Day 4 - Wednesday 4th August, 2010

European Day

8:15am: We had an early start to European Day meeting at 8:15am to walk to catch the bus for our sightseeing tour to Cologne. Participants were feeling the effects of the competitive 5 aside tournament from the previous day. However the beautiful sight of lovely Stephantje welcoming them to the day soon made smiles appear on the participants faces.

8:30am: Staff and participants gave a warm welcome to a very pleased John Gemming (after a fantastic New Zealand win against the Netherlands, John gave sincere sympathy to Gabby and Mark) and Kathy Mehonoshen. European participants began decorating the bus with European flags and scarves. The flags represented Wales, England, Scotland, Bulgaria, Sweden, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic and Holland. Lorna from Scotland and Rachel from England brought in music to represent their country to entertain us on our journey. The participants were informed on the bus that there would a surprise first stop visit to a mine in Hambach. We were all getting our boiler suits together, however we were disappointed when we were told that they were not needed.

9:20am: After Stephantje locked us on the bus for 40 MINUTES, the only option was to tuck into the reserves. The European participants came to the rescue with sufficient sugar in all forms. First of all we were in desperate need of sweets. Mateusz and Lukasz brought out a huge bag of Polish sweets to indulge in. Mark also provided us with delicious windmill chocolates from Holland. Also Martin gave us some Czech wafers. After all of this munching we became thirsty. Gavin from Scotland came to the rescue with some Scottish tablet fudge and Irn Bru. To demand being let off the bus we used our umpiring skills with the whistles provided by Mark from Holland.

10:00am: The superb whistling skills, particularly from Daniel, who became the European Mascot in his English wig, meant Stephantje had no choice to let us off the bus. The mine tour started with a powerpoint, which triggered Jamie´s first giggling fit of many. This meant his immediate departure and yellow card from mascot Daniel. Before we could depart on the bus we had to get take care of the Hornet. This led to Jamie´s laughter soon turning into tears. The dinosaurs, Giraffe and Wall E were nowhere to be seen. We feared the worst. They surely must have broken into the bus to steal our fantastic European snacks! But despite it we all stopped to view the mine from a distance, showing the mine our superb dancing moves with the YMCA (Jamie, Gavin, Rachel and Anna). Nicole wondered if we would come out of the mine alive after a bumpy journey. However she was reassured that she would survive. After an enjoyable 2 hours at the mine, we found the bus well locked and embarked on our adventure to Cologne.

12:30: Left the mine and headed to the Cologne Central Station. We sat on the bus in amazement at the spectacular Cathedral. We knew that a spectacular photo was inevitable. After we piled all 20 cameras on Claudia, Ben took a shot with everyone of them. Claudia showed us her amazing juggling skills and put the statues to shame with the crowds that gathered. After such amazement we needed a quick lunch before our tour. Rachel obviously had far too much energy in her lunch and showed that England and Scotland can be very close (Scotland still does not fully agree with this). The group unfortunately had to be split for the sightseeing tour. Rebecca couldn’t believe her luck of being stuck with Jamie and his giggles further in the journey. The tour involved us viewing the Cathedral, the City Hall, Josef Frings memorial, Jamie´s giggles and many more fascinating historical moments of Cologne. The ultimate laughter began with everyone at the Cross eyed River. I don´t think we need to say who started the giggles, but it begins with a J.

15:30: Gavin was kind enough to give the participants a rest from Jamie, for him to use his energy up the 500 steps to the top of the Cathedral. (Just remember it is 1000 steps there and back, as Jamie proceeded to tell Rebecca 100 times). The rest of the participants indulged in some retail therapy in the wonderful range of shops in Cologne. So the question was how would we possibly find each other? There was only one answer .........

17:30: The answer was revealed. Daniel and his whistle. This brought us all together. We ventured back onto the bus for our trip to Stephanje´s hockey club for a barbecue in the bright, wonderful … rain. When we arrived our day got even better when awaiting us was Anne Ellis. Anne had obviously been working hard, ensuring the chef had the food ready for our arrival. Food was delicious. Jamie´s laughter caught onto the whole group, with laughter soon filling the whole hockey club. Even on the bus, no matter how tired we were, the laughter continued. How we had room in our stomachs to finish the last remaining European treats is beyond question, but we successfully did it! It was a brilliant end to a thoroughly enjoyable day.