Continuing the trip through Austria, the longest stretch on the bus

Here is the birthplace of Mozart. A small 2 bedroom place, not a lot of room for 7 kids.

Here is a picture of the gardens in the middle of Salzburg, in the background at the top of the hill you can see the fortress, that has been around for about 1000 years.

These are the stairs that Maria comes running down with the kids in the Sound of Music.

This morning we left Hallen, and were spending time in Salzburg. It only took us about 30 minutes to get to Salzburg, and then we had a guided walking tour of the city. We saw the gardens in the center of the city where some of Sound of Music was filmed (although apparently very few people from Austria know much about the movie or have seen it, just last year they finally decided to create a Sound of music museum although our tour guide figures it will be another 4 years before it gets built). After the tour of the old town, and seeing things about Mozart (his birthplace was Salzburg) we were free to go on our own for a while in the city. Karen, Beth and I decided to walk up to the monistary where more of the sound of music was filmed (as Karen is a fan). So that was very nice to see. Apparently it is one of 23 monistaries in Salzburg and 74% of the population is Catholic.

After we left Salzburg it was back on the bus for another 3 hours, until shortly after crossing the Czech Border, one thing I found interesting is there are no border crossings between the EU member countries. The Czech border gates were still all up, but they were unmanned, I would assume that it is due to the fact the Czech Republic only recently joined the EU, and haven't got them down yet. They also haven't switched to the Euro yet.

We then stopped for dinner at the Budwiser brewery, as Budwiser was originally a Czech beer. Anheiser Busch bought the rights to it, and then due to some poor trademark protection, the Czechs couldn't make their own beer, in the 90's they got it all worked out and were again allowed to brew their beer.

Then we were back on the bus for another two hours. We got to the teams hotel in Prague, this is where we were now going to leave them and head off to our hotel on the other side of town. I prefer ours however, as we are only 5 minutes from the rink and they are 30 - 45 depending on traffic.

On the road through Austria

This was the longer of the two slides. I took this picture as we were about 1/4 the way down. We were travelling at 20 mph (as they take a picture of you and put the speed on it).

Here is everyone sitting very close to each other on the "train"

Karen and I in our mining outfits, although some of the pictures made us look like Klan members.

Here is a picture of the healthy lunch stop we made.

This is a picture of Linderhof castle and the surrounding grounds. This is from one side (yes, another long walk to this point).

This is the castle from the other side, the small building at the furthest point in the picture is where I took picture 1 from. Lots of walking, but have to work off the food we have been eating somehow.

Well I have finally found some internet connection (sitting in the Arena in Prague) so it is time for some catching up.

We left Oberammergau fairly early on Sunday morning, which was okay, as just about everything is closed on Sunday anyway. We travelled for about 2 hours before stopping for a quick tour of Linderhof Castle. This castle was much smaller, but the lands around it were very nice. We didn't actually go inside this one, but spent about an hour walking through the grounds. Then it was back on the bus for another 2 hours when we stopped for lunch, we had the choice of McDonalds or Burger King , nice picks for training athletes, but ah well, with the amount of fried pork and bread everyone has been eating there is no turning back now. I figure the only way the Bavarian people aren't all 400 lbs is the amount of walking and bike riding that everyone does. Either that or the smoking keeps them thin. Apparently the hazards of smoking haven't been communicated to the Europeans, it is like I am travelling back to the 80's everywhere we go. Cigarette machines on the street, and smoking in every restaurant and hotel. You forget how bad it is until you are back in a cloud of smoke. We were then back on the bus for another 2 hours to get to Hallen Austria. Here we went for a trip into the salt mines (how Salzburg got it's name, as it was the money from the salt in the 7th century that brought most of the wealth to this area) deep in the mountain. We had to enter using the traditional method, which was a train (really it was a bench on wheels), and then to go down we took a slide (first a 27m, then a 42m slide). We were also in traditional mining outfits. It was quite interesting, although not for those who are claustrophobic.

After this we were off to our hotel in Hallen. A small place, but it was a place to sleep, and we were off early the next morning anyway.

Exhibition game number two down

Photo Credit goes to Beth. She had to work quite hard to get a picture that included both teams, me and the Fussen sign on the boards.

This is a bit of an action shot as play was working around the end zone.

Well we played the 2nd exhibition game between Canada East and Canada West. West played a much better game for this one, but East didn't play as well. It ended in a 5 - 5 tie which included 3 goals in the last minute of play, and 2 in the last 20 seconds. It was quite exciting. For those who don't believe I am actually reffing over here (Jenn ;o)), I have included some pictures from last nights game. We had to do a lot more skating, both because the West played better, but also when teams aren't making the passes we expect there is more stopping and starting, for the referees, which is much harder on us. Still feeling pretty good, although I am hoping that the Austrian's don't eat as much pork as the Germans, as I don't know my stomach can handle much more and still skate...

Today we check out from the hotel and are starting on two days of travel through Austria on our way to Prague. Will have to see what Internet access I have on the way. By late Monday night we should be arriving in Prague and preparing for the championships. I will also get to meet the officials from Finland at that time.

Saturday in Oberammergau

We have been doing most of our travelling with Team East, and they decided to cancel their morning practice on Saturday. So we have had some time to enjoy Oberammergau. It is a hot and sunny day today. So sitting outside in a cafe, just outside the Internet Cafe is very nice. I included some pictures I took on Thursday of our hotel and the view from the hotel balcony. I always thought those pictures and figurines of stereotypical German towns weren't real, but apparently they are. If you take what you would imagine a small German village would look like, you likely wouldn't be too far off. I think we there is talk of going mini-golfing with the team after lunch. I still have to find a long distance phone card, as I fear if I have to call from the hotel again, it is going to bankrupt me.

I did find out today that of all things to forget, I apparently left the battery charger for my camera at home. Which is odd, as I distinctly remember pulling it out, but I guess it didn't make it into the bag. I went to a local electronics store to see if they might by chance have a universal charger that would work for it, and he didn't have anything he could sell me, although he said he would charge it for me on his big charger in the store, and that should get me through for a couple of days. Hopefully I will have more luck finding something in Salsburg on Sunday.

Tonight is exhibition game number two between East and West. We shall see how things go tonight.

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.

The rest of the day in Munich

This is a picture of the opera house. It burnt down in the first year it was open in the 1800's but it was a good time to burn down, as all the builders, and architects were still alive, and could rebuild it exactly as it was.

This is a picture I took after climbing to the top of Alter Peter, the tallest chapel in Munich.

This is a picture of the Glockenspiel, everyday at 10:00 am and 5:00 pm the bells and music play for about 15 minutes, while the characters in the tower rotate.

These are one of the sets of enterance gates to the pedestrian area. An array of shops and sites to see.

Well, we had several hours on our own in Munich and as I was trying to stay awake for the day, I decided to go for a walk through the pedestrian walkways. I have included some of the pictures so you can get a feel for some of the architecture. Although some of these buildings look hundreds of years old, during world war II most of the Munich downtown was completely destroyed. After the war the government rebuilt some of the buildings to be as close to the original as possible. Others were done in a newer style, which has left a real blend of buildings throughout the downtown.

Tomorrow we are headed south to the small town of Fussen, where we will be practicing (as the arena is in Fussen, and off to Oberammeragau where our hotel is. Both are very small towns right on the border with Austria.

Catch up time, as I now have internet

Well for the past two days I have not had internet access. I checked in the room when we got to our hotel in Oberammeragau and didn't have any, finally got some time at the hotel this morning, to find the local Internet Cafe. The next couple of posts will be catching up on the past few days...