Friday, May 17th:
I would certainly recommend the Park Inn Hotel near Heathrow Airport if anyone has to stay overnight before an early flight. It was impeccably clean and quiet and the Heathrow Hotel Hoppa picks up at the door. We took the 6.35am bus and were soon at Terminal 3 where in Zone D we saw the Great Rail Journey Tour Leader. He told us that our group consisted of 28 people but 5 of them were already over in Canada. There was a moment of apprehension at the check-in when Robert's passport triggered some security alert and they had to ring Canada to check it out! It turned out that the likely 'problem' was the fact that his birthday is September 11th and since 9/11 this causes minor alert in Canada! All was quickly and humorously sorted out and we proceeded smoothly through into departures, with none of the hassle and brusqueness that I have almost always experienced at Heathrow security. Indeed, when I jokingly said that I have forgotten to pick up my coin purse on one or two occasions before, the officer said: "Don't worry, I'll put it in your jacket pocket."
     In the departure lounge we had a coffee and croissant, and met a couple from Kirkburton, Huddersfield, my home town, who are on our trip  and then later a couple from Hereford who had the Great Rail Journey label on their hand luggage. It was only shortly after 7.15am, so there was the long wait until the gate opened at 9.25am. From time to time I espied the Great Rail Journeys luggage label and chatted with the owners! At W.H. Smith I bought a copy of the French newspaper Le Figaro which will help to keep my French up and running for when we get to Quebec!
    Around 9.40am our gate was assigned and we made our way down to it and were soon aboard Air Canada flight AC855. We were airborne by 11am and our route was a significantly more northerly one than on visits to California. We flew up the whole length of Britain leaving the coast over the very north of Scotland, passing over the Faeroe Islands and north of Iceland. We travelled across the central ice sheet of Greenland crossing into Canada over Baffin Island in what is now the territory of Nunavut. On then over North West Territories above Yellowknife and down across British Columbia landing in Vancouver just a few minutes after midday (8.00pm in the UK). It had been a smooth flight with friendly staff and the nine hours passed relatively painlessly! I had recorded quite a lot  on my MP3 player so through the earphones I had some great music to listen to. I managed to read virtually all of the autobiography of Paul Sculthorpe, the rugby league player, which our friends in St Helens, John and Sheila Brotherton, fellow GRJ travellers, had given me.
      There was a long queue at immigration as about ten flights had all arrived at roughly the same time, but once through that we gathered as a tour group near the luggage carousel and began to discover who was who. On board the bus to central Vancouver, Peter Davis our tour leader, gave out a list of names and the towns where are from which revealed a rich variety: London, Warwick, Orkney, Fareham, Guildford, St Helens, Stockton-on-Tees, Leicester, Oxford, Eastbourne, Dingwall, Huddersfield and us from Chorley.
      It was raining steadily with fairly leaden skies as  the bus took us into the city, to the Blue Horizon Hotel on Robson Street in the main shopping area. Our room was on the fourteenth floor, quite spacious, though, by contrast, with a pretty small bathroom. It was a corner room so there were good views (hopefully even better views when the rain and mist lift!)
   After the long day we went to bed about 4pm and slept till 6pm (2.00am Saturday morning in the UK). After getting up we waked out onto Robson Street in the rain. My umbrella having fallen apart a few weeks ago, it was time to pop into the local supermarket here and purchase an equally cheap one. If it lasts the trip it will still be money well spent! It was good to wander out and see the shops and the people. Soon we lighted on the Thai House Restaurant not far from the hotel and had the set meal for two with friendly and helpful service from the staff there. Although it was barely 8.30pm we wended our weary way back to our room and were ready get to bed early (or, on British time, late!)