Air Canada sucks.

So once again I left for Europe. Usually my trips back and forth between the two continents have been extremely pleasant. Sleep on the plane, wake up in a new land. No jet lag. Sweet. This time the travel gods had other plans as my return ticket to Munich had a two hour stopover in Lester B. Pearson International... aka Toronto. The first half of my flight from vancouver to toronto was smooth. 5.5 hours in a plane. I watched mission impossible. Blah.

Landing in Toronto was also smooth enough. My luggage was going to pass through so I could wander the hallways of the airport while I killed time for the next three hours. I stood by the glass windows and watched the airport traffic come and go... admiring all the massively expensive airplanes all ready at a moments notice to whisk their hundreds of passengers off to some foreign exotic land. Then I notice the clouds. Dark dark heavy rain looking clouds. Seemingly bearing down on the airport. "Hmmmmm kinda looks like a thunderstorm is headed this way." Man I could not have been anymore correct. As I sat and waited for my flight, I noticed the skies darken, the lightning begin and the rain start to fall. Hard. Needless to say it was a full blown thunderstorm headed straight for the airport. I watched as the time ticked. Our boarding time came and went... many passengers looking extremely confused. Then the announcement. All airport traffic had been delayed due to the thunderstorm stalling over the airport. I watched as the clock ticked... in the end we were delayed 2.5 hours at the boarding gate. Next we all piled onto the plane. Then the fog rolled in.

Toronto covered in night fog.

The airport during the thunderstorm

Little did I know that tarmac staff are not allowed to work in a thunderstorm. So they kindly left all our bags out in the pouring rain for 2.5 hours as the flight sat delayed. Completely uncovered, our bags were getting soaked with little care given about the fact we were going to be delayed a while. Once we were on the flight, more waiting began. The plane still needed to be refueled, baggage loaded and catering delivered.The fog thickened and we could barely see the terminal. I figured we were screwed and would be delayed even further. I watched a full movie on board the plane as we waiting.. even more. Finally around 11pm central time, we finally unlocked from the gate and were on our way. I could barely feel my ass from sitting so long. Only nine more hours to go. Time for a gravol and a nap.

Fortunately that was the most difficult part of my trip. I arrived in Munich without issue. Waited 20 minutes for my bag at the carousel after clearing customs. My good buddy Bastian was waiting to take my Nuremberg for the weekend. Little did I realize he drove two hours out to grab me! But the trip out to Nuremberg would be well worth the effort. Nuremberg was the momemtum building/staging grounds for the Nazi party in the 30's/40's. Plenty of world history to check out in this place. Bastian's father works for Playmobile. He is one of the head toy designers so I was given a whirlwind tour of Playmobile Land. An all access pass to all the coolest playmobile stuff in the world. I also found out Bastians girlfriend Sara worked at the Nuremberg Zoo called the "Tiergarten". At some point we were going to go check out the animals as it was one of the largest zoo's in the world. Sweet. I didn't expect anything when I arrived. I enjoy seeing old friends, experiencing their culture, seeing where they're from. That's the reason why I travel. Little did I know that the having locals show you around was the way to do things in Nuremberg. I was about to have a visit that I would never forget.

Nuremberg by night.