophthalmoscope and Retinoscope are (since in the case the battery handles looks kind of suspicious to them). The flight from Toronto to Zurich left basically on time, and so when I got into Zurich I had planned to go downtown and take some pictures for about an hour since I had a 4 hour lay over. I had intended to ask and make sure that I would have enough time, but by the time I had gotten off the flight it was about half an hour later than I expected, and most of the connecting were all showing that they were on time, so unfortunately I decided not to take the train ride to town. But I think next Christmas I might try to book a flight that has a layover in Zurich again but maybe with a bit of a longer layover, so this time I can definitely go and see some of the city. All in all I was actually very impressed with the flights especially since Europe was having a real bad snow storms during the whole Christmas break, especially since the only delays in flights leaving Zurich airport were very minor (an hour or two max)...I guess the Swiss are just much better at dealing with the snow.
... That was my 3week Christmas Holiday
Jeff
*Word of the Week: "Grit" which is basically the British term for what they put on the roads and sidewalks when it gets icy. Its basically a mixture of sand, tiny rocks and some salt, and the grit they use here on campus when it's placed on the walks it is an orangy red colour that actually makes it looks like alot of people just had a bit too much alcohol :S
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