The Journey

One long day for sure. In Dublin airport at 5am for 6.40 flight, suffering from sleep deprivation and a bit of nerves too, but we managed to get checked in and avoid excess baggage charges :) Only thing we couldn't do was check our bags all the way through to Halifax.
Got to Heathrow and collected the bags (only 4 large suitcases plus carry-ons!), found our way to terminal 3 - a long walk but we made it, rechecked our bags and straight through to the Departure lounge in search of food. After eating a very expensive 'English' breakfast we were feeling up to the task of checking out the duty-free, but somehow Elle get distracted and only managed to board the plane with a bottle of whiskey & chocolates - no perfume or make-up :(
The journey from London to St John's Newfoundland, stopover on way to Halifax (a bit like flying Dublin-New York with Shannon stopover) was great - loads of room on the plane which was only half-full, the food was. . . well it was airplane food! The cabin crew were friendly and the pilot got us there in one piece! Landed in St John's and we had to disembark - which meant Jonathan had to clear Immigration!!! We were on the ground for approx an hour and a half and we spent that entire time talking to Customs & Immigration officials. By the time we got through they were reboarding the plane - well at least they didn't have to hold the flight for us!
So, Jonathan had officially 'landed'. He's now a Permanent Resident of Canada, he can put a good Canadian accent, but he doesn't know how big the country is (more on that later). The benefit of going through all that in St John's was that when we landed in Halifax, we walked straight through to Arrivals area and sailed straight past my Dad who was waiting anxiously for the new arrivals!