Day 1
The group arrived at the Brisbane International Airport full of excitement and for some a little bit of trepidation. The group comprised 32 players and 7 staff.
We arrived at Frankfurt after 23 hrs in transit. Broady and Rale had a superb flight given the spare seat between them. Tim Zuyderwyk unfortunately lost his bag which surely caused him a lot of stress but all credit to him you would never know.
The next part of the travel involved a bus ride to Braunshausen and we found the bus driver in a very busy airport. One problem. He only speaks French. Which causes a bit of a problem on in a German country with an Aussie tour group. Up steps Charlie Miller to translate. So we now have a boy born in the Congo translating French to give to Heinrich in English so he can speak German to the people we are staying with. What a start!
We arrived at our digs and the quality is very good with 3 beds in very spacious rooms. The Gasthaus is run by the local football federation and has a restaurant, camping grounds and football (indoor and outdoor) training facilities.
Lunch was chicken snitzel with sauerkraut, chips and German potato salad. Thank goodness it is buffet style as the boys were a bit hungry after 29 hours of travel.
Following lunch we set out for our first session to get the bus/plane legs out of us. Alex Ferguson McLeod took the majority of the session with Rale and for many boys it was their first experience on turf.
Dinner that night was simple with German sausages and the salad from the lunch. This will take a lot of getting used to for the boys as the German people prefer their big meal at lunchtimes.
As for falling asleep after dinner it took about 5 minutes to get them to bed. Especially after a few of the boys were able to get their Milo Fix.