We are home

We are home and everyone had a great time! Once we are finished unpacking, we will upload photos from the last day and plane ride home.

Ski Day!

We dropped off the kids and some parents at the ski rentals....from there some parents hopped on a bus and traveled from the one hill to the second hill that allowed us to go over 3,000m!

We start with the first gondola ride and get all 14 of us in the capsule.

The ride climbs rather quickly out of the fog.

It gets brighter and higher as we go...

The first stop and...

the first break.

A huge expanse of mountains and snow.

The mountains are simply beautiful

This group ventured out to check out an igloo with ice chairs, tables and a 'closed' sign.

The skiers had a lack of regard for pedestrians.

tttthhhhheeeee gggguuuuiiiiiddddeeee at minus 10 degrees.

We took another two rides to get even higher.

The final landing spot and we are over 3,000m above sea level.
That translates in to close to 35,000 ft - or something like that.

Some dinner back at the hotel and an early curfew as
 we have our last hockey game tomorrow.

Salzburg...Ask me anything about "The Sound of Music"

We woke on Monday morning and headed down for breakfast...to fill up on some calories before heading to Salzburg. (It seems we are seeing less and less goulash and soup as we head south and west.)

As we travel closer to Salzburg, the mountains are starting to show their heads. The temperature is above seasonal and around 7 or 8 degrees Celsius and without much snow on the ground at all.

Downtown Salzburg, looking up to one of the most fortified location in the world -b uilt in 1300's.

Typical street in Salzburg.

Everything to know about Vienna

This is from Wikipedia in case anyone wants to know about Vienna....wait, the first paragraph is what we were given...

Vienna ( /viːˈɛnə/; German: Wien [viːn]; Viennese German: Wean) is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million^[3] (2.4 million within themetropolitan area,^[2] more than 25% of Austria's population), and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural,economic, and political centre. It is the 9th-largest city by population in the European Union. Vienna is host to many majorinternational organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city lies in the east of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants, and this region is referred to as Twin City.^{[citation needed]} In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.^[4]

Vienna is often said to be "The City of Dreams" because it was home to one of the world's greatest interpreters of dreams, Professor Sigmund Freud.^[5] Its roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroquecity, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city is well known for playing an essential role as a leading European Music Centre, from the great age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The Historic centre of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque castles and gardens, as well as the late-19th-century Ringstrasse lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks.^[6]

In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first (in a tie with Vancouver, Canada) forquality of life (in the 2011 survey of 140 cities Vienna was ranked number two, behind Melbourne).^[7][8][9] For three consecutive years (2009-2011), the human-resource-consulting firm Mercer ranked Vienna first in its annual "Quality of Living" survey of hundreds of cities around the world.^[10][11][12] Monocle's 2011 "Quality of Life survey" ranked Vienna sixth on a list of "the top 25 cities in the world to call home" (up from eighth in 2010).^[13][14][15]

Analytically, the city was ranked 1st globally for a culture of innovation in 2007 and 2008, and 2nd globally after Boston in 2009 from 256 cities on an analysis of 162 indicators in the Innovation Cities Index on a 3-factor score covering culture, infrastructure and markets.^[16] As a city, Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is often used as a case study by urban planners.^[17]

In each single year since 2005 so far, Vienna has been the world's number one destination of international congresses and conventions,^[18] thus contributing to attracting at about five million tourists a year^[19] which makes up a record of roughly three tourists per city inhabitant.

Here is an old building in Vienna

Here we are trying to figure out what we are going to do....

Here is another old building (aren't sure what it is or why it is there, but it is cool)

Here is the summer palace.

Here are the boys in front of a really cool monument (again, no idea what it is)

Here is a window at the winter palace

We had a "surprise" dinner at Centimeter Restaurant

Happy Birthday Eric!

January 1st, 2012...don't singe your hair....

Fireworks, Fireworks and more Fireworks....but first, we ate...

We sat down at PizzeriaII Costello before midnight

It was 3 more hours until Eric Cassibo turned 17....

A beautiful Centre of Town in Olomouc

An absolutely beautiful Christmas tree was found downtown.

As time got closer to 12 midnight, individuals started to set off their own fireworks with little accuracy or care for the surroundings. Then at the strike of midnight, the Town erupted.....

The fireworks were absolutely amazing!

The light show was over the top.

After the fireworks were completed and we were accounted for, we headed over to an establishment for a celebratory drink for Eric. Happy New Year and Happy Birthday!

December 30th - 350km to Olomouc and a tournament

It looked like traveling around our neck of the woods.

We left the hotel and traveled 350km to Olomouc for a hockey tournament. 

We got some snow....less than 1cm, but we got some snow!

We brought our Canadian Flag and 17 kids to come and play some hockey.

They were an extremely quick team that moved the puck well across a large ice surface.

We got some goals, however not enough to win.

The boys after the game having some lunch - goulash, goulash and more goulash.

The player of the game.

We are still learning the differences of a large ice surface as well as different rules when it comes to hooking, interference as well as sending a puck over the boards is an automatic 2 minute penalty.

December 31st, 2011...last day of the year....

Hesperia Hotel in beautiful Olomouc.

We woke up and had a great buffet breakfast at Hesperia Hotel in Olomomouc. The food was great with some real meats like bacon & sausage and other staples that our digestive system was able to recognize.


We had a team meeting to discuss strategy and outline what we were going to do in Boskovice. 

Team strategy meeting.

We boarded the bus and 'the best bus driver, Rolly' was at the helm for the the trip to Boskovice. Milan and Darcy are great tour guides, however we felt having Mike Schenk provide his own personal insight on the trip would help speed the 61km to Boskovice.

Mike Schenk providing insight into our travels.

As we traveled down the roads past the many farm fields, we learned interesting tid bits on winter wheat, alfalfa, turnips as well as why the root stocks are able to be exposed in this more temperate climate than the clay soils of Napanee and area.

It could be turnips, winter wheat or some other stuff growing out there....
we really weren't listening.....

The beautiful rink was a great venue.

We had a great time in Boskovice and the parents were just awesome. Many provided homemade beverages in the stands to warm our hearts. They even brought in Miss Prague to watch the game (as well as some Senator, but no one really paid much attention to him).

Napanee MidgetAEs warming up before the game.

We won the game and traded jerseys as well as had a shoot out with our new friends.

Greg keeping the game in check (or is that Czech...)