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

Day 5 - Pula, Croatia

Today we said goodbye to Ljubljana, Slovenia and traveled to Pula, Croatia. We were in our vans for about an hour and a half before we came to the Slovenian side of the Slovenia-Croatia border. I have heard the Slovenians and Croatian don't like each other!



The scenery stayed very constant, very green and hilly...yet at the checkpoints the language and personality changed. I have overheard several times the Croatians are exceptionally laid back. I noticed on the Slovenian side of the border guard took took our passports immediately and asked what our business was. The same happened on the Croatian side as well, yet the other guard there was singing and smiling! Finally we got our passports back. I was anxious to find that my first passport had finally been stamped!



After we checked into the hotel, we ate lunch in the dining room - buffet again! Then we were told to wait around by our coaches to meet some famous coach that we didn't really know, but our coaches were very excited about. His name is Nikolai Karpol - he was the Russian National Team coach and has won 2 Olympic Gold Medals. We took a team picture with him.

Beach that near our hotel in Pula, Croatia



Did I mention that our hotel, Hotel Pula, is a two minute walk from the coast of the Adriatic Sea? Through the woods and down a rocky coast and you are on the beach. Jacque and Kat (Katherine Whitney, CSU alumni) swam out while others enjoyed the sun and I stood about knee-deep looking out through the clear water. I'm sure we will be back at the beach tomorrow.


Katherine Whitney and Jacque Davisson in the Adriatic Sea



Katharine Whitney & Mekana Barnes soak up the sun


The team enjoys relaxing on the beach

That night we played OTP Banka Pula, the local club volleyball team. We played our best volleyball so far on this tour and won 3-0. It's been a great trip!


Mekana Barnes

Coach Hilbert weighing in...

We are at the halfway point in our tour and we had a great day. I will go into detail in a moment.

Our first match was really scary, jetlagged and "tourist tired" we got smoked by an Italian B1 team last Tuesday and I was afraid it was going to be a long 11 days. But our team has bounced back. They have their legs under them and have figured out how to serve and pass. Today we won our third match in a row, beating a local Pula, Croatia team 3-1. We had a great day from Kate Steffan who shut down our opponents best player, which we later found out plays in the top Italian league.

It was one of the best matches we have played with this group and I am very excited. So really great things are coming to the surface of this team and it's great to see. The match however wasn't the only high point of my day.

Earlier in the afternoon, Boris, the local club coach, brought a good friend of his to meet us. In walked Nikolai Karpol, the famous Russian coach, and one of the world's most legendary coaches. We had a team photo taken with him and then a group of us sat, drank coffee, and had a translated discussion about volleyball, politics and Pula, Croatia - a place where he owns a vacation home.

It was surreal to me. I've known about Karpol since I started coaching 25 years ago. He just turned 70 and completed his 50th year of coaching. He has won 2 Olympic Gold Medals and numerous other international titles. I felt honored to be there.

CSU Women's Volleyball Team & staff poses wtih Nikolai Karpol (center in tan shirt)

It was a great day...

Tom Hilbert

Day 4 - Ljubljana, Slovenia

At the top of the Ljubljana Castle

Greetings!

It's day four and the sun is still shining! It's hot and humid and febreze is no longer used just for clothing. Despite our "hot" bodies, our spirits are still high and the sights and architecture of Ljubljana, Slovenia are still breathtaking.

We ate "kebabs" for lunch - but they aren't the kind of kebab you are thinking of or the kind that we were expecting. They were similar to a sandwich or falafel - lots of veggies, chicken or beef and sauce. While they were difficult to eat - they were very good!

Eating Slovenian kebabs

The most breathtaking sight we saw today was the Ljubljana castle. After riding a cable car up to the top of the mountain, we toured around the castle and checked out the amazing views, museums, chapel and big tower.

After the castle, we had some time to explore the city. In the city square, there were a lot of places to shop, unique restaurants to eat, and of course, there's always ice cream! We shopped until we dropped then we headed back to our hostel to get ready for our game against the Slovenian Junior National team.

The team made us feel very welcome - they displayed a US flag and played our National Anthem before the match, which we won in 3 close games. Afterwards we gave each of the Slovenian players a CSU jersey which they were pretty excited about.

CSU and the Slovenian Youth National Team

Then we all went out together for pizza - which as one of the Slovenian coaches said was "so big, it'll give you a stroke" - and he was right!

GIANT pizza!

You may recognize former Ram Katherine Whitney in some of these pictures - she has been touring Europe since her season with a Croatian professional team ended a couple months ago and she joined us in Ljubljana.

Back to the hostel for our last night in Slovenia - tomorrow we head to Croatia.

Kate Steffan

Day 3 - Slovenia

Voščilo, pozdrav (greetings)!

TODAY was a great day. But what might you ask did we do that made it so great? Well...let me tell you. After getting to sleep in for the first time on the trip, we ate breakfast and loaded into vans tostart our journey across the countryside of Europe to Slovenia. We first stopped at the small town of Kocevje to practice alongside the Slovenian Youth National Team and then play them that night. Our practice was at the local elementary school - where we were greeted by very excited school children. At the beginning of practice we each partnered up with one of the Slovenian players and followed their team warm-up. Then Tom led both teams through practice - even though we speak different languages, we quickly learned that volleyball is universal and it was neat to practice side by side as one team!

Practicing with the Slovenian Youth National Team

After practice, we went into town to eat a traditional Slovenian meal of turkey and potatoes. During lunch we enjoyed learning Slovenian words, learning about their country and talking about everyone's favorite movies. After lunch, we enjoy coffee drinks on a cafe patio before our match - apparently a very European thing to do! Then it was off to the match!

Enjoying coffee before our match

The match was much improved from last night and I am pleased to say that while the Slovenian Youth National Team won one game, your lady Rams came out on top 3-1.

One big happy team!

We finished the day with a pizza dinner with the young women and made the hour trip through the winding roads of the beautiful Slovenian country side to reach the Hostel in the center at Ljubljana where we will stay the night and write you again tomorrow.

Sweet dreams - much love - Go Rams!
Lahko noc (good night)!

Jacque Davisson

Day 2 - Sightseeing in Venice, Italy

CSU Volleyball team and staff at San Marco Basilica, Venice

Hello! What a trip this has been so far!

This morning, everyone woke up around 6:00am, ate breakfast, then took the train to go sightseeing in the beautiful city of Venice. The train ride took about an hour and a half - it was the first train ride some of the girls had ever been on. When we arrived, we split up into 3 groups and Tom sent us on a scavenger hunt around the city.

On the train to Venice

Each group had to get a photo of every item on the list including a gondola, water taxi, the fish market, Bridge of Sighs, a piece of murano glass, a Venitian mask, the Rialto Bridge, the Guggenheim museum, a church (not at St. Mark's square) plus a picture of the whole group drinking coffee at a cafe by the water. The city was amazing! At around 1:30 we all took a water taxi ride back to the train station from St. Mark's Square. Pretty much the whole team slept on the ride back to Pordenone!

Drinking Cappucino at a cafe

Looking good in Venetian masks!

Riding on the water taxi through the Grand Canal

At 5:30pm we left the hotel for our first match against San Dona, an Italian B1 club team. Unfortunately, it did not go our way. We ended up losing the match in 3 games. We must overcome factors such as fatigue and playing in a new environment in order to grow as a team and achieve our goals - I have no doubt we can do that!

Tomorrow we head to Ljubjlana, Slovenia to play against the Slovenian Youth National Team. we will have much more updates for you then!
Ciao for now!
Ashley

Posing like statues

Day 1 - Arrive in Venice

Hello from Italy!!!

We made it to Pordenone, Italy safe and sound ... although it took longer than expected. We departed from Fort Collins at 3:45am May 25th and we arrived in Philadelphia around noon where we had a 6 hour layover before our flight to Venice. As we were not allowed to sleep (in order to adjust our bodies to the time change), we played multiple games of UNO and ate as much American food as possible.

Hanging out at the Philadelphia airport

Fighting heavy eyes, we boarded our flight to Venice. Most of the team (except Tessa) slept the whole plane ride. When we woke up we were surprised to hear that due to patchy fog in Venice and a need to refuel, our flight would instead be landing in Milan in the fashion capital of the world. Oh the sites we saw while stuck in the plane on the runway in Milan for 3 hours!

Batty sleeping in the plane while we were grounded in Milan

Eventually we arrived in Venice around 1pm ... 4 hours later than expected. After a short ride to Pordenone, we checked into the hotel and showered, then spent a couple hours touring the small town enjoying some tasty Gelatto. Later that night we experienced our first practice in Europe - it was very HOT and MUGGY. And to saw we were sweating is a complete understatement.

Yummmmmmmm...gelatto!

We then grabbed dinner at local favorite Woody's Ristorante where we had french fries, cheese, pasta and pizza and FREE cake (we were celebrating Jesse's birthday). After our feast, we hurried back to the hotel where we barely got our shoes off before hitting the pillows around midnight.

Tomorrow we are spending the day in Venice to sightsee. Talk to you soon!

Ciao!

Katelin (Batty)

Europe Here We Come… Again

When I started working here at CSU in 1997 I was approached by a players parent and offered a financial significant gift. He asked what I thought would be a great use of the money and I told him I had always wanted to do a foreign tour with my team. That summer we visited Prague, Munich and Holland. It turned out to be one of the most memorable moments in the careers of those players and it was a great bonding experience to share the trip with each other.

I decided at that time that I would try and take a tour every four years knowing how valuable it was. We took another trip in 2004 and now we are days away from our next tour which starts on May 25th.

We will play seven matches in Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Switzerland. We will sightsee and meet players from other countries and cultures. We will take seven players who have never traveled overseas. We have discussed our excitement our fears and our curiosities. Once again I think this trip will be a great bonding experience for all of our players and will help develop trust and intimacy between all of the CSU Ram Volleyballers.

You can follow our on line blog as we chronicle our tour on the web. Hopefully we will grow and develop as a team right before your eyes.

- Tom Hilbert

RamVolleyball.Colostate.edu