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“For my tenth birthday party, I want it to be a surprise!” – Sierra

“Oh boy.” – I thought.

Surprise birthday parties are quite popular in movies, television and books, but I’m not entirely sure what Sierra’s expectations were, considering she still had to provide us with an invitation list, some options for where she would like to have her party, and what she wanted to happen at the party.

But it all worked out perfectly!

Lots of planning and preparation was done while I was away in Europe, but Vero managed to pull it off!

The ploy

We marked a few events on the calendar to throw her off.  One was an event at Uncle Mike and Aunt Mel’s place on the Saturday before her birthday.  We also put a different event on the Saturday AFTER her birthday but kept it ambiguous.

The day of her birthday, she knew she was going to Uncle Mike’s place in the afternoon.  Vero, Danielle and Ezra went to “Giant Tiger” ahead of us to pick up something.  Ezra was NOT in on the plan, so it was funny to see he had no interest in going to Giant Tiger when really, he was going to help set up the party at the Russell Bowling Lane!  Ezra is still of an age that keeping a secret is hard.  He tries his best, but when he started whispering really loudly about something for Sierra’s birthday party while Sierra was in the room, I knew that we had to ‘plug this leak’ temporarily.

Sierra and I hit the road and I stopped in at Giant Tiger pretending to have received a text message from Mike saying that it’s going to rain so plans have changed and he was wondering if we wanted to go bowling instead.  Sierra is ALWAYS excited for bowling, so there were no issues there!  At the same time, Vero was over at the bowling lane with everyone else, setting up the surprise.

Sierra and I walked into the bowling lane, chatting about something and then the plan worked perfectly when everyone yelled SURPRISE!  Sierra didn’t really know what was going on, until she realized that the surprise was for her and all her friends were rushing to see her.  She was like a deer caught in some headlights.  It was great.

The party

Pretty standard party shenanigans happened after that…we had a couple of bowling lanes reserved, kids were being kids just goofing around while bowling.  We had some great cupcakes, opened some gifts and bam!  Two hours had flown by.  Everyone was happy with the event.

That evening, we also celebrated with another cake made by Danielle and opened up a few other gifts.  I had made a presentation showing all her previous birthday parties and we laughed at the fact that there was a particular shirt I had worn to the birthday parties over the years!  In honour of that, I adorned the shirt another time for this photo.

 

 

Not much to report about the last day in Italy. We packed our bags, ate some breakfast and got dropped off by Philipp in Verona.

I stayed awake most of the flight back by watching some films like Ready Player One and BlackBerry, and some episodes of Mandalorian.

When I got back into Canada, the border agent was asking me where I had travelled to BEFORE my trip to Europe. It took five minutes of hard thinking to remember that I had crossed the border to Ogdensburg, NY to pick up a package, back in February 2025. It’s quite hard to remember something like that when your brain is still stuck on Europe time. It felt like it was 3am in the morning!

Because of the delays with the border agent, I missed my chance to switch my flight to one that left at 8pm and I had to wait until 11:30pm to get my flight home to Ottawa. Nothing much to report about the entire trip. It was nice that the person next to me decided to move to another seat so I did have some extra legroom on the long flight over the ocean.
I arrived home via an Uber and was glad to be back, but I was also glad to have made the trek to see some good friends. We had some good laughs, and saw some marvellous things. What more can I ask for?

The highlights of my trip:

• Talking to Philipp’s dad via a translation app
• The sights from atop a mountain
• Exploring the city centres of Italy. I feel that I have done enough of the northern part of Europe (France, Belgium, Germany, etc.) and am now excited to explore the southern portions.
• Seeing two great friends after many years apart.

The best part of vacation is not having a schedule. Many mornings were spent waking up quite late and starting our day after noon.

Introducing the boys to Angine de Poitrine!

Unfortunately for me, at this point in the trip, I had caught a cold and was waking up blowing my nose and having a headache. Noooo! This would prove to not be very fun on the trip back. I’m pretty sure wearing a face mask makes my nose worse!

Philipp had some things to do at the bank so he dropped Chris and I off at Sirmione which seemed to be a hot spot for tourists. I can understand why! It was a peninsula with a castle built on it and full of fun city streets to walk through, shops to peruse, and a beach at the end of the peninsula.

Chris and I took our time walking the paths and making our way to the beach at the end. On our return back, we looked in some shops as Chris still hadn’t found the ‘best gift’ to bring home to his son (hilariously, the best gift turned out to be a stick of salami at the airport the next day!).

I managed to check into my flight while touring around Sirmione. It’s incredible how useful a smartphone is while travelling. If I didn’t have one, I might wanted to remain home for the day to wait for the 24 hour mark to check into my flight. But I could do so, sitting and eating gelato in the heat.

Chris and Philipp went to the beach while I took a nap in the late afternoon. That evening we had a bbq on the rooftop patio. Philipp’s apartment came with a section of the rooftop patio all for ourselves.

Dipping my toes in the lake while waiting for Philipp to pick us up

There were thunderstorms coming in so we quickly ate, went back inside and watched the Brothers Grimsby which was over the top hilarious.

 

We decided to drive around Lake Garda for the day. Philipp says that driving without stopping would take around four hours.

 

It was quite scenic compared to later in the week. Generally, the mountains in the distance are obscured by haze but it was clear today and you can see snow peaked mountains during the drive.

We stopped in various places along the way. It was quite incredible to drive along winding roads along a mountain side, with a view of water and mountains ahead of you.

James Bond’s Quantum of Solace opening car chase scene was filmed in a section of Lake Garda so it was cool to drive along that.

We went up Lake Garda’s famous picturesque route called Strada del Forra. It a long and winding road up the mountain and took us into the mountain at various points. It felt like we were entering a cave system with water coming down the mountain side at various points.

We arrived at the top in a village called Parco dell’Alto and that was where I witnessed one of the most beautiful sights of my life.

Philipp brought us to a spot which protruded from the mountainside. If you looked down, it was hundreds of metres to the water. If you looked across, you saw snow peaked mountains. All around you was beautiful. I was very moved by the entire scene and spent a few minutes taking it all in. You see these kind of sights in movies, but I had never witnessed something as beautiful as this, in real life.

We continued along the lake front and ended up in Malcesine where we spent a few hours looking at souvenir shops and walking through the city. A lot of people there.

I did find myself a nice hat which I think I now regret buying for $80 Canadian dollars! 50 euro didn’t sound that bad, but then I realized the exchange rate would put this hat into the ‘high fashion’ price tag! Haha.

We walked along the water front and stopped at a spot overlooking the lake. We sat on beanbag chairs and had gelato. Chris ordered a deluxe gelato which was enormous! We all had a good laugh when it arrived.

The rest of the day was spent driving home, taking it all in and enjoying the sights. We arrived quite late and decided to have another pizza across the street. I decided to order the anchovies on my pizza but it was incredibly salty. I should have known that going in!

We finished off the night watching The Hangover and staring a bit of Old School. Chris couldn’t get over the fact that I had watched The Hangover with Nanny Ruth one Christmas evening, considering how raunchy it i

The apartment we stayed at is pretty amazing, especially considering Philipp was snoring and keeping Chris and I awake in Heidelberg! Haha. He did mention that there were two rooms and a pull out couch in Italy so we should be safe from his snoring.

We started off the day by walking down to the supermarket and picking up some supplies for the next few days. I didn’t see too many different items in the supermarket, other than some differently shaped tomatoes.

The best part of the day was that there was no rain in sight and it was actually pretty warm compared to the start of our trip together! Could we be entering ‘vacation weather’ territory?

No rain!

We spent the early afternoon eating and trying out the translation capabilities on our AirPods. It took us awhile to figure it all out, but once we got it working, it was quite incredible to have live conversation with Philipp in German and it’s translating on the fly for whoever was listening to him. The future is now! This will come in handy for Philipp’s new girlfriend chatting with his father.

Around 2PM, we ventured out into the town. We were overly excited to finally see sunshine. There were some hilarious photos taken to show our excitement.

Lake Garda is quite beautiful with its clear water and the view of the mountains in the distance. The water was so clear that I could watch a duck dive in to catch some food for its ducklings and come back up. Philipp and Chris figured the water is so clear because the beach is made of small pebbles and not sand which can be moved around and make the water brown and murky.

The rest of the afternoon was spent walking from Rivoltella to Desenzano along the waterfront. I would love to be able to do this walk every day of my life. It is beautiful. I really enjoy the neighbourhood (Rivoltella) that Philipp lives in. It’s quiet and seems far away from the tourists of Desenzano.

Desenzano was full of life when we arrived and there were plenty of bachelor/bachelorette parties happening around the city center. We’re not sure if this is a common occurrence or not.
We were getting tired of walking so we sat and had a drink in an area where boats can drive up to get out and have a drink. It must be a popular spot because Philipp has a painting of the area in his kitchen at the apartment.

On our walk back, we checked out a castle, and some souvenir shops. When we got back to Rivoltella, there was some kind of protest going on with loud techno music coming from a truck and thousands of people in the street. I saw an Anarchist flag on the truck. They seemed pretty peaceful for protesters.

Oranges!

We ended the night by eating some olives on the rooftop patio, eating some pasta and watching Wedding Crashers which we hadn’t seen in many years. Many laughs were had.

 

 

 

Chris was so excited to go to Liechtenstein that all of us became excited with the thought.

We finally ended up with a plan. We would stop there for lunch and continue onto Italy.

The German countryside was nice to see from the backseat. The rolling hills are quite different from the thousands of kilometres of forest in Ontario.

It’s funny how many countries we pass in a small amount of time. We went from Germany to Austria to Switzerland to Liechtenstein in a span of thirty minutes.

The Alps reminded me of the mountains to Murdochville until we started going through tunnels. One of the tunnel was six kilometres long and I was told there are some that go to fifty kilometres long!

Liechtenstein did not disappoint. We parked the car, took an amazing photo of our excitement, had some lunch, toured the two blocks of a city centre in Vaduz and walked away without a good looking T-shirt. That was the only disappointment. We got back in the car feeling we accomplished something other mortals have never done. Made it to Liechtenstein!!

We were all tired getting back into the car for another four hours but we made it through the Alps and Milano traffic to finally arrive at Philipp’s apartment in Rivoltella along Lago di Garda.
It was 9pm so we went to a pizzeria across the street and filled our bellies before settling in for the night back home.

I was trying some non alcoholic red wine at the apartment. The first sip was not appealing but after, it tasted ok!

Good ongoing jokes happening:

• When Chris first mentioned Liechtenstein to me, I looked it up on Google Maps. I had zoom in. « Is it here? » « No, zoom in more, » « There? » « No, zoom in more ». It was so small I had to zoom in six times to see the 25 km long country! Haha.
• The trip started out with listening to Nightseekers « Shotgun Beer » song and quickly became the days theme song. It even was the last song played when we ended up in Rivoltella!

The day started out quite late with us waking up at 11am. We met Morad at a bakery and I had a tasty pretzel sandwich. I have to say that the goal of reducing carbohydrates while having prediabetes is quite impossible here in Germany. The bakeries are divine!

After saying good bye to Morad, we headed to the city center, where Chris had an odd local recipe of hot chocolate with mozzarella in it. Carrie met up with us. She wasn’t feeling the greatest but pushed herself to walk around with us for the day.

An interesting drink…hot chocolate with mozarella cheese!

We took a bus up to the mountain peak overlooking the town where we took some beautiful photos. We were laughing at Chris taking a picture and he was struggling because there was always a random person in the background walking around.

To descend the mountain, we took a funicular (a cable car) down the mountain side. It was neat.

We got off at the Heidelberg castle which was incredible. My brain cannot comprehend how long it must take to build a castle. Decades?

 

The highlight of the castle was a gigantic wine/beer barrel. It was the size of a ship! Imagine the parties when they opened that up!

 

It was rainy and cold up at the castle so we spent some time inside looking at the apothecary museum which is interesting. Imagine being on the frontier of medical advancement years ago.

We descended the mountain side, and found some busses that would take us out to a German-American festival. The bus dropped us off in the middle of nowhere outside the town limits, but after a fifteen minute walk we saw the carnival setup.

Look at Chris on top of this thing!

That’s all it was. A carnival. No live music, no tents. I was a bit disappointed, but they did have a very tasty pulled pork sandwich. I was famished by the time we got there so it went down fast.

Ancient apothecary shop

The walk back through farmers fields with a view of the hills was great.

We bid adieu to Carrie and relaxed while watching The Inbetweeners in our hotel.

Tomorrow: the road to Lichtenstein!

We arrived in Heidelberg around 5pm, checked into the hotel and headed downtown to meet Carrie.

Chris seems very excited by our room in Heidelberg, but it wasn’t overly pleasant when Philipp would be snoring!  Haha.

What a beautiful city! A forested hill overlooks the city as you walk along the cobblestone sidewalks. The river running to through downtown is majestic. Philipp said he was in a rowing competition there once.

The night was raining heavily at times but we made up for it with drinks, laughs and a really big platter of meat and warm sauerkraut for supper! Morad also joined us when he got into town! It was great seeing him and Carrie.

The downtown core is picturesque with its old architecture. It is home to Germany’s oldest university, built in 1386!

We ended up in a lovely traditional German restaurant. The meat platter was something else..schawnesaxe (pork knuckle), Wiener schnitzel, sausages, warm sauerkraut! That was divine!

Everyone was having a good laugh at the fact that I didn’t know I should have been eating warm sauerkraut all this time.

We went to a very packed bar later on to escape the rain. Many students at this bar.

We then finished off the night in the Morad’s hotel lobby where Chris was done with beer but then ordered a double tequila! He was just sipping on it.

A long night. We went to bed at 2am and woke up at 11 am.

Chris had a class to teach from 9-11am so we packed up our things. Philipp and I went to the bakery and had some good chats about life; a lot about his transition from being married, being separated and meeting a new woman. A sad and happy time.

When we dropped off Chris’s food, he was in the middle of teaching his class and I proceeded to moon him! He had a good laugh!

This is where Philipp’s father lives

We then walked to his neighborhood in Hannover. When he was looking for an apartment with Erica, his friend found an advertisement at his local daycare. Phil phoned the number and the landlord said « That was fast, I posted that twenty minutes ago! ».

I forget what they told me this was…some kind of wheat?  The hills are bright yellow throughout Germany because of it

His apartment is in an old sausage making factory, in the old industrial section of town.  The bike locker in the basement was where they would lead the pigs through.

His currently lives in his fathers apartment in the same building.

I met Philipp’s father in 2005 when I was invited to stay at their home in Holzminden. It was nice to see him again.

I tried a conversation mode from Google Translate with him and it was an incredible experience. It was a bit slow going, but I truly felt I was seeing the beginning of Star trek’s universal translator.

Some points about his life:
He studied theology and was a priest for forty years. His wife studied the same and that’s where they met.
He grew up in a village twenty kilometers away from Hannover. When the city was bomber during the war, the night sky was bright as day from the fire.
He moved to different towns throughout his life. His first child born in 1970 and Philipp, the last child, born in 1979.
He plays guitar, mandolin and jazz drums with some friends in a group called the Good Old Boys.

Considering I didn’t even know how to say much past Hello and Thank You in the German language, it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life.

After we left his place, we took Erica’s company car to pick up Chris.

Leaving Hannover, I saw sweeping green fields for the majority of the trip to Heidelberg. It’s a beautiful country.

We stopped at a truck stop for a pretzel sandwich which was good.

Some ongoing jokes from the trip:

• When Chris’s mom found out he lost a job, she sent a text saying maybe he should consider a job as a stone mason
• Chris really wants to go visit Lichtenstein because we are so close. « When else will we ever say « Boy, I really want to go out of my way to see Lichtenstein! »
• Philipp found the last photo he has of me…it was after getting off the train to ULM. I was not feeling better after the Train from Oktoberfest and I was pictured standing against a trash bin, waiting to vomit. We realized I was wearing the exact jacket I packed for the trip! Now we’ve spent some time recreating the photo. Philipp wants fifty photos.

The city was cold and rainy so we just did what we could to have some fun.

First stop, a bakery! I love the sandwich selection. I had an egg sandwich and Chris had a salami sandwich that I was drooling over. Philipp said he missed bakeries when in Brazil.

We went to an electronics shop in search of an adapter to connect my headphones to my phone. It was 15 euros and Chris told me we can order some for cheaper online. Not sure if I can get them shipped anywhere so I will be on the lookout for the rest of the trip. Chris said I could have his in a pinch.  (fast forward: We did not find a cheaper adapter on the trip, and Chris did give me his!).

Look at the size of this tree!

We went to a local market for some lunch. It was a vegetable rice dish. Lunch is the biggest meal in Germany (generally) and for supper they might have a small sandwich. It makes more sense to get the most calories in the day instead of the night, I suppose.

After the market, the rain had stopped but it was still windy and cold. We walked around town, went to town hall where they had replicas of the city at various times (1600, before war, after war, current). It’s incredible to think of an entire city wiped out from bombing. Philipps father speaks of living twenty kilometer’s away and the night sky was bright as day from the fires burning in Hannover.

Hannover is a very nice city, with plenty of trees, waterfront (rivers and lakes), and cobblestone sidewalks which I’m not used to, but find interesting.

Philipp wanted a nap after our walk so we headed back. Chris and I chatted for awhile after our nap while Philipp had a meeting for work on his laptop. Around 6pm we got to chat with Philipp’s new girlfriend Iris who was currently in Cardiff visiting her parents. She seemed funny and nice. Very pleasant to talk with.

We then went to an Argentinian steak house and ended the night at a wine bar. Surprisingly, they had a non alcoholic wine on hand which was ok. A bit sweet for my tastes.