We are off to the Alps

The picture on the left is the view from the castle. The one below is where we started our walk up to the castle. 20 minutes to complete this hike, not a small task.

Well, Thursday we were headed south to the Alps and the boarder between Germany and Austria. We are going to be playing two exhibition games (Canada East vs Canada West) in Fussen, and both teams will be staying in Oberammergau. Both of these are quite small towns, only about 3000 people living in each, although there seem to be a fair number of tourists.

The Canada East team had a practice on Thursday, but both team West (as they just arrived in Germany on Thursday) and the referees skipped the skate for that day. On Friday we all had more practice ice. Both teams practiced, and we decided to get the cobwebs out of our legs to go our with team East. We skated our route while they practiced their breakouts. I felt pretty good, so I guess it may not be as bad as I thought. I guess we will see tonight. As it is the first game.

The castle I have included a picture of is Neuschwanstein Castle. One of the biggest tourist draws in Germany. It was really quite impressive. Although the walk was not something we likely should have done just before going for a game. This picture is the point where we started our walk up the Alps to the castle. And due to tight timing, our tour was starting in 20 minutes, so that was how long we had to get up to the castle. All of this was 3 hours before gametime, it's not like we need to save our legs or anything...

After the castle we went back into Fussen (about 5 minutes away) and got ready for the game. I made another trip through town looking for a long distance calling card (I have no idea why they are so hard to find here) still haven't found one, so it was off to the arena. I wasn't sure what to expect with the game, as I have done much skating since the start of April. We went out to the rink, and as I feared there were no free play lines, or creases, apparently they had spent the day trying to find some water soluble spray paint so the referees could paint the lines on (obviously they have never seen my artistic side), I don't recall covering off the painting of lines in any of my clinics, but figured if they thought we could do it, Karen and I would do our best. Well as it turns out they couldn't find any. So for the exibition games we will just need to guess at the freeplay line, and use the hockey crease, far from ideal, but you make due with what you have. We will have to see whether they find any paint for tomorrows game.

We started the game, and within the first 2 minutes I had 2 body contact penalties against Canada East, and then about a minute after that a boarding call on Team West. So now I am wondering, if I am calling it too tight or if the teams are just all spun about finally getting to play. I asked Karen, and she said there were no problems, so we went on, and sure enough they got into the swing of things, and there were only a handful of penalties after that.

All in all, I felt pretty good skating with them, the international format of 4 periods each 12 minutes in length actually makes it easier, as although the total game is longer than we play at home (2 - 20 minute periods) with the breaks and the flood between the 2nd and 3rd it just seemed shorter. I guess I would relate it to doing two games in a row at home, which happens all the time, and the 12 minutes periods are shorter, so I may survive this after all.

Canada West went out to an early lead 1 - 0 thanks to the two players that a referee put in the box early in the game, but East ended up coming back and winning 5 - 3. The teams didn't do too badly, although there were more missed passes than I would have expected, guess the referees aren't the only ones who need these games to shake the rust off.