Travelling and Such

A long time ago (yesterday) in a land far far away (California), I set off on a journey to Germany for the under 20 women's world cup. Now you'll have to forgive me because I am using a strange computer with a set up very different from the one back home. The "y" is where the "z" is normally and vice versa. I have also discovered the fun extra characters that go on German keyboards. üöä€. Hopefully those show up and that didn't just spell something bad. In order to make room for these characters, they've moved some of the other keys. This is all my attempt to apologize for any grammar errors up front.

For your viewing pleasure, I'm including some pictures from the Amsterdam airport. This is where Veronica's trip and my trip converged. First is the obligatory photo of some oversize Dutch shoes. Second, I think I found heaven and it is in the Amsterdam airport.

It goes by the name Cafe Chocolat. Let's pause for a moment of silent contemplation of chocolate. Unfortunately, with the fitness test coming up, the chocolate shop will have to wait for another day. Don't think I won't remember where it is for the return flight though.

After a short little puddle jumpter flight from Amsterdam to Dusseldorf (this is probably where I should use those funny characters, but I'm not sure which one yet), I took Veronica on a lovely tour of the Dusseldorf airport. It seems they want you to actually pick up your luggage before exiting the secure area. Details, details! Finally someone took pity on the silly Americans and let us back in to get our stuff. That'll teach Veronica to wear shoes with heels when travelling with me!

Finally, we met up with our wonderfully patient driver to get to the hotel hear in Dusseldorf. They had a whole welcome station set up at the hotel for the tournament. We haven't quite worked out the function of this station, but the guy manning the table was kind enough to take our photo.

After that we quickly went and grabbed our bags of gear to try on for size. Fortunately the gear bags had wheels because there were a lot of goodies for us including training gear, polo shirts, shoes, uniforms, a backpack... Well, see for yourselves below. Until next time, sayonara!

Marlene