Greetings from Bolzano!
We arrived in late morning yesterday, after having been (miraculously) reunited at the airport in Munich. As my group waited for luggage, Mazin and his 2 charges walked past us on their way to retrieve luggage at a different carousel.
There was a moment where we realized there was another group of athletic types in red jackets. Brad, in a moment of “Broadway mania”, thought we could take them and broke out in finger snaps and chasses a la “Sharks vs The Jets” to the untold amusement of N’Ice Guys and strangers alike. (I won’t lie…I did see a look of fear in the eyes of some of the Red Coats.)
We proceeded with ALL of the bags (and therefore skates) into the terminal only to find a very friendly looking man with a sign who was our bus driver Matthias.
Making our way from Germany to Bolzano would take about 3 1/2 hours and included a road side stop in Innsbruck. So like one of those wacky movies, it would be a total of 4 countries in 24 hours: Canada, Germany, Austria and finally Italy.
We checked into our city centre hotel and with 4 hours to spare before dinner all divided into impromptu groups with quite a few going out for a walk in the city, still beautifully decorated from Christmas and some others choosing the “wellness Centre” and the sauna. (More about that in a moment)
Dinner was in the hotel with our host (the producer) and then bedtime for most although there was a spontaneous basketball game in the room above me which was reported to the front desk and then to me this morning. (sigh) Boys will be boys.
This morning’s breakfast was a treat with food for all palates: fruit, cheese, meat, yogurt, cereal, pastries and the BEST latte macchiatto anywhere.
Mazin started out alone and were eventually joined by 3 more guys one of whom arrived at the table wide eyed and in a voice that was akin to the guy in Sixth sense (“I see dead people”) he said in a whisper: “I saw her naked” Apparently, he was one of the sauna goers and in an Italian sauna rule of some kind, you have to be naked. He may never be the same since. Some things are a for sure: Pj is NOT going in the sauna on this trip.
The good news is Uncle Krissypants has arrived! WHEW! Otherwise we were going to have to teach Flat Stanley (courtesy of the Grade 2 class at Allenby PS) the show numbers! The bad news is no skates and no Black Swan tutu at the moment.
We are heading to see the Froze Guy, as one of our troupe calls the IceMan who is in a museum here and then more food (yum!) and off to the ice where the real magic will happen.