May 10, 2000

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The Lady Seminole volleyball team left for a two-week road trip on Monday but not just a road trip, a plane, train and automobile trip is more like it! Head Coach Cecile Reynaud and the Lady Seminoles will tour Germany, Denmark and the Czech Republic and will play teams from those three countries as well as Sweden and Ireland.

For the next two weeks, the Coach Reynaud and the volleyball players will provide day-by-day accounts of the events both on and off the volleyball court. The following is their first two days, mostly over the Atlantic Ocean, and their first account with a different world:

We arrived at the Tallahassee airport at 4:00pm and checked in for our 5:35pm flight. We got to Atlanta at 7:00pm and immediately proceeded to the International Terminal where we met our guide for the next two weeks, Rachel Maxwell. She and her sister run Global Outreach, Inc. and set up team tours in Europe. We boarded the flight at 7:50pm and were off for a nine hour flight. After about an hour, dinner was served with a choice of steak or lasagna and the in-flight movie, Anna and the King, was started. Most of the team was asleep before the movie even started. As we were traveling East, the run came up in a few hours and we arrived in Frankfurt after breakfast in the plane. We boarded our charter bus after having no problem retrieving ALL of our baggage and met our newest guide, Eric Hallan, who will be with us through Germany.

Eric guided the bus through our three hour drive to Rothburg, Germany, a village surrounded by an ancient wall. We checked into our hotel and all proceed to the bank for the money exchange. Since the area is very small, we broke up into groups for lunch and walk around the town. Each group ordered their different tastes for lunch, one group ordered white asparagus soup, cheese sandwiches and sauerkraut and sausages and another table orders pot roast! After a brief walk, shower and a short nap, we meet as a team for dinner at 7:00pm. Dinner consists of everyone ordering a variety of food: sausages, jagerschnitzel (breaded pork with mushroom sauce), salads, french fries, boiled potatoes, steaks, fish and even a few deserts!

We got back to the hotel about 9:00pm for an early night to bed. Tomorrow morning we'll have a light workout at 8:00am, including running, stretching, and cone exercises, followed by breakfast. We'll check out of the Hotel Baron at 11:00am, eat lunch, and board the bus at 2:00pm for the two hour drive to Munich!

Day one has been quite exciting for the team as they learn how many Deutsche Marks are in a dollar and see how the other side of the world lives. Of course, we are not over here fifteen minutes before we see a couple wearing Seminole shirts. We stopped and introduced ourselves and gave the Tomahawk Chop as we walked up the street.

NOTE: The team will be 5-6 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time. Each day's account will be from the prior day.