Germany

Liz and I just finished up a great week in Germany!  Here is a video I took of the training centre in Hamburg where we trained with some of the German national team athletes and coaches:

Outdoor courts with the Beach Center building behind where there were 8 indoor courts, a restaurant, showers, change rooms and a sauna!  All new!

Outdoor courts with the best sand!

Swimming pool and slide!

After training for a couple days in Hamburg, we got a ride north with two of the players Sarah and Katharina Thursday night to St.Peter-Ording where the German "Smart Tour" National stop was being hosted.  They was super helpful, dropping us off at our hotel and picking us up in the morning to take us to get our accreditation and to the site.  Friday was the day of the qualification, and because we were seeded last place, Liz and I had to play in the qualifier to get into the main draw.  Liz and I won three games straight to get into the main draw for Saturday.  Again Liz and I were seeded in last place in the main draw, so our first game was against the top seeded team.  We got to play on center court in front of lots of fans, so it was a lot of fun.  The tour is sponsored by Smart Car (hense the name of the tour), so our benches were seats in a smart car (pretty cool)!  Liz and I lost our first game, but went on to win 3 more against some strong German teams, meaning we made it to Sunday! (The tournament format was double elimination).  Sunday morning we had to play the last round in the losers bracket.  We were definitely feeling the strain of having to play 7 hard matches in the past 36 hours, and we lost to the team that ended up winning the tournament.  Overall we had a great tournament and played some great volleyball.  Right after our game on Sunday morning, we had to figure out how to get to Kristiansand, Norway, for our next tournament.  We had to be in Kristiansand by 1pm on the Monday for a meeting for the country quota (Kristiansand was a 5 hour drive north to the tip of Denmark, plus a 2.5 hour ferry ride across the North Sea to Norway).  We had arranged a ride to Kristiansand with one of the German players, but bad move on our behalf, we ended up beating her out of the tournament and she left early!  After lots of help from players and tournament organizers we found a train (5 actually) and a ferry to get us to Kristiansand.  We left the beach in St.Peter-Ording at 11am and got into Kristiansand at 1:30am.  It was definitely a long day, but we made it to Norway!!  Today we watched the country quota matches for Canada and Brazil, and practiced.  Tomorrow we start the qualification matches!  Here are some more photos of Liz and I in St. Peter-Ording:

In the Smart Cars!

After our game on centre court!

And here is a link to our full results from the weekend:

DVV Beachvolleyball

Kelowna->Calgary->Vancouver->Zurich->Hamburg

Liz and I finally made it to Hamburg after what felt like a week but was really only a day and a half.  I'll start from the beginning.  This past weekend, on Friday Liz and I drove out to Kelowna, BC from Calgary.  The drive through the mountains was breathtaking!  We played in the Centre of Gravity Tournament in Kelowna on Saturday and Sunday, taking first place and $3,000!  (Money to cover our flight home).  It was a short trip, and we had to leave right after the finals, unfortunately missing the presentation for the finalists.  But we had to a flight to catch Monday morning from Calgary, so Ray drove through the night to get us back to Calgary.  (Thanks Ray!)  After a couple hours of sleep at the Sewells we said bye to Canada for the next 4 weeks and boarded our plane to Hamburg, with stopovers in Vancouver and Zurich.  It feels like every flight I take, I get stuck surrounded by children.  There was a toddler sitting behind Liz and I on the plane, who was constantly screaming, or kicking the back of our seats.  Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep and my patience for traveling kids is at an all time low.  After arriving in Hamburg I soon found out that my luggage didn't.  Luckily enough I had packed some essentials in my carry on, and my luggage was delivered to our hotel that evening.

Wednesday (today) Liz and I had two practice sessions at the Hamburg beach training center with German athletes and coaches.  Training went well considering we had been in transit for the past 2 days.  The beach center that they have is a great setup! With 7 outdoor courts, and 8 indoor courts.  It's pretty new, and well maintained.  The sand is pretty deep and white and really soft (always a treat), they have an outdoor pool with a slide that Liz and I made good use of, and change rooms and showers and a cafe, it's perfect.  I wish Canada had something similar.  I will take some photos tomorrow to post.  Tomorrow we have another day of training here in Hamburg then afterwards we will get a ride with two of the German girls, Sarah and Katharina, to St.Peter-Ording where the German Tour event will be this weekend!