[TBD]: 40th Birthday Trip - Day 1 and 2 (September 14-15, 2025)

Things changed quickly and we ended up going to Germany prior to our planned 40th birthday trip to Paris. September long weekend we found out AA had to go to Germany for work, and since we had booked companion tickets we ended up having to go together, so Lola worked a lot of overtime to get all her deadlines/work completed 1 week ahead of time, and we booked new flights.

We left home at about 1:00pm to head to the airport with plenty of time. Checked our bag, and headed for some Starbucks before boarding the plane.

Since we booked 2 weeks before leaving, we had to change our nice flight with one stop, to more of a milk run. We went to Toronto (1 hour layover), then to Halifax (with another 1 hour layover), to Paris (just over 5 hour flight).

The flights were pretty uneventful for us. First flight we didn't get to sit together, but the rest we were in premium together :). We tried to sleep on the plane over the ocean, but it was so short we only got about 2 hours of sleep (inbetween "dinner" and breakfast). On our flight the lady behind us got her hot tea spilled on her leg/foot, and she was suffering pretty bad. Good thing Lola brought food on the plane as, all she got on the flight was a salad. But she ate her pizza, boiled eggs and veggies :)

Once in Paris (arriving the next day, September 15), we got our luggage, as we had to go from Westjet to Air France. At Charles De Gaulle airport it was kind of strange. We walked off the plane with stairs (not as nice as getting off the airplane onto the tarmac like in Hawaii), then loaded onto buses. Those buses took us to a different gate were we got off the bus and entered the terminal.

On the bus!

We found our suitcase on the carousel, and went to go try and get on the earlier flight to Hamburg Germany. We were there booked at 4:30, as we were worried our flights would be delayed, but turned out we couldn't change, and the flight we could change would have cost us 300 Euros, so we just checked our bag and went to find some lunch.

We found ourself at the Sheraton restaurant at the airport right by the train station. Lola ordered citris fish with rice, but didn't get the rice till well after the she and AA had eaten their meal, but AA knew that Lola needed more food. AA had a chicken ceaser salad. It was very tasty.

We made our way to security, where we were put into a different line to weigh our carry on baggage. Turned out you could only carry on 12 kgs (both her suitcase and personal item together). We traded to see if we could get by, but Lola's backpack and AA's carry on suitcase was over 18 kgs. So we had to go and check the bag. AA was a little nervous as he needed the stuff in that bag for his work trip. His work close and toothbrush were in there. But we really had no choice. Once we checked the bag, we headed back to security. Second time was much easier getting through.

We headed to our gate, Lola went to the washroom, and then came back and fell asleep on AA's shoulder after playing a little Donkey Kong. We had 2 seperate reservation bookings, so AA went onto the plane first as he was in zone 3 and Lola was in zone 4. Off he went, and Lola went after.

Once Lola got to the gate, she was puzzled that she had to go down some stairs and loaded onto a Bus... Another weird thing. She sure was hoping that AA was on the plane when she got there. The bus loaded and we got to the tarmack where our plane was parked, and walked back up stairs to the plane. Thankfully AA was sitting there waiting for Lola :)

Air Traffic was heavy, so we had a very specific time we were allowed to leave, so we waited on the plane for about 20 minutes before taxiing. We arrived pretty quickly in Hamburg Germany, as AA and Lola fell asleep hard on the plane, we didn't even get drink service.

After we woke up...

Got of the plane, and headed for our luggage after AA found the washroom. Once we got to the luggage carousel most of the luggage was unloaded, and people were gone. We got our "carry-on" bag, but unfortunately our suitcase wasn't there. We were ok, as AA had his work clothes, and Lola had put some clothes in there too, just not her brush, hat or sandals.

We headed to the luggage claim area, where the line was pretty long. We waited a while, and then found out we had make the "claim" on the kiosk. Once we completed that we headed to the car rental place. The lady was very surprised that AA was willing to drive a manual transmission, but continued to "upgrade" us to an automatic Ford Escape.

We headed to the hotel, and got there as it was getting dark. Arrived at the hotel around 8pm, and got checked in and put our stuff in the room, and headed to the Piano Bar in our hotel for Supper. We were pretty exhausted but knew we needed to eat.

AA had a club house sandwich while Lola had a Hamburger (with no bread and no cheese). The waiter didn't understand what a Bun was.... so had to used the word Bread (learnt for next time).