Thursday, July 19, 2007

Still in Augsburg

An early morning half run session this morning at the course with a cool breeze to relieve some of the intense heat. Everyone enjoying the fresh and clean Germany compared to the Czech conditions, although the costs are higher.
Augsburg is a lovely small city and I have enjoyed wandering around and now with this being my second trip I feel as though I am getting to know my way around quite well.
With the heat the team not so into sightseeing, and are very keen to relax and watch DVDs at the apartment in between training sessions. I did manage to get a few of them to the Fuggerei which is what this area is pretty well known for. It is the oldest known social settlement in the world, dating back to 1500s when a wealthy German, Joseph Fugger built a small walled city´compound to house those who had fallen on hard times. There are over 150 people living there today and they pay less than 1 Euro per annum for rent. Gorgeous old brick buildings dripping in ivy made it worth a quick wander through.
The summer window boxes of brightly coloured geraniums, and huge potted colour everywhere contast with the cobbled alleys and old buildings really make Augsburg picture postcard material.
Tonight we are meeting Luuka and Katherine, the German exchange student who all the kayakers know, plus the Scottish junior team in the platz in front of the town hall and will absorb the atmosphere with dinner at an outdoor cafe.
After an early training session of full runs we will head back to Czech and move into the hotel in Roudnice for the business end of the trip. There is a famous castle this side of Prague so hopefully we have time to detour for a look. Internet is not as convenient in Roudnice as we need to use the hotel recpetion computer, so the emails and blog reports may slow up.
Hope all is well in NZ.
For those who might be interested, Sunday night TV3 at 8.50pm there is a TV programme that will feature Ella, so hopefully that is a good promo for canoe slalom.
Cheers
sue

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi All, well we were outclassed by the Aussies in Netball last nite !
A bit of a worry ! Pleased all is going well. Good luck to all of you .Cheers Lou and gary

Anonymous said...

Will certainly watch Ella on TV
on Sunday, Im sure she will be
more enjoyable to watch than the
netball last night, heres hoping for a good result in the Rugby on
Saturday.
Good luck everyone for the race
ahead, looking forward to results.
Noel and Angela

Anonymous said...

Hey all sounds lovely and you have definitely ignited a passion to go back to Europe and see more of it...
Have passed on to the whanau about Ella and have written myself a note and stuck it under the TV so I won't forget...
Yes bugger about the netball but only managed to see last quarter, I'm interested in the comments coz the commentators said we were goal 4 goal in Q2,& 3 and won 4 so looks like we lost it only in the 1st!
The world bup will be hotly contested..
Can't wait til you lot start racing..thinking of you all especially Elles big love from Auntie Caro...

Anonymous said...

Hi, don;t agree with the comments on the netball, we lost the first quarter by 7 and never made it up They put Joanne Henry on after 1st quarter and the game changed heres hoping for Melbourne. We are off to Dargy this week-end,Helen and Malc are giving us a lift as they have parents celebration in Whangarei, they get TV3 which is more than we do. so will be able to watch Ella. Had email from Hannah who caught up with Bryden while in Dunedin alls well. Everything sounds great, did u escape the D & V. Good luck to all
Luv xxxxx