Thanks to everyone

I wanted to put up a final post saying thank you to everyone who made this trip possible for me. My family for giving me the time away from my committment to them, I know it was a lot for me to be gone for almost two weeks and I appreciate the sacrifice that they made, to work for allowing me the time off, Ringette Canada for the opportunity to go to this great event and represent not only them, but all of my fellow officials in Canada, our officiating team in Prague of Karen, Risto, Merja and Leslie, the members of the IRF who made the event happen, everyone at Challenger Hockey in Prague who were responsible for all of our travels in Europe, meals and the running of the event itself. The teams, who provided some great games during the event, and everyone else who made this trip possible.

It was truly something I will remember for the rest of my life. I hope to have other opportunities in the coming years in my officiating career, however if I don't, this is a great highlight in officiating for me.

If you would like to see more pictures, in the next couple of days I will load them onto facebook at www.facebook.com/rdrury

Not quite as planned

This was the view of Wurzburg from the pedistrian walking bridge over the river.

A view of the local castle up on the hill from the pedistrian walking bridge

This was a picture of Merja and I at the start of the Bronze medal game on Saturday.

We left Prague at about 5:30 on Saturday, destined for Wurzburg where we would spend the night. We made a stop at the Czech/Germany border at about 7:00 for dinner (McDonalds), the players were happy with this, as many of them haven't eaten this for 7 months since they started training for the event, but it wasn't really high on my list of places I wanted to eat. I got one of their salads which wasn't too bad. We were then back on the road, and got to Wurzburg at about 10:00 pm. We checked in, and then I went for a walk around the town to see what there was to see. This was another very nice, German city. The population is about 140,000 but it has a very small feel to it, although the main street we were on was quite busy with pedistrian traffic on Saturday night. The main street, seemed to be a newer shopping district that had a lot of small shops, and a few blocks over there were older churchs and buildings with impressive archatechture. I was pretty tired from the trip so went back to the hotel and went to bed.

The next morning I was up at 6:30, and couldn't get back to sleep (likely anticipation of finally getting to see my family again) and the bus wasn't leaving until 10:30 so I got up, made sure everything was packed, and went for a walk again. There was a light rain falling, but it wasn't too bad. I went back to the hotel at about 7:30 and had breakfast, and then was out walking again around 8:30. I did take some pictures (as I figured it is easier to take too many and delete over deciding after I get home, I really wish I had a picture of XYZ). Then it was back to the hotel to check out at about 10:00 and get ready to load on the bus. There was another 1 1/2 hours to get to the Frankfurt airport and we should be there around noon for our 2:40 flight.

We got to the airport just as we expected, but started to run into problems right away. The tour operator in Canada didn't let them know that our group (with all our excess baggage) was going to be there. This took quite a while to get sorted around, and eventually the coach for Canada East ended up just picking up the tab for the excess baggage and he will sort it out later with the tour operator. However the problems were far from over. Karen (the other Canadian ref) and Beth apparently didn't have tickets for the flight. They had booked their own flight to Germany as they wanted to go to France first, and it would appear their return flight didn't get booked. They are number 4 & 5 on the standby list for the flight (they had to pay and will get their money back) they will have to wait and see if they get on.

We went to see if there was anything to eat, after walking around for a little while, I didn't see much so decided on a sandwich. The Frankfurt airport reminds me a lot of Pearson, both in appearance and lack of decent quick food. Now it was time to clear security, and there were no problems with that, so it was off to the gate.

About 20 minutes before our scheduled boarding time, Karen and Beth got to the gate, apparently they did manage to get on this flight, a good thing too, as this flight was $350 Euros each, if they had to take the 5:00 Air Canada flight it was going to be $3500 Euros each (both are one way prices). We then had an announcement that the flight was going to be 15 minutes delayed due to the plane we are using was late arriving. Not ideal, but not the end of the world.

We loaded onto the plane, and waited for a bit. The pilot then came on and said we had some technical issues, and need to replace a part on the plane, it would be about an hour to get the part and have it installed. Now it was getting tight on whether I was going to be able to see the kids before they went to bed tonight, so was starting to get concerned, but would rather they find the faulty parts on the ground, as opposed to after we take off...

After an hour, the pilot came on again and said there was no sign of the part, so we might as well deplane and wait in the terminal. Great, now I definately won't see the kids before they go to bed. So I get off the plane, and make a call home from a payphone, Sharron was disappointed, but knows there is nothing I can do about it.

At about 5:00 German time we were back on the plane and ready to go. We should be landing at about 8:00 in Toronto, and if all goes well I will be home around 10:00 (which would be nice as I need to be at work in the morning). The flight was fairly uneventful, I found our flight path interesting, as we flew up over the southern portion of Greenland and then down through northern Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec and Ontario, I guess this is the best path to avoid flying directly into the winds of the jetstream. At about 7:45 we started circling northeast of Toronto. After a little while, the pilot came on and said there were thunderstorms north of Toronto, and we were going to try an approach from the south, so we circled south over Rochester and tried to get into the airport. This is when the pilot came on again and said, the storms were now fully over Pearson and the airport was closed. We are going to have to head to Hamilton. I thought this should be interesting as Hamilton is quite small, and I would be interested to see if they have the capacity to handle an international flight with this number of people. We ended up having to go well west of Hamilton (looked like half way to London) and circle back to get the right approach, and it was still very distrubing, as we were coming down there was lightning all around us.

Once on the ground we waiting for information, and waited and waited. After about an hour, the pilot said that we were waiting for our turn to deal with the ground crews as there were a large number of Toronto flights that had been rerouted to Hamilton. After about 3 hours the pilot told us that Hamilton doesn't have the ability to process everyone (I picture 2 border guards trying to process 30 international flights of a couple hundred people each), so we were going to fly back to Toronto once the weather cleared and we got a flight plan. After another hour of waiting (now at 4 hours) the pilot came on and said that although the weather is now clearing, he and the co pilot have reached their maximum flying time allowed, and we were going to need to get a new flight crew before we can continue on for safety reasons. Thankfully, there was a flight that just came in from Cancun to Hamilton whose pilots haven't reached their maximum time yet, and we could just steal them. This is a much better option than having to fly someone in.

After sitting on the runway in Hamilton for 5 hours on a very hot plane (the air conditioner doesn't work very well when you aren't moving) we were off again. Our flight plan was for an 18 minute flight at a crusing altitude of 6000'. After waiting for so long, I guess I was hoping for something more than that. But oh well at least we will get home.

We landed at about 1:40 am, and got through customs without too many problems (other than the guard asking me why Canada didn't win gold, as if it was my fault, apparently some of the players had already been through), and all the bags made it safely. Now it was time for the drive home, should I be concerned that I am now making a 70 km drive after being up for the last 27 hours? I felt okay, so it was off to the parking lot and heading home. There were a couple of points that I felt like my head was getting heavy, but the drive was uneventful. I got home shortly before 4:00am.

I hoped to be able to sleep in, but for some reason I was awake at 7:00 am. I guess my body is still on German time and thinks it is 1:00 pm.

Gold and Bronze Game

Well this morning was the bronze game. It was a very hard fought battle, both teams brought everything they had. Generally I had an okay game in my opinion, although a couple of times I found myself overthinking again, and had to pull myself back into it. Finland Blue ended up taking the Bronze by 1 goal (I think it was 3 - 2). The gold game just finished, Finland White came from behind to win 6 - 4. There was a flury of goals in about a 7 minute span and it was back and forth, but then Finland scored 3 in a row to go up for good. Canada East took home the silver.

Overall it was a very enjoyable 12 days, and I am looking forward to getting back home to see my family. So off to Wurzburg tonight, and then on to Frankfurt in the morning. Hope to be back on Canadian soil in the early evening tomorrow.

Can only worry about what is in my power

Here is a picture of our officiating team before the semis, Karen, Me, Merja, Risto and our Director of Officials Leslie.

Well this week I felt I had did some of the best officiating in my career. There were a couple of off points but, on a whole, I felt really good for the entire week. Now it comes down to the games that are assigned for Saturday. The down side, Karen (the other Canada ref) and I haven't reffed together at all during the week. I believe it was set up that there would always be a Finnish ref and and Canadian ref on each game. When it comes to the finals, this means there is only one spot available for Karen and I. She had a good week too, so would just have to wait and see. After the semis on Friday we had our nightly meeting and found out that Karen and Risto would be doing the gold game and Merja and I would be doing the bronze. I was disappointed as I felt I did everything I could, but at the same time that doesn't take away from what Karen and Risto did, so I can't worry too much about it. I think I had a very good week, and heard as much from most of the coaches, so I am happy overall with my performance. There will be other gold games and other opportunities for me.

It is off to bed after a lengthy late phone call from home.

Friday in Prague, and Semi Finals

Changing of the guard at Prague Castle.

More pictures of the church in the middle of Prague Castle that was 600 years in the making.

More pictures of the church in the middle of Prague Castle that was 600 years in the making.

More pictures of the church in the middle of Prague Castle that was 600 years in the making.

This is me standing in front of a church in Prague Castle. It took almost 600 years to build. One of the people I was with made the comment "and I thought my DIY projects were bad"

Here is a picture of Charles' bridge, One of the few solely pedistrian walking areas in the city. I believe it was about 600 years old, built in the 1300's.

This is a picture of one of the old buildings in Prague that houses the current governement.

The semi finals didn't start until the afternoon on Friday, so we decided to go see downtown Prague. It is a very different city, as there seems to be quite divided, not just the old town and new town, but also the areas that the government has been working hard to clean up and make a tourist destination, but on the way to that area, there are certainly signs of the years of tough times that the country saw. It appears although the government is working to change that, as there is a lot of construction going on, but there are certianly still signs of the hard times of the 80's and 90's.

We went to see Prague Castle (although not a castle in the true sense, more of a town that was used for royalty), we saw the old town, Charles Bridge, the new town, the lesser town, all quite interesting.

It was then time for the semi finals. With only 2 games today it meant we each took 1 game. Risto and I had the late game between Canada East and Canada West. He wasn't too happy with this, but I was, as I figured they were going to play hard and fast and put it all on the line. That was exactly what happened. Good hard fast game that Canada East ended up winning 4 - 0. Finland White won the other semi 5 - 0 although there was no intensity to that game, so I was happy I had the semi I did. This sets up Canada East vs. Finland White in the gold game and Canada West vs Finland Blue for the Bronze.

Picture's From Wednesday night at the Hotel Praha

Got a new camera before our trip to Florida, and it had a fireworks setting, so had to try it out during the fireworks show Wednesday night.

Another fireworks shot, this one the timing was better, it is tough with fireworks to figure out when to take the picture.

Here was a picture of the buffet and some of the view of Prague that we had during the party.

Not what I expected

Well this is why I don't bet on sports. My predictions from yesterday were wrong. The morning games went pretty much as expected. I didn't feel as comfortable on my game between Finland White and Canada West as I have the rest of the week. I think I was thinking about the feedback I have been getting all week, and any time I think on the ice it is a bad thing ;o). The afternoon game between Finland Blue and Finland White I felt more comfortable, but the game wasn't what I expected. Finland Blue ended up winning 6 - 5 in the last minute of the game. This means that the semis tomorrow are going to be Finland Blue vs Finland White, and Canada East vs Canada West. This also means that the final will definately be Canada vs Finland on Saturday.

After the games it was back to the hotel for our meeting and then dinner. Followed by the nightly phone call back home. The kids are really missing me, which is quite hard. Belle said yesterday that I have never left for more than a week ever before, so she definaltely knows exactly how long I have been gone.

Tomorrow (Friday) we are going to go see downtown Prague and Prague castle as there are no games until the afternoon. Hopefully I will be able to pick up the last of the stuff for the kids as well.