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We got to the Canadian border two hours before the start of the match between Germany and Italy. This would give us plenty of time to get to our friends house so we could watch the match live on TV. But the border officials had other plans!!
There was only a short queue and we were asked to leave our vehicle for inspection and go into the office for passport control. The female officer decided we needed to wait over two hours whilst she filled out a form to go in our passports which had to be handed in when we left the country. We have never seen such a form in all the years we have been across into Canada and she would only give us up until our health insurance ran out in mid December and therefore, only 5.5 months instead of the usual 6 months.
This was ridiculous! We renew our insurance online as and when we need it and it just so happens that we had recently done that otherwise our insurance would have run out a lot sooner. We'd probably have had to renew online at the customs office! As it was, Helen had to show her bank accounts which are all online so she had to use one of the customs computers to show them. When Helen said that she would have to go into her accounts herself as she would not give her security details to the officer, the officer promptly told her that she would have to if the officer required it!! No way!! Absolutely not! Fortunately it didn't come to that!
Meanwhile Kirsten is getting more and more impatient because the football match was getting closer and closer and we were still waiting at customs. She even pointed to her watch in a very obvious way and Helen had to tell her to behave otherwise we would be there all day, or even worse, get refused entry!
We finally got out of there over two hours later and raced to the next town which was 3 miles down the road. The match had already started and we went to the tourist info centre where they have WiFi but the connection wasn't good enough to get live streaming to watch the match. Kirsten gasped when she saw the scoreline 1-0 to Italy!
Helen quickly asked if there was anywhere that might be showing the match live on TV and was told there is a pub across the street. So Kirsten frantically packed up the computer, we left Winnie on the car park and ran across the road.
There was loud music playing in the pub restaurant but the TV was showing the match, albeit without sound. We got there just in time to see Italy's second goal! The final score was 2-1 to Italy and Germany were going home. Kirsten was not a happy bunny! But the fish and chips were excellent!!
We finally got to our friends later and watched the final at the weekend on their TV - a luxury for us! For the next few weeks Helen did a lot of walking as training for her Kilimanjaro trek even though we were not that much above sea level here. At least there were some steep hills around.
Practice Hike.
However, we got hit by a few storms and even got hail despite it only being the beginning of July! There was even a tornado that was heading directly for us until it suddenly veered off and missed us completely! Winnie was nearly hit by flying debris so we were quite lucky to come out of it unscathed.
We also got a surprise visit from some friends of ours from Hamburg. Christa and Berit had hired a car and were on a tour of Canada and the US so they dropped by to say hello! They ended up staying for a week and we cooked meals for the four of us either in Winnie or on the BBQ at their cabin. We also went walking and took them to a waterfall nearby.
Meals with Berit and Christa.
Helen left to go to Africa for a safari and to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. (See Africa website) When she got back she got the chance to help make pure apple juice.
