First Gold for the girls

What a weekend! Saturday morning started with the bobsledding girls and Canada 1 won the Gold medal!. All three sleds came in the Top 10.
After Lunch started the Men's 2-man race: Bobsledding does not have too many fans, but the ones who are there, are crazy! Dutch fans in orange overalls, a group of drummers from who knows where and even a group of Germans who have been supporting Canada 1 since 1995. They came with flags, Canadian jackets and an old fire sirene...... The race was close and exciting, especially for me since the organizers realized 10 minutes before start of heat 2 men's, that our "gold girl" had taken home the giant beer glass. But that glass was needed for the winner in the men's competition.
In good German tradition the winning sled receives a huge mug full of beer right after the race. They shuttled the girls to the press conference with that mug and then they took the girls and the mug to the hotel. But it wasn't a mug to keep..just to drink...Anyways, the race organizers found me, I found the girls and then the glass...Everybody was happy, except Canada 1...They had wanted to keep that mug!
...oh...and the Canadian men sleds came in 5th and 12th ....or something..

First World Cup race..

Today was my first World Cup day with Skeleton! The coach gave me a cool job: I was standing in the finish area and helped our athletes get off the track! That is where all the excitement is: finishing times, announcements, TV crews....all the other coaches and "little helpers" like me. After the women's race I was riding up to the starthouse in the same van as all the athletes! It could be sooooo much fun, if I wasn't feeling REALLY old between all these young people. I am just kidding, but I am somewhat of an outsider here: everybody knows everybody and sometimes even their grandfathers already "skeletoned" or bobsled together. I am not kidding! True story!! But in general all "these old guys" are nice and friendly and as they told me, the best way to make friends will be to bring them coffee or Gluehwein to the track!! Yeah right, I don't need friends here..., Everybody speaks German anywways....no matter which nation they are coaching, they are Swiss, Austrian, Germans....maybe some Americans.
Oh I am just listening to the German national anthem here at the hotel....I guess I missed the awards ceremonies..Oh well, the Canadian girls had the Bronze medal. No medal for the boys, but good results!
My camera quit working, probably due to the cold.So, no pictures from today. I will try and get everything working for the excitement tomorrow: Bobsleigh World Cup! I don't have a "real" job there , so I will just use my cool "access to everywhere" pass and watch the race!

Winter in Winterberg

I haven't seen this much snow in years!!

It is winter in Germany! The drive to Winterberg has been somewhat challenging and I have been back to Frankfurt twice already for "late arrivals".

It is my first time here and it seems to be "the" winter destination for the Dutch...Or as the lady at the hotel called it: the highest mountan of the Netherlands. The hotel and restaurant signs, advertising etc. all in dutch.

The lady in the car and other technicalities...

My nice french rental car has a lady included: her name is Irene and she is telling me where to go...In all fairness I have to admit that I would not use her services, had my friend in Nuremberg not "forced" me. V. read the manual, gave me the short version and since then Irene and I are driving together: from Nuremberg to Cologne to Winterberg to Frankfurt and back to Winterberg. Irene's voice is somewhat annoying and she seems confused when I do not follow her instructions. Every now and then I tell her to shut up and drive where I want. Irene is then silent for a few seconds, but recovers quickly to tell me the "new route".
Another favourite technical toy is giving more problems: my beautiful Blackberry World Edition has not found the German network yet....I tried fixing it by my usual procedures: remove battery, shake Sim card, gently tap it or throw it against the wall. Nothing helped and I am back to good old German cell phone.
And now here at the hotel: it has wireless internet, but I guess not for 30 crazy internet addicted Canadians at the same time...So uploading pictures takes f o r e v e r........I will try again later, when evreybody else is at the bar ..or tomorrow when they are supposed to be at training!

Almost like Christmas..

Today felt like an early Christmas to everybody: We are at the adidas headquarters in Herzogenaurach/Germany and received our equipment. Everbody has now an additional hockeybag "full of stuff".....winterjackets, shoes, gloves, T-Shirts, pants, socks....just everything!
Adidas was great to us: we were invited into the heart of the operations and saw the walk of fame: memorabilia from Muhammad Ali, Jesse Owens and everybody else famous who has played and won in their shoes. We were treated to lunch at their facilities and then, believe it or not: the team decided to go to the outlet store to buy more stuff! We received great deals, but still: remember what I said before on how much stuff these girls are already traveling with???
I cannot wait to be at the airline check in counter, two days before Christmas with all this extra luggage.
As you probably guessed by now: we are in Germany. Travel went well, no issues, even the bobsleigh girl who couldn't find her passport at the immigration in Frankfurt, made it into the country. Now we have a few more days of relaxation and next week the World Cup tour will officially start.

Old Track

The last two days I have been busy with little issues of my bobsledders and spent too much time in front of the computer, but today I joined my "favourite skeletonians" for their training runs again.

The weather was nice and warm and the track in bad shape, so the group decided to cancel the runs and instead walk down the old ice track. Very interesting!!

The old track was built in the 1930s and still used until 1997. Even an absolute no-nothing about the sport like me could see how tough this track must have been on the riders. Our coach was sliding this track in World Cup races and pointed out specific insider information during our walk down.....I mean: he pointed out dried blod spots, broken side panels etc. and had "interesting" stories about bad accidents at the track.

So, my new job is not only fun and interesting, but also educating....even though today was not necessarily an advertising event for the sport of skeleton. Supposedly there exists a video about the runs on this track...can' wait to see it!! Probably bloodier than the last Rambo....

Lake Placid

Yesterday late afternoon I went for a little window shopping in "downtown Lake Placid".

Nice little tourist town for rich white people....The foto is main street Lake Placid and that pretty much is all of Lake Placid!! The rest is surrounding hills, lakes, neat little white houses with green trims, more trees.....and the Olympic facilities. Everything spread out throughout the country side.

Since I went out late afternoon, the moon came up and it looked just stunning over Mirror Lake...I wonder why that lake is called that?!.....But remember: if you all watched the movie: this is where the "monster/old alligator" is living.........

Adirondacks..

Today I had to drive back to Montreal to the airport for a separate pick up.

This gave me the opportunity to drive through this beautiful vacation country at daylight. I was planning to stop at some "points of interest" like the High Falls Gorge and do some walking and sight seeing. Unlike Canada in the USA these natural walks are fenced in and they charge admisson for the permission to walk the walk. I would have paid the fee, but even though my guide had read "open year round" and not "open year round except November" it was closed!

I still did some looking around and walking and I felt totally safe since I was in a "special no kill area"......

US Training centre

ok....hard to believe, but I am actually staying at the US Olympic Training Centre. I am not quite sure how I made it here, but I am in!!!

That I am feeling really old and un-athletic between all these "trained and healthy " young people is beside the point.

Staying here is definitely interesting: these Americans are so proud of their training center that they have their signature everywhere: even the toilet paper holders have the olympic rings and a proud USA signage. With the elections just gone, I cannot stop thinking "We can do it, Yes we can!!" every time I use the washroom.

Luggage and group travel....

When I travel, I usually have less check-in luggage then some people have for their carry-ons. Now I meet about 16 bobsledders ( all good: they are shipping their equipment..) and 16 skeletonians, who are not shipping their equipment for check-in at the airport:
They all had each: 1 sled (these things are heavy), 1 runner tube (looks like a gun case and holds the extra runners) and then their personal luggage...Let's just say: when I moved last year, I had less than some of these girls are taking on a trip!
West jet was great to us and we all made it onto the plane . I felt a little exhausted by the time I reached my seat and with the extra weight charges I could have paid for another nice vacation. I guess that is all part of the job.
The rest of the day went by pretty quick and uneventful: flight to Montreal, pick drivers and get them their rental cars and then everybody headed off to Lake Placid.
"Nice" as Canadians are with "us foreigners", the German coach and I got a separate car, because nobody wanted to spend the extra time at the border for our visa procedures: filling out forms, getting finger printed, pictures taken....But oh well: we went through all of it, paid our $6 each admission fee and entered the U S of A...

Two weeks in Calgary

These days in Calgary went by pretty quickly!

Weather was still great, so I had some more fun time with the motorbike...except the evening when I dropped it off at its winter location in Calgary SE. Driving on Deeerfoot Trail at rush hour traffic when it is dark and starting to snow....Not so good!

Some other evenings were spent with the blue truck...It is soooooo much fun to pick up and drop off trailers, sitting in the big truck, music blasting and drinking Tim Horton's green tea "black".

I met some of you for coffee, lunch or dinner and it always felt like time was too short for all the stories.