Day 1 - Ropley to Calgary

Up early to complete packing, then load the car and we're off soon after 8. Granny's a bit surprised when we turn up with excess food, then we're on the road for Heathrow. The traffic's not bad, and we get parked and bussed over to Terminal 3 without difficulty, even the check-in queue's not too long. So, after a coffee and a bit of shopping, we're sitting in departures - same place as 3 years ago, but this time without the 3 hour delay.

Right on time, we're boarding and preparing for our 9 hour flight.

Our route took us north over the Pennines and Scotland then over Iceland - all shielded by cloud. We ate, snoozed, ate more, read, then looked out the window to see that we were crossing the coast of Greenland. This was quite stunning, with the rocks jutting out from an icy sea.

Everyone hurried to the window to see the views - though the blue haze made photos tricky (thank goodness for Paint Shop Pro and digital enhancement!)

Over the centre of Greenland, then down over Baffin Island and the north of Canada it was mainly covered with cloud, though we got occasional glimpses through, including icebergs in a beautiful blue sea.  We then headed south over Alberta and the cloud started to break, including this glimpse of Edmonton (at least, I'm pretty sure it is Edmonton).

We then started to descend over a patchwork of incredibly regular fields towards Calgary.

At the airport everything went smoothly - they let us in, we found our baggage safely, and the hire car was as expected (except that the girls are complaining about the colour - I expect Rosie wanted a PINK one to go with her limo!). An interesting drive through heavy stop start traffic brought us to our hotel, where we have settled in and are taking advantage of FREE wireless internet. Here's the Jeep outside our hotel.

Now we're all a bit zombied - not sure if it's 18:30 or 01:30. Time to go hunt a steak!

The early evening proved a good time to take a drive downtown, and have a look around (from the Jeep of course) before dining at Earl's - Caesar Salads, burgers, steaks AND A PINT OF KEITH'S IPA. (Memories of Brockville with Martin)

Now it's 9:30, still light, but we're about to turn in - after all, for our body clocks it's 4:30 tomorrow morning.

And so, good night!