After the eventful morning with the pickup of the motorcycles, we tried to relax a bit. The closer you get to the departure date, the more nervous you get and go through the list umpteen times, whether everything is packed or whether something was forgotten.
The last vaccinations we had at least already behind us. Towards evening we were finally a bit more relaxed and decided to toast to the successful pickup and our birthdays. It was really fun!
However, we still had in the back of our minds that we had been assured that we should still get the waybills for the flight that day. On the one hand as confirmation that the motorcycles had arrived at Munich airport and on the other hand because we would need this for pickup in Canada.
Shortly before going to bed, we checked our e-mails again, already very tired, and were suddenly wide awake again. In the junk mail folder was the e-mail we had been waiting for all day. In the mail there were two documents attached: the invoice for the transport and the international airwaybill. Well... the invoice was correct, of course. However, we were shocked by the waybill: Vancouver was indicated as the destination airport and also as the contact of the customs agents on site. But our flight was booked to Montreal! So on the other side of the continent!
Sleep was then of course not immediately to think off - we dissected the information on the airwaybill to the smallest detail. After all, this was our very first transport of the bikes by plane. And then the next surprise: according to the airway bill number (quasi cargo tracking number) the flight was booked correctly from Munich to Montreal. We also saw immediately online that our bikes were at Munich airport and would fly two days later. So only the information about destination airport and customs agents remained, which made us unsure, so we wrote another mail with our questions to Intime Hamburg.
Already the next morning at 6.00 a.m. the answer came: they will take care of it immediately and then contact us. Already a few hours later we received the relieving answer that now everything was ok: the flight was booked correctly, only with the entries concerning the address of the office of the customs agents at the airport (only as information for us) there was a small mix-up: instead of "YUL" for Montreal "YVR" (Vancouver) had been selected. Since everything worked out: Can happen!
Now that everything was done in Carinthia, we traveled back to Vienna. Due to the fact that the boxes had been picked up only in the last week, we unfortunately could not say goodbye to all friends and relatives, because the time was a bit too short and we also did not want to take the risk of infecting ourselves with "something". After all, our flight would require the vaccination certificate and a negative PCR test. This would be uploaded in the "Arrivce-Can-App" in the last 72h before the flight.
In Canada at the arrival airport, one would then be randomly selected to take another PCR test. Until the result of this test one would have to go into quarantine e.g. in a special hotel. So all in all: the planning of our time and dates was still only very approximate. However, we hoped not to be selected, because for each day the bikes are in the bonded warehouse, a fee has to be paid. BUT: we were still far from being selected!
Just two days after pickup, we got a call from Intime: customs in Germany had questions about our shipment. The German officials would like to have a proof that we are not flying the bikes to Canada to sell them!
Yaaa right! That's right: you pay a few thousand Euros to fly a used bike (including luggage, tent, boots, helmet in the box) to Canada to sell it there. Especially because there are even new bikes to buy for a cheaper price here! So it would be an absolute loss business!
As the only proof that we could provide, we sent our already concluded bike insurance policy for Canada and the USA - and this was then fortunately accepted. However, the flight of our bikes was rebooked to a later day, so that they finally landed one day before us in Canada. This was much better for us though, because it reduced the daily fees in the Canadian customs warehouse.
The last time until our departure we still used the opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the many functions of Instagram, Facebook and "social media" in general, in order to be able to send at least "reasonably timely" a few photos and videos. - Big THANKS at this point again to Julia and Manuela for their patience with us!
We will try to share the most important moments via Instagram and Facebook in advance (and of course continue to improve), but the more detailed reports on our experiences will be here in the blog!
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