Saturday 30 May. St Johns, Newfoundland

We were both awake early so up, breakfasted and ready in tons of time for the shuttle bus to the airport. I rarely eat breakfast but it was a nice change to have some porridge and a bagel. 

We had a wander up and down the shops at the airport while waiting for our plane. It departed half an hour late for our 3 hour flight to St Johns in Newfoundland. We were flying east which meant a time change of one a half hours, so leaving at 12.30 for a 3 hour flight we arrived at 5.00. And yesterday, when I flew from Frankfurt to Toronto, I left at 10.00 and arrived at midday. No wonder I’m confused about time.

The girl sitting next to Lorraine on today’s flight was a very nervous traveller and became really upset at the slightest turbulence, so when we hit a huge bump coming into St John’s, she was beside herself. It was pretty bad and the pilot had to abandon his first go at landing and come around for a second shot. Lorraine was very involved in the exciting bit of her movie and didn’t even notice that we were climbing. The second attempt was a success and when the plane finally came to a standstill everyone  clapped.

We waited quite a while in the queue at Thrifty car rental and when it was finally our turn were given a Volvo, a huge one. My weather app said the temperature was 3 degrees but feels like -6, and it was drizzling and windy so we couldn’t get into the car park and then the car quickly enough. Spent ages adjusting seats and getting the GPS sorted before heading very gingerly onto the road. All went well but I’m not really comfortable with the size of the car. I’ll see how I go tomorrow and if I’m not happy we’ll try to change it.

When we reached the hotel we grabbed our things and raced in out of the cold. There was a nice welcome from the two young men at reception. Luckily we could access Dennys for dinner without having to step outside. So no need to face the weather until tomorrow which is expected to be much the same as today. Eek!