Day 11 - Montreux, Switzerland

Team photo with Lake Geneva and Montreux, Switzerland as a backdrop


With no more matches left to play we began our last non-travel day in Europe with a trip through Montreux, Switzerland. We started at the Chateau de Chillon - a preserved castle dating back to the 12th century that sits on the shore of Lake Geneva. We explored the castle for an hour or so, seeing rooms like the prison, courtyards, torture chambers and even chanced a terrifying climb up many questionable flights of stairs to the watchtower.

Batty, Crystin and Tessa at the Chateau de Chillon


Kate and Dani climbing stairs to the watchtower



Dani and Jaime overlook one of the Chateau's courtyards


After the castle we grabbed a quick lunch and took a tour of the city to find Swiss Army Knives and, of course, Swiss chocolate.

As money began to run low, our shopping trip ended and we went to the Montreux Volley Masters Tournament. While enjoying kebaps and dessert waffles we watched an exciting match between China and Cuba, two of the top six teams in the world.

To enjoy our remaining hours in Europe, we celebrated with chocolate fondue along the lakeshore. It is amazing to think that in only a day we will be back home and back to normal life. Although excited to come home, we are all very grateful to have had the opportunity to play in and experience Europe with our Ram family. Withou the support of everyone back home many of us may never have been able to experience all of what Europe has to offer.


Jaime enjoys every last drop of chocolate fondue with a straw!


Freddie Mercury statue in Montreux - WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS

Au revoir! See you in the States!

Audrey Hemmings

Day 10 - Montreux, Switzerland

This morning we said goodbye to Italy as we set forth on a 4 hour bus trip to Montreux, Switzerland.

When we go to Montreux, everyone was in awe. The city sits on Lake Geneva, with the Swiss Alps in the background. It is beautiful!

We then put our stuff down at the hotel and went and had lunch before our match. We had a little time before our game so our team walked down to the water before the game, although we got a little wet, it was definitely worth it for the view.

Standing in front of Lake Geneva in the rain!

After our walk, we hopped in the vans for our match against the Swiss National Team. We wanted our last match of the tour to be great, and we ended up winning in 3. Then we decided to play a fourth game and we played well to win that one as well. Their team had tough serves and made us work on our passing. It was a great experience and we all enjoyed it.

In the van on the way to our match


CSU and the Swiss National Team

After our match we hurried to get cleaned up to make it over to the Montreux Volley Masters tournament, hosting some of the best teams in the world - Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Cuba, China and Serbia. We got there just in time to watch the end of the Germany/Italy match with Italy winning in 5.

Then we watched the "awe" inspiring hitting warm-up of Cuba and the Netherlands. It was unreal. Cuba had an outside hitter that could touch 10'11"!! It was very fun to watch teams of that caliber. I look forward to watching Cuba and China play tomorrow! Bye for now!

Jaime Strauss

Day 9 - Torino, Italy

Team at the Basilica di Superga overlooking Torino



Hi - dee - ho! It's Emily here reporting from Settimo Torinese, Italy. It's day nine of our CSU Euro Trip 2008. We are having a blast!

Today was especially special. Torino was a beautiful city full of culture, history and shopping...wonderful shopping. We woke up around 8 this morning, had a hearty breakfast at about 8:30 then exited the hotel doors at precisely 9am. Then...BAM! we were on top of a mountain at the Basilica de Superga. Which is a church where a Duke was burried, and it had a maraculous view. Then...BAM! We were back down.


Team in front of the Basilica di Superga



At around 10:45...uh lets just say 11, we were dropped in the town square. We were given a few brief directions, 10 Euros, and the instructions to be back at 2...exactly at 2. Some of us made our way to the church which houses the Shroud of Turin, and the museums the more intellectual and historic parts of the city, while others of us ventured off to shop.





City Center in Torino

At exactly 2 o'clock we were back on the bus. Then ... BAM!!! We were back at the hotel for a quick siesta (nap) before our match @ 6:30.

The match went well. We played European rules for this game so the subs were really limited and we had to adjust our rotation. We defeated the team we played in 3 games. After the match we participated in a Jersey give away. The girls on the other team were estatic about receiving our uniforms. Twas truely a rewarding time for our team!





CSU posing with the Lilliput Settimo Torinese B-2 team




Jacque with her Italian Fan Club!


After all the festivities we had dinner at the hotel. It was fabulous!
Tomorrow morning we head for Switzerland for the last stop on our tour.

Emily Koenning

Day 8 - Settimo Torinese, Italy

Jaime and Audrey walking to downtown Settimo


Our first morning in Settimo Torinese Italy was a relaxing one. We all met downstairs for breakfast then walked downtown. Tom gave us an assignment to take many photographs. Since it was kind of a gray, dreary morning, the pictures turned out pretty good.

Buying pastries at a local bakery


The team in Downtown Settimo Torinese

We headed back to the hotel for lunch, then left for the gym. We had two matches that both went to four games. The first match was against the Italian Youth National team. We saw them in the hotel the night before and thought they were a pro team because of their size, we were very surprised to find out that they are all just 15 and 16 years old! There were 2 kids who were over 6'5" - they are going to be amazing in a few more years!




Italian Youth National Team





The second match was against theLilliput Settimo Torinese B-2 team who we will play again tomorrow night.


Afterward, we came back to the hotel, ate dinner, then headed to our rooms. We were all pretty tired and went to bed!

Danielle Minch

Warm welcome in Settimo Torinese, Italy - From Coach Hilbert

We returned to Italy to play for the second time on the tour and the staff was treated to an incredible experience. If you're traveling to Europe as a tourist you seldom get into the real communities and meet regular people outside the tourist trade. Not so for us on this tour.

We were greeted at our hotel by the Mayor of Settimo Torinese, the Deputy Mayor of sport, the regional Volleyball Commissioner and all of the youth and junior development coaches. There were others, too, like local journalists and club administrators. All total about 30 of us sat down for a six course Italian dinner that blew away any others we had done on thus far. I had mostly coaches at my table.

We sat for 3 hours and talked about everything from wine regions to coaching. One of the coaches at our table was Maurizio Morretti, a high profile coach in Italy, who told me about how he coached Keba Phipps when he was in the A-1 Italian League. Keba is an American who moved to Italy at age 20 and became one of the world's best players.

The evening ended with the presentation of some plaques and thank yous before we all retired for the evening. An incredible cultural exchange that I will remember forever.

Coach Hilbert receives an award from the Settimo Torinese Deputy Mayor of Sport




The position of Volleyball in the "sport culture" in Italy is so strong. I am so impressed at everyone's kindness toward us. Even though we don't speak the same language we shared our passion for Volleyball and our passion for a great mean and it resulted in a wonderful experience.





Tom Hilbert

Day 7 - To Torino!

Ciao everyone!

We started out the day with breakfast at hotel Pula, took one last look at the beautiful view from our hotel, then headed off to the train station in Trieste, Italy. We had a little free time before our train to Venice so we walked around (and got a little lost) in Trieste. After we stalked up on a enough junk food to last us througout the day, we boarded our train and set off to Venice where we had to switch to another train to Torino. The ride took about 6 hours total.



Jacque and Emily on the train with their snacks



Some of us slept, an intense game of Uno took place, and I think Jesse schooled a few of my teammates in poker! Once we arrived in Torino we drove througout the city where, among many other things, we saw the church where the Shroud of Turin is stored. It's beautiful here so we look forward to sightseeing tomorrow.



Ashley on the bus ride through Torino. The Torino tower is in the background.



Tonight we ate supper (or dinner to some of you) at our hotel in Settimo Torinese (small town just outside of Torino) and then we rented a movie in one of our rooms - only half of us were able to stay awake and the rest crashed for the night.

Tessa Nelson

Day 6 - Pula, Croatia

The team poses in front of a statue near Pula's City Center


In all my life I could never imagine seeing 1 of the 6 remaining Roman Colliseums and then heading to the beach hours later, but today that is exactly what we did. This morning we went into the town of Pula where live entertainment and cute gelatto shops filled the streets. The coolest part about this city is that the buildings differed greatly in architecture depending on which government currently ruled Croatia. Looking down one street you could see the influencies that history has had on this region - distinctive Roman, Austria-Hungarian and socialist/communist - all lined up next to one another.


3 Buildings, 3 different governments





Inside the colliseum - one of 6 Roman Colliseums in the world



After exploring for a couple of hours, we decided to head back and enjoy our day off by going to the beach which was only 100m from the hotel. There Jaime, Mekana and Emily all stepped on Sea Urchins while jumping off rocks into the water - but our trainer, Crystal, came to the rescue! The rest of the team laid out and soaked up the sun for a good majority of the day. We finished up the day by getting some dinner and hitting the city center to check out the night life.

Tomorrow we are off to Torino!

Crystin Rodrick