March 31: Bolzano and Vipiteno, Italy

It has been another full, fantastic day here in Europe!

I drove down to Italy early in the morning for the 9 a.m. game (it's normally a three hour drive); it was a difficult drive because it was snowing hard and I (and about a hundred other motorists) got stuck behind two snow plows. We've been told that they have had lower temperatures and more snow this March in the Bavarian area than they've had in the past 110 years.  So, there has been snow flying every time we've been driving in this area, including this morning. I'm not sure why they don't plow one lane at a time so that traffic can continue moving because we were all stuck behind them for about an hour.  Because of that delay, I missed almost all of the Explorers first game.  Even worse than that, our team lost the game: 5 - 1 to Mannheim. The second game was in a different arena, an outdoor arena up in the mountains, so the team got on the bus right after their first game to travel there (I followed in the rental car).  The outcome of that game was much better (the whole day got better and better and I had a super time); it was a nail-biter but they pulled off a 5 - 4 win.

After their two games, the team had an uncharacteristic but very welcome free evening.  This worked out perfectly for us because I was able to spend several hours with Matthias and Brad.  That's the first time we've said more than just a quick hello since getting to Europe so that was really wonderful.  It was a gorgeous day in northern Italy - sunny and 18 degrees Celsius - we were in such a beautiful area, too, with mountains, vineyards, castles, waterfalls - the scenery is breathtaking.  The boys loved the drive up the mountain to the outdoor arena and we stopped a few times for some photos. Since I can't load any of my photos here, I searched on YouTube for a video of the area; here is a link to one (if you feel like scanning through it to see what the area looks like):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlCV-F8vSxI.
I think the soundtrack is a local Bolzano group so you will hear some Italian music as well.  It has been a lot of fun listening to different languages (mostly German and Italian) on the radio while we drive.  They play a lot of current English songs as well; it's great having the music for the long drives.

It seems that everyone on the team is having a super time, except maybe Cameron (our goalie who has been sick with a stomach flu) but there is good news there - he is starting to feel better and ate a bit of food today and dressed for the games and did the warm-ups.  He might be able to play tomorrow; we're not sure yet but he will soon be back in net which is great.  The team has only one game tomorrow - the 3rd/4th place game in the Igor Loro Cup. The two teams they lost to will be playing in the gold medal game (Austrian Selects and Mannheim). I'll be driving to Frankfurt to pick up Katarina so I won't be going to our game but I am really hoping they can get the win and end this tournament with a bronze medal (not a bad follow-up to the gold medal win in the Vipiteno tournament).

Katarina is having a fabulous time in Frankfurt and will tell you about it (and post some pictures from her time there) in the next day or two.

Happy Easter, everyone!