The final days of any trip are always a time of mixed emotion. This is especially true for today as we close the chapter on one part whilst simultaneously opening one anew. It’s also the time where the responsibility for our day to day activities transfer to us fully and, much to my dread, relies on the countless hours I spent planning our travel all those months ago. It doesn’t matter how many times I check our itinerary that feeling that something is amiss won’t go away until we finally make the journey. With all this in mind we didn’t have much planned for today and even that didn’t get done in the end.
We started our day at a local breakfast joint, one that was very much reminiscent of all the diners that we’d frequented on our previous trip through America. Our waiter’s tired eyes and frantic demeanour belying what must have been a rough night before. I, foolishly, ordered eggs benedict ala Harry (with bacon, onion and asparagus in the hollandaise) thinking that $15 would net me a decent meal only to be presented with something that could have easily fed a family of 4. I gave it the old college try but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stomach breakfasts like that.
Unfortunately, my poor wife took a very hard turn for the worse right around the middle of breakfast. She has been struggling with something ever since she came back from Indonesia last year, something that seems to flare up at the worst of times. This torpedoed what loose plans we had, taking us back to our hosts home in the hopes to rest up before our flights over to Paris. Thankfully, with the help of some anti-nausea medication, she managed to overcome the worst of it just before we had to start making our way to the airport. I certainly wasn’t looking forward to explaining to airport security that my wife was fine, she just didn’t look it.
Much to my surprise getting through Montreal airport was a breeze, meaning the extra hour we’d allocated to getting through was returned to us. We’d hoped to make use of the American Express lounge which the website had told us was available however our Westpac Black Cards confused the reception staff. I heard them muttering “Centurion” several times over, which our cards are most certainly not, but I think the confusion was enough for them to say they wouldn’t let us in. My wife was very dejected at this prospect; she does quite enjoy the lounges when we can get access to them.
I’ll leave it at that for now, seeing as I’m writing this on the last leg of our flight to Paris and the definition of what constitutes a “day” is somewhat blurry at this point.
Looking at our itinerary I can’t help but feel that I might’ve been better served by cutting one location in favour of adding more days to the rest. Our brief discussions on what we want to do in Paris have highlighted the few precious days we’ll actually have to do things, the days that bookend our stay almost wholly dedicated to travel. Of course the places I wanted to stay for a longer duration do have extra time allocated to them, but there are 3 destinations where we really only have 2 days to see what we want to see. Still I’ve often felt I’ve stayed too long in places before so maybe the short time I’ve allocated will be enough.
