May 15, 2000

"We ate breakfast and left on the bus at 8:30 a.m. We had a three-hour drive to Prague and a full day of sightseeing to get in. We made two stops on the way ... to pose for a group picture in a field of yellow flowers and a pit stop at McDonald's for the restroom and cherry and apple pies for the players. When we arrived at the Hotel Duo, we had two additional guides waiting, which was all coordinated via cell phone while we were driving! Jan (pronounced Yawn), Eric and Tom would be the three men who would lead us through the city. We dropped our bags in the room, made a quick currency change and off we were in less than 30 minutes. The bus dropped us us off at the Prague Castle, which was built in the 9th century. We went inside the Cathedral, walked by the Monastery, walked down Golden Alley, and had lunch at an outdoor restaurant overlooking the city. We had cola, lentil soup and a plate with chicken, steak and sausage. We walked down the steep hill and spent time shopping on the Charles Bridge. We went to a small market area on the way to dinner. Surprisingly, most of the team bought artwork -- drawings, paintings and pictures.

At 6:30 p.m., we boarded "The Morovia" for our dinner cruise down the Vlatava River. We sat on the top (second) floor and had a wonderful buffet of food. The weather was perfect as we cruised up the river. The buildings and bridges along the river were just breathtaking. We took hundreds of pictures and hours of video tape today.

The cruise ended at 9:00 p.m., and we took an electric tram to the bus station, transferred to a bus and arrived at the hotel at 9:45 p.m. The guides did a great job of keeping us together as a group and watched to make sure no strangers bothered us.

We had a team meeting at 10:00 p.m., to discuss the activities for tomorrow, our first day of competition. It will be a long day with two matches against good competition. We must be prepared for the unexpected ... international scoring, a small gym, little time to warm up, no lockerrooms, and whatever else comes our way. The girls are excited to finally play. The staff is pretty excited too!"