Canada Travelogue 2 - Arrival in Calgary

I split with my colleague since our gates for the next connecting flight was different. The weather was very pleasant - about 14 degrees. Not many Indians in the Frankfurt airport. First stop was security check-in; the scanner beeped even though I didn't have any metallic object on me. The guy took me aside and waved his wand from top to bottom. No beeps. "Lift your shoe," and he waved again - still no luck but he told me to move ahead.

Frankfurt airport

The airport was colourful; lot of people bustling around and lot of shops and cafeterias. Many people were having breakfast with a large glass of beer! Beer surely was popular in Germany - I could think of a couple of friends who would love this. There was a closed smoking room sponsored by some cigarette company along with the statutory warning posters about smoking damaging health. The room was full with people and clouds of smoke.

Small trolleys were available for carrying hand luggage; something that you don't find in many airports. It made it easier for people to move around the terminal for shopping. I was soon at the Air Canada boarding gate. To my dismay, my seat was a window seat with 2 people to my left. I had stressed for an aisle seat during check-in at Chennai and the staff nodded his head in agreement over there - this was going to be a pain; an 8 hour journey where I couldn't step out at will. The guy next to me was a middle age person in his early 40s while the lady next to him was an elderly lady in her 50s. The guy was from Libya; he was going to Edmonton for studying for a year. The food was more limited than Lufthansa - only one lunch and a snack an hour before landing. The lunch was surprisingly good; the in-flight entertainment system wasn't that great.

Anti ageing!

From the customs form it was clear that Canada didn't want people to bring any milk products or even nuts into the country. I dumped a packet of almonds in the garbage before going to the immigration counter. The queue for foreigners was very small and there were only a couple of questions for me. After this came the baggage collection area - the staff in Chennai told me I didn't have to pick my luggage in Toronto; but when I entered the baggage area there was an announcement that said everyone on connecting flights had to take their luggage before proceeding to the next flight. Unsure, I waited near the conveyor belts for 10 minutes - no signs of my bags; maybe it would go to the final destination. I found an Air Canada helpdesk and the guy immediately said that I have to take my baggage and check it in again on my connecting flight - it wasn't a through check-in. That's the 2nd thing the Chennai staff had messed up - I wonder how many travellers that guy must have misled with his confident wrong replies.

After another 10 minutes my two suitcases arrived. Since the bag was tagged for the final destination, the next check-in was simple - just drop the suitcases on another conveyor belt. They could easily have done this themselves instead of asking passengers to go through the trouble. But maybe it was due to the fact that we had immigration in Toronto (first point of entry to Canada). In case someone was stopped by immigration then their suitcases will also remain in Toronto rather than going forward.

After that was the security check. I was hungry but didn't have time to pick any food; ended up buying a Snickers chocolate bar near the boarding gate for my flight. Again no aisle seat; this time it was a window seat on the left side of the plane. Four hours later we touched down in Calgary.

They obviously had tried to do a lot of designing in this airport - some artistic items on display, some informative posters, usage of different colours rather than plain white etc. A little bit like Singapore airport but at a much smaller scale. Temperature was surprisingly good - about 12 degrees. It was 5:30pm; I had travelled for 24 hours but time zones are a wonder - I started on Friday 2am and reached Canada Friday evening! So if we keep travelling westward non-stop we can slow down aging; and if we went faster we could even reverse it!

First glimpse of Canada

Homes in Calgary

We had a smooth ride to my sister's home. Calm, clean neighbourhood and very silent; no sounds of vehicles, horns or people shouting on the streets. All houses in this complex were independent ones and looked very similar - everything was two floored with a hut like appearance on top.

I ate idlis and typical Indian lunch at home and then went for a walk in the neighbourhood with my bro-in-law. Everyone was enjoying the unexpected pleasant weather - usually at this time of the year it is snowing. Dogs were walking or jogging along with owners, kids were playing on slides and swings in the park and a couple of Canadian kids were flying kites. Some dogs even had a sweater! Most houses had a small backyard and many of them had trampolines over there.

The colours of leaves was beautiful - a variety of them: green, yellow, red, orange and brown. And there were shades of each; a very pretty sight.