UTSA Women's Volleyball Euro Tour May 2016

UTSA Women's Volleyball EuroTour

Article published in Life @ the Dominion, September 2016 issue.

UTSA Women’s Volleyball Euro Tour

            Exiting immigration at Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade, Serbia after traveling alone across the Atlantic Ocean, the distinctive auburn hair of 6’1” Antonela “Nela” Jularic above the crowd was a welcome sight. Traveling with a volleyball team would have its advantages. Nela, a sophomore on the UTSA women’s volleyball team and a native of Vrbovec, Croatia, along with Goran Jovanovic, a Croatian volleyball coach and our tour guide, were there to meet me and the full team that would arrive on another flight an hour later. 

            The chaos of eleven players, three coaches, three team support staff, a player’s mother, me and equipment was remarkably quickly tamed. Piling into three vans thus began our ten day adventure in Europe playing matches with international teams, touring historic locations and visiting the homes and families of our foreign players.

            Volleyball and many other sports are handled very differently outside the United States. Here in America the path to professional sports is through our colleges and universities. In Europe, clubs play this role. The clubs supply coaching, facilities for training and competitions and, often, accommodations for teams traveling between clubs for games.

            In Belgrade we stayed at the City Code Hotel which housed dining facilities, two gymnasiums and a weight room in addition to comfortable sleeping rooms with private bathrooms. The Road Runners took one of two matches against the home team of Zok Vizura, in spite of jet lag and just completing finals. (Four team members were honored with Conference USA Academic Medals for GPAs of 3.75 or better and the team as a whole has the highest academic achievement of all UTSA athletic teams. So these young women are truly scholar/athletes.) 

            Luckily there was time for exploration. We visited the Belgrade Fortress where the Sava River flows into the Danube and the Pobednik (The Victor) stands watch. We missed the National Museum which has been under renovation for years. But Republic Square, the site of the museum, and Prince Milhailo’s mounted statute became our meeting place. 

 

                                                          "Meet at the horse at 2PM."

            Each day throughout our tour, the girls were given free time and local currency. This time and money was spent – mostly and in all locations – on coffee, gelato, other food items and souvenirs and gifts. One of our participants, who will go nameless here, spent her first day purchasing undergarments that somehow didn’t make it into the bag.

            My personal contribution to the controlled chaos was to lose my phone and tablet charger. I bought a replacement in Belgrade at an “authorized” dealer in what looked to be original packaging. It wasn’t. It didn’t work. So, I exchanged it. The new charger proceeded to fry the adapter, popping the whole plug out of the wall and tripping the circuit breaker to half the floor. Thank goodness I didn’t start a fire and burn down the entire complex!

            Over the next eight days the team would visit Zagreb and Vrbovec, Croatia; Maribor, Slovenia; and Venice and Milan, Italy. They played against the Croatian Junior National team, the Slovenian Junior National team and Club Italia and left the continent with a 3 and 3 record.

            It should be noted that the loss to the Italian team held a silver lining. The Road Runners were seriously overmatched. Yet they took one set off a previously undefeated team. Go Runners!

            In Belgrade we had met Dajana Boskovic’s family from Bileca, Bosnia and Herzegovina and added assistant coach Danka Danicic’s parents from Serbia to our touring group. In Zagreb, Croatia we were in Marieta Runjic (Trogir, Croatia) and Antoinela Jularic’s (Vrbovec, Croatia) territory. Both had played for our tour guide Goran Jovaovic on the Croatian Junior National team before becoming Road Runners.

            The match against the Croatian Junior National team was in Nela’s home town. More than 200 fans came to see the gane. Girls dressed in club sweats formed blocks of color in the stands. The team in red chanted, “Nela, Nela,” whenever she served.

            The Road Runners were victorious that day. But both teams enjoyed dinner together in spite of the language barriers. Nela’s mother had arranged the dinner at a family favorite restaurant a short walk from the gym.

            Marieta and Nela were our guides in Zagreb. We saw the National Theater; strolled through an abundant farmers market to the Zagreb Cathedral which contains the sarcaphocus of Archbishop Stepinac in wax on the dais (a little creepy, I must admit); and climbed to the highest point in the city for photo ops.

            The bus ride from Zagreb to Maribor, Slovenia on the Drava River at the base of the Maribor Pohorje mountain range took only two hours. But the border crossings were interesting. Get off the bus. Personally show your passport to the border guard. Get a stamp. Get back on the bus. Drive 200 yards. Repeat. The scenery on the climb took us past stone fences; around corners that revealed white church steeples bathed in sunshine; and up to the base of the ski resort where the Women’s 2013 World Cup alpine races were held. Breathtaking.

   

           

            The Hotel Dras and Dras Sports Center is an easy uphill walk to the ski resort’s learners’ slope. There, a two-person chair lift took us up to a quaint log cabin for lunch followed by an exhilarating return to the base via a personal sled. Thankfully the sleds were secured to a track with a hand-operated brake. (Said brake was used extensively during my two rides.)

            The Dras Sports Center is the game-winning spike of the clubs we saw. Training for teams in skiing, swimming, football (soccer to you Americans out there), basketball and volleyball. They have a huge gymnasium that can be split into two courts as well as a training facility, large shower facilities, dining and the attached hotel. Their staff coordinated our schedule, housing, and activities as they do for many US and international teams. While we were there they hosted the Slovenia Club Championships for girls 16. The Runners split matches with the Slovenia Junior National team.

            The city of Maribor provides the quintessential ingredients for a beautiful European city: narrow cobblestoned streets dedicated as pedestrian walkways; plazas filled with music and food; Saturday morning community activities; a beautiful church; and, sunshine and 75 degrees. Our final night in Maribor we bused to a local winery for a tour. The Doppler Winery is located on the top of a hill surrounded by grape vines. The sunset from this vantage point brought spectacular views and a sense of peace.

            Putting Slovenia in our rear view mirror we jumped into vans again headed for Venice, Italy. With only six hours in the city, we stored our luggage at the train station before venturing out in exploration. A vaporeto (water bus) shuttled us from the train station to Piazza San Marco past palaces and gondolas. Rain kept the people and the pigeons away but we carried on as if this was our only day in town. St. Mark’s Basilica and the Doge’s Place were excellent examples of medieval architecture, paintings and sculpture. Murano glass and beautiful stationary were to be found on the Rialto Bridge. And, of course, coffee and gelato was plentiful.

            The train from Venice to Milan, our last stop, made me realize how efficient rail travel can be. The cabin was new, clean, organized and easy to use. The trip went by so quickly and effortlessly that I understand why trains are so popular in Europe.

The sightseeing in Milan was the cap stone to our trip. We toured the Duomo with several of the girls climbing to the top of the bell tower. The shopping Galleria, with great gelato, was a beautiful combination of old buildings blended together with modern technology to create an open airy space. The Sforza Castle housed a little known unfinished Michelangelo sculpture of the Pieta. It was the last of four he sculpted and was possibly the most powerful for the way it captured the grief of a mother. The final match in Milan was a moral victory after a full day of touring in the city. As I said earlier, the Road Runners played one of their best matches of the tour, yet lost to a superior team.

           

 

All in all it was a great experience for all of us. Here are a few of the things I learned:

These young women are genuinely nice and thoughtful. They cared for my wellbeing and the sense of belonging – of being accepted as a team member – felt really nice.

      The smaller groups that formed out of necessity over the course of the trip were not static. Their composition had an easy, comfortable, trusting component that allowed the groups to ebb and flow.

I saw pride in Dajana, Antoinella and Marieta as they shared the places and rhythms of life familiar to them but foreign to the rest of the primarily Texan team – open plazas with cafes and coffee; buildings older than America; history on every corner; gelato and pigeons, pigeons, pigeons.

      A successful (high academic accomplishment along with high athletic skills), well-disciplined (no body was late), team (a group of people linked by a purpose that allows each member to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses) does not happen in a vacuum. These young women are being coached by dedicated professionals and staff who know not only the game of volleyball but also the psychology of university student/athletes and the techniques to help each girl reach her full potential both physically and mentally. Talk about pressure!?          

      Watching these young women have new experiences in new places; learn history and culture from the cobblestones under their feet and the latte in their hand; and see their vision and understanding of the greater world around them expand was an exceptional privilege.

Belgrade Serbia

      I left San Antonio on Sunday, May 16, 2016 bound for Belgrade via Dallas/Ft.Worth and Frankfurt, Germany and arrived an hour before the team. It took 19 hours and 11,891 air miles to get there. As I stated in the article above, I was very happy to see Nela's red head above the crowd when I got to the arrivals area outside immigration. She was pretty excited to see me as well.

      She introduced me to our tour guide, Goran Jovanovic, who had been her coach on the Croatian Junior National Team, and Danka Danicic's parents and sister who were traveling with the team through the Balkans. Danka is an assistant coach and her parents live just outside Belgrade. Tessa Dahnert's mother, Jeanette was next to arrive. She's an interesting lady. She teaches self-defense in the Israeli style, defense techniques for knife fight, kick boxing and is a certified firearms instructor with a concealed carry permit. Obviously she's very fit but also a little strange. The remainder of the team -- excluding the head coach -- arrived shortly after and we piled into vans with bags and equipment tightly packed into the back.

     Coach Laura Groff was not on the plane with the team because she misplaced her passport. Her plan was to drive to Houston to get a replacement and then come over. But a friend of hers called to say she had had a dream that Laura found her passport in the drawer where she normally keeps it. So, Laura looked one more time. This time her husband took the drawer out of the cabinet and there it was, stuck behind the drawer. She joined us on Wednesday, two days after the tour had stared.

      We stayed at the City Code Hotel. There are two gymnasiums, a weight room, and a dining room, Dajana Boskovic stayed in this hotel when she joined the club in her junior year in high school so she could improve her skills enough to be recruited for an athletic scholarship in the US.

     

   This is my room. The one where I almost burned the place down.

 The dining room.

The lobby.

The Gym we played in.

Tessa's mom videoing the game to send to Tessa's dad.

The Zok Vizura team we played and won one of the two matches in spite of jet lag and excitement.

Dinner was in an historic restaurant in the heart of Belgrade. The food was typical of what we would eat in all the Balkan states -- meat, meat, and more meat. Here you see chicken, pork chops and sausage with a few potatoes on the bottom.

On Tuesday, May 17 we started the day with a two hour walking tour of Belgrade. We got an overview of Belgrade history on our way past the National Museum which was closed -- has been for 12 years or so through a beautiful park and up to the Belgrade Fortress at the confluence of the Saba and Danube rivers.

 The horse, or Prince Mihailo's mounted statue on Republic Square.

 Team photo at the Fortress.

 The Pobednik (The Victor) stands watch over the confluence and toward the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empire Serbia defeated in the early 1900s. He holds a falcon in his left hand and a sword in his right and is naked. Which is why he was placed so far from the center of town. Apparently some people were offended by his nudity and refused to have him placed in the central fountain as planned.

After the tour, everybody got some free time and enough cash in the local currency for lunch. The girls were off in no time finding a coffee shop and taking selfies everywhere.

I had lunch with Goran so he could help me buy the phone charger that could have burnt down the hotel. We were back at the horse at 2 PM to go back to the club for the first match, which we won. Jeannette, Tessa's mom, was met us at the horse then took off to get water but didn't tell anyone. So we had a few minutes of consternation until she showed up again.

After the match we had dinner at a restaurant called Monument Prime. I was delighted when Megan Slan called across the table, "Don't sit there. Come sit with us." So I sat with the girls rather than the adults. This would be my normal routine.

The Monument was a pizza and pasta place that was pretty good. They had no dinner salads so Jeannette and I ordered a Caesar salad to share. It was so big that we ended up sharing it with several of the girls. I had the carbonara and it too needed to be shared. To my knowledge, no food was thrown away on the entire trip.

When we returned to the hotel, Jeannette discovered that she had lost her phone. So Goran took her back to the restaurant and they checked all the vans. But, no phone.

On Wednesday, May 18 I awoke with the sunrise at 7:18 am. My journal entry that morning was about general observations. Here are some:  bottled water is all in glass containers, no plastic; Laura Cruz has had to leave the team for a congenital heart problem but she accompanied the team on this trip; poppies everywhere; very few people with tattoos although I saw several tattoo parlors; and, cigarette smoke everywhere - outside, in restaurants, on public transportation.

The morning was again spent in the city. Everyone was given more cash and told to meet for lunch at the horse. That didn't go as well as planned but we all finally got together for a meal much like the one pictured above. During my time in Belgrade alone, I toured the Fortress again and took a side tour into the "Roman Well". The well was not built by the Romans rather it was built in the style of the Romans. It was nice an cool in there which was good because the weather had changed from the rainy cold day yesterday to a sunny mid 70s day.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

The bus for Zagreb, Croatia left at 7:15 am. 

The landscape changed from completely flat farmland to forested farmland to mountainous. Zagreb sits at the base of a mountain.


Our hotel was the Westin, a five star hotel. Although I'd give it only three stars. The rooms were not available so we left our bags in the vans and headed into town for lunch.

At 3:30 we left for the game in Nela's hometown of Vrbovec. The opponent was the Croatian Junior National team. We won in five sets. The largest crowd of all the matches was in that gym - probably 200. There were several other girls volleyball teams in attendance dressed in different colors of sweat suits - obviously their team colors. The girls in red shouted "Nela, Nela" every time she served.

Nela's mother, 36 (half Nela's age) and beautiful, had a goody bag for everyone of the participants that included a bottle of water, a t-shirt and hat from the local meat plant, and a handmade ornament in the shape of a heart like the one Zagreb uses as its symbol.

After the match we walked from the gym to a restaurant owned by a friend of Nela's mom. The food was much like we had the first night in Belgrade - lettuce, tomato, and cucumber salad, a soup they called beef but tasted like chicken noodle, and several kinds of meat.

Back at the hotel, I took the staff and the organizers for a drink in the hotel bar. It was the only "adult" time we had on the entire trip.

Friday, May 20, 2016

Nela and Marieta were our tour guides for the day since they had both spent time in the capital during their Junior National team time. I asked to join them and they agreed. I was the only adult with them and we had a great time.

Unfortunately, like Belgrade, the local museum was closed. But we did saw the National Theater

 and shopped at the local farmer's market.

We toured the cathedral complete with a wax figure of a beloved Cardinal in a glass casket.

Then we climbed to the highest point in the city for beautiful views. The girls were concerned that the hike up the stairs to the top would be too difficult for me. However, even though my knee had started to give me trouble, I beat Dajana to the top, no problem. That girl needs to get back in shape before the season starts.

LOTS of photos were taken. In fact that was the main activity. Marieta's parents and Nela's parents joined us after we descended from the hilltop and I excused myself to get a gelato and let them have some time together without me.

Some observations:

Zagreb is much cleaner than Belgrade.

There is still a lot of smoking outside. But thankfully, no smoking inside in restaurants.

The girls are obsessed with social media. They post on Facebook and twitter ALL the time.

The girls also have some cool apps on their phones. One called What's App allows you to text with no charges anywhere in the world.

Although I did not get to know Dajana's parents, the other parents are really nice. Marieta's parents gave me a refrigerator magnet with a painting of their home town on a piece of the same marble used to build the White House.

A big tour bus picked us up about 3:00 PM and we drove from Zagreb to Maribor, Slovenia. It took about three hours.

At the border crossing between Croatia and Slovenia, we all had to get out of the bus with our passports and present them individually. Once the border agent had stamped the passport, we were instructed to stand together until all of us had gone through the process. When everyone was done, we were instructed to get back on the bus - no walking the 200 yards to the next border station into Slovenia. Then, when we reached the other border, we did it all again.

Several of the girls were surprised with this procedure. But few had traveled internationally.

Dinner that night was at the "club" that would be our home for the next three nights. It was much nicer than the one in Belgrade - more gyms, hotel rooms, apartment complex, a swimming pool, football field, and ski slope.

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Maribor, Slovnia

Maribor is a beautiful little community at the base of a mountain in the Maribor-Pohorje mountain range.  World Cup ski races are held there regularly. The town is very quaint. The narrow streets have been converted into pedestrian malls. Since it was a Saturday, there was lots of activity in the plazas - a fashion show complete with runway and an announcer filled one - another had a baton twirling group, music and wheelchair races. The day was beautiful 75 degrees with a balmy breeze.

The only museum in town was closed But there was a beautiful church Laura Groff and I visited.

The team played the Slovenia Junior National team and won 3-2. But the girls did not play well. Probably due to the travel and excitement.

This was my room. It looked out at the mountain.

Downtown Maribor.

This is the little church. I liked it the most of all the churches we saw in Europe because it was so bright and welcoming.

Dinner that night was at the base of the gondola. It was a fun place to eat - out on the patio in the sunshine. But the food was the same as most of the meals we had - meat, meat and more meat.

 Danka's dad. He gave me a bottle of plum brandy from their home town. Danka's sister, brother in law and niece spent some time with us in Serbia and Croatia.

 Danka's mom. They didn't speak English and I didn't speak Serbian. But we got along great anyway.

Some notes on the people on the trip.

Laura Groff is the head coach. She was a volleyball player in college and went on to play in the European leagues for a couple of years after college. She's been at UTSA for about 15 years.

Pat Stangle is an assistant coach. He lives in Boerne and is a strange man. I never saw him in anything other than a track suit and tennis shoes on the entire trip. They were all the same or he wore them every day. I didn't think he set a very good example for the girls.

Danka Danicic is an assistant coach from Serbia. She is beautiful, tall and very outgoing.

Evan Case is a new volunteer who is in charge of the statistics and videography. The volunteer gets either free or reduced tuition to grad school.

Laura Little is a former UTSA softball player from Houston. She's in PR with the athletic department and was sent on the trip to document the activities on social media.

Brenna was the trainer who accompanied us. She is from Clinton, Indiana and got her degree in sports medicine from Indiana State. She is spearheading a collaboration with HEB on nutrition for athletes. I volunteered to help but haven't heard anything from her on that yet.

Goran Jovanovic was our tour guide. He was the coach of the Croatian Junior National team when Marietta and Antoinela were on the team. He is now a volleyball coach on the coast of Croatia and has two sand courts that his teams play on. His girlfriend is a lawyer and interviewed for a new job while he was with us. They are hoping she gets it so they have additional income to be able to renovate a 120 year old apartment. I really liked him a lot.

Sunday, May 22, 2016

The Sunday morning sleep-in we got was welcome. No planes, trains, or long bus trips for us today!

Most of the girls took advantage of the bus into town at 9:30 AM. Some attended church and the rest hung out in the coffee shops on the plazas.

I slept until 8:30, had breakfast and took a one hour walk. On the walk I found the football (soccer) field associated with the Dras Sports Club,

an outdoor exercise station place,

the driving range at the base of the ski slope,

a camp ground and a viszla walking with his owners.

When the girls came back from town, we rode the ski lift to the top of the "bunny" slope that our hotel overlooked.

You can see the lift on the left and the snaking path of the sled we would ride shortly. At the top of the rise on the right there is an old log cabin-type restaurant that is open year round. It looked like a popular locals spot with lots of interaction between the owner and the clientele. I ended up giving my UTSA visor to the owner to add to his wall. I wish I had had him hang it right then and taken a photo of it. But, I'm sure it's hanging in Solvenia and someday someone will wonder how it got there.

After lunch we took two runs down the mountain on the sleds. It was a lot of fun. I am very grateful that there was a brake! Since I was still recovering from my neck issues, I was concerned that too much speed would give me whiplash around the corners and cause me problems. But I took it nice and slow and had a great time.

Many of the girls carried Go Pros. I, of course, don't have one. But I invented the Bra Pro right on site. I had taken my phone for photos. But I didn't bring a purse. So, where to put the camera for my ride? Ah ha, I thought. I'll put it in my shirt. But, if I position it just right, the camera lens will be exposed. And thus, the Bra Pro was invented. I turned on the video and filmed the three and a half minute ride down the mountain. Here's the video.

There was time between riding the sleds and the match so I read in my room for a while and then had a 50 minute "deep tissue" massage for $40 Euros. It was more like a rub down but relaxing.

When I got to the gym, the Slovenian Club Championships for girls 16 was almost complete. Club Dras hosts volleyball clubs and college teams from all over the world in their facility. They say they have over 70 teams through the gyms and hotel in a year.

Our match with the Slovenian Junior National team did not go well. We lost 3-1.

The evening's activity was a tour and dinner at the Doppler Winery complete with wine tasting for all. (Although we are not talking about that with anyone outside the group because of the university and the difference in drinking laws and ages between the US and Europe.)

The winery is a very new, modern and contemporary facility on the top of a hill with a 360 degree view (360 is the name of one of their wines). Their only red wine is named Doppler Effect - cute.

The winery has been in the family for three generations - run by the women of the family. But this facility was built in 2010 and is state-of-the-art.

I talked with Jon just before leaving the winery. He was so funny! Finding the bed and breakfast in Milan was quite the challenge. He and the cab driver found the address with no problem. But the buzzers for the door were not labeled. They ended up pushing a bunch of buttons with the cabby translating until they found the right one.

Then, needing to get into the European time zone, Jon went out for dinner. He found himself in a bar where someone was celebrating their 50th birthday. He was invited to join the party and after several complimentary birthday drinks, he called me on his walk back to the B&B.

He was lost and thought it was hilarious. As he talked to me, he wandered the streets of Milan looking for something familiar. He finally found it when he spotted the lingerie shop in the Chinese section of Milan where our B&B was.

We finalized our plans to meet at the train station and I hopped on the bus that would take us back to our hotel in Maribor. The nine days I had just spent with the team was the longest I had gone without talking to Jon in our 43 year marriage. I have to say that it was very weird not being able to download and process my day with him. And, it felt really good to know that I would be with him the next day.

Monday, May 23, 2016 - Venice, Italy

Up at 6:15 am for breakfast before hopping on a van to Venice at 7:15. The vans were packed to the gills with luggage and people. Thankfully, the trip was less than three hours and most of us slept the whole way.

When we arrived in Venice, the vans dropped us at a bridge that connected to the train station. There were 50 or more widely spaced steps that we had to schlep our bags over to get to the storage lockers. Given my recent neck problems, there was no way I could get my bag up that incline without potential injury. Luckily, Goran took my bag to the top while I stayed with a pile at the bottom as he and the team carried all the stuff to the top.

This was when I realized that each girl had two large bags, one with game gear and one with regular clothes. Then there was the trainer's medical bag and the bag of gifts for competing teams. It was quite a sight seeing the girls lugging the bags up and over that bridge.

I was able to roll my bags down the far side and into the line for luggage storage. Since there were so many of us, Goran negotiated with the attendant to open a new storage area just for our stuff. The whole process took much less time than I expected.

Our time in Venice was limited to five hours. The girls were instructed where to meet at what time and sent on their way.

I stopped the exodus just long enough to offer to take the girls on the tour I had planned for myself and to inform them of what to look for if they wanted to buy gifts for family and friends (Murano glass and stationery that Venice is known for).

 Laura Little, Amanda Gonzales, Shelby Williams, Megan Slan, Dani Villarreal and Laura Cruz went with me. I bought tickets for a Vaparetto ride to the Rialto Bridge. That way we got to be on the canals and see some of the mansions along the way.

 Unfortunately gondola rides were very expensive, but we saw several like this one on the canals.

When we got off the water taxi at the Rialto Bridge, food was in order. There was a pizza place just before the bridge and we all ate like we hadn't eaten in weeks. In my guide book I had read that local hotels provided free maps of Venice for tourists. So while the girls finished their pizza and wandered through the few stalls of souvenirs, I went into the hotel nearby and said pleasantly to the man at the desk, "Hello, I'm looking for a map of Venice." (I thought they would be out on a table or something.)

The guy behind the desk said, "That will be five Euros."

I said something about my guide book saying that maps were free. He proceeded to curtly tell me that I hadn't asked nicely enough to get a free map. He was just being a jerk.

So, I pasted a sweet smile on my face, looked him in the eye and said, "May I please have a map of Venice?" Then in a syrupy condescending voice, he replied, "I would be pleased to offer a complimentary map to the lady."  I wish I could have thought of a snarky reply that would have put him in his place. I also wanted maps for all the girls but decided that would not be prudent.

I assembled the girls and we walked that last block to the Rialto Bridge. It soon became apparent that we could not all shop together. So we set a time and a meeting place and went our separate ways.

The stores on the bridge were very expensive. But once we got to the far side, there were shops with prices the girls could afford.

 Many of the courtyards were surrounded by these covered walkways with paintings and murals on the arches.

 This was the courtyard we designated as our meeting spot.

 Small allies like this one led to the areas of Venice that did not line the canals. I wandered through some of them to get a feel of what Venice was like away from the tourist areas. I'm not sure I'd want to live there. There is literally no space between buildings, very little outdoor space except where many people can congregate, and almost no plants or vegetation, all stone and dark.

This is a statue of Christopher Columbus. I never did find out why this plaza had his statue. . . he was Spanish, right?

While shopping, I purchased three packs of notepaper and envelopes and Murano glass vases for wedding presents to be shipped back to the states for me.

From the bridge, we walked the short distance to Plaza San Marco. It had been raining so the plaza was almost vacant. The girls were not appropriately dressed to visit St. Mark's Basilica, so Laura Little, Laura Cruz, Amanda Gonzales and I toured the Doge's Palace.

This is a 360 video of San Marco Plaza.

 Me in front of St. Mark's Basilica.

Heading to the Doge Palace.

 The inside courtyard of the Doge.

 Atlas

Hercules - not Babe Ruth.

The ceilings were amazing. All religious themed, ornate and beautifully preserved.

This video is of the council room in the Doge. The Doge Palace was actually the seat of the Venetian government for 400 years.

The Bridge of Sighs links the Doge to the prison.

 This window was the last opportunity for the prisoner to see the water of the canals and the blue of the sky until they were released.

 The cell held many prisoners at once. Notice the lack of running water and toilets, fresh air or heat. Wouldn't have wanted to spend any time in this place.

 We met the rest of our group that had gone for coffee and gelato rather than the tour and hopped on another Vaparetto for the ride back to the train station.

                          Milan, Italy

The train to Milan was big as an airplane inside, fast, clean and on time.

Jon met us at the train station. The girls saw him first and he hugged them all. I was last because I had stayed close to the gate we arrived at to be sure he could find me.

The girls watched our reunion with interest. I'd told them how much I missed him and that this was the longest I'd gone in our marriage without talking to him. We kissed quickly but I couldn't break the hug for a bit.

It's interesting and amazing and wonderful to me how incomplete I felt without him as a "touch stone"; how much I depend upon him for conversation, interaction, validation and companionship.

We took a cab to the B&B Jon had found with such difficulty the day before on the second floor (third floor by the way we count floors - but in Europe the ground floor is zero, second floor is one and so on) of an apartment building.

The Adorabile Bed and Breakfast is a large apartment converted into five sleeping rooms with a common area for breakfast.

Our room.

The common rooms.

Jon took me to dinner at a place close by, one that we thought we could find the B&B again from. But, we started out in the wrong direction and got all turned around. The dinner was good. Jon had veal scallopini and I had risotto with asparagus.

We were in bed by midnight and I was ready. I was leg weary and my feet were tired.

Thursday, May 24, 2016 - Milan, Italy

Breakfast at the B&B was pleasant. Our host set out several options to choose from that were tasty and simple like most of the breakfasts we'd have in Europe.

We met the team at the Duomo and Jon bought us all tickets. Again, the girls were not appropriately dressed. So, we passed out sweaters and scarves and extra jackets until we realized that there were not enough to go around. Luckily there was thoughtful vendor close by with scarves for sale to cover knees and shoulders. The girls asked how long they had to stay. We replied that they just had to go in for a few minutes and then they could do whatever they wanted to do. Ultimately, they stayed for quite some time and most of them opted to climb the stairs to the top of the Duomo to get photos of Milan from the top.

The Duomo is amazing. It is the fourth largest cathedral in the world. Construction began int eh 1400s and it took several hundred years to get it to its current condition. Work continues on parts of it to complete the original plan and, of course, constant maintenance is required.

High in the rafters above the altar is a small red light. A nail that is reported to be from Jesus Crucifixion is kept there all year round until it is brought down for a two week showing annually.

 Jon with Brenna and Laura behind the Duomo.

Several of the girls along with Laura Groff and Brenna, the trainer on the trip, joined us for gelato in the near by shopping mall, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle II, created by putting a roof over the walkways between buildings.

From there we went to the Sforza Castle. Built in the late 1300s as a military fortress, the castle guarded the gate to the city wall. Later the Sforza family built their residence into the fortress. DaVinci contributed to the design of the ramparts. Now it is a museum.

The most interesting item in the museum is Michelangelo's final sculpture - his fourth pieta - "Pieta Rondanini". The work is unfinished and "seemingly a mishmash of corrections and reworks". Michelangelo was nearly 90 when he worked on this sculpture. The grief evident on Mary's face reflects a more mature depiction of the event than the sculptures of the same material when he was in his 20s.

We met the team in Piazza Duomo after lunch and sent them back to their hotel to rest before the match with the Italian team.

The Italians were very good - all older, more experienced players and we stepped up our game to play the best match yet. The feather in our cap was that we actually beat them one set with them getting less than 20 points and we kept it close during two of the last three sets.

The match was close to the hotel the team was staying in so Jon and I went ahead to the restaurant while the girls cleaned up for dinner. We bought dinner for everyone that night.

We returned to the B&B at about 11 pm. Packed for the next leg of our trip - alone, without the team - and hit the hay.