May 22, 2000

We slept in late today, had breakfast (soft boiled eggs, cheese slices, bread, o.j. and cereal or yogurt( and left Berlin on our charter bus for Copenhagen, Denmark. We stopped after a two hour drive so we could eat lunch and the driver could rest. We ate at a rest stop area with a cafeteria. It was absolutely the last chance for German sausage! We arrived at the point of origin for the Ferry crossing...we crossed the Baltic Sea on the Dronning Magrethe II in a two hour ride. Some of us sat on the top deck in the fresh air and others played cards in the closed-in area where there were tables. As we neared Denmark, the duty-free shop and cafeteria were closed and 10 minutes before docking the announcement was made for us to return to our vehicle down below. The bus was on the bottom level and we had to find staircase F to find our way to exactly where our bus had been parked.

We had another two hour ride through the farm lands of Denmark. We arrived at Idraettens Hus, the Danish Olympic Training Center for all sports, at 8:00pm, checked into our single rooms and headed to the restaurant on the training grounds for an already prepared meal. We had a salad bar available and chicken breasts, baked potatoes and homemade rolls.

We had a brief tour of the two gyms we will play in tomorrow and a team meeting about our schedule and the scoring format. We will play a match consisting of 2 out of 3 games (rally to 21, tie-break to 7 points) and 2 out of 3 sets to win the match. We play Sweden first and the Danish National Team later in the day.

As we go through the beautiful facility, you begin to think about all the elite athletes that have trained here to represent their country. We talk about leaving good impressions as a college team and begin to think of ourselves as elite athletes and coaches.

In your small single room you have some quiet time to shower, unpack, watch TV and pull out your bed for a good night's rest!