Tuesday, November 19, 2019
After an enjoyable few days in London, it was finally time to get serious about the main reason for this latest trip abroad, a Europe Warriors U18 game in Vienna, Austria next Sunday.
My British Air flight to the Austrian capital was scheduled to depart London's Heathrow Airport at 7:10 a.m., thus I needed to be up early to say the least.
I was going to return to Heathrow via the Heathrow Express train's 20 minute ride from Paddington Station. My problem was that the first train of the day didn't leave Paddington until 5:10 a.m.. I would be arriving at Heathrow well under the two hour before takeoff rule that most airports suggest to travelers.
Stressful.
When I arrived at Paddington Station after a ten minute walk from my hotel, it was about 4:40 a.m.
Entering Paddington Station
Where is everybody?
No, seriously, am I the only
customer in the entire station?
Anybody . . .
Wait, there is somebody . . .
No, just a statue
It was lonely but finally at about
5:00 a.m. some activity began just
as the first Heathrow Express of the
day arrived at the station
As it turned out, all of the stress was for nothing as there was no one at Heathrow either.
Since I had checked in on-line and had no bags to check, it was straight into the Security Check line. There was only one person in line when I arrived.
Smooth sailing.
We took off about 25 minutes late because they had to de-ice the plane's wings.
I was more than just OK with that.
The flight only took about two hours and gave me a chance to catch up on my missed beauty sleep.
The first sign that I was in Austria
was a good one!
I waited in the baggage claim area for about 40 minutes for the arrival of Warriors' Head Coach and Co-Founding Father Bart Iaccarino's flight from Barcelona.
On the way to picking
up our rental van
Our hotel was about a 15 minute drive from the airport.
The view out my Hotel Jufa room
As usual, after checking into my room, I went back downstairs to the reception desk and asked for the WIFI code.
This was it?
I think that it is the name of the hotel, three of the nearby Austrian Alps and a zero.
I could be wrong.
Time to hit the road on foot to find some sustenance.
No, YOU Der Mann!
It looked good so . . .
. . . we opted to . . .
. . . go in and try their lunch
special for only seven Euros
A half of a delicious roasted chicken it was then.
Plus a local beer or two.
Bart and I were joined by our Offensive Line coach, Honza Rauš who had just arrived by car from Prague, another great guy!
El Paso Schnitzel?
Yes, we stopped into a bakery
on the walk home
The start of another
Christmas Market
Bicycle Competition
I could not have said it any better!
I just liked the look
Bart took this picture of our
game/practice field as his
plane approached the Vienna Airport
Since it's only a ten minute walk from our hotel, we opted to work off some of these latest calories and check it out personally in person.
New 100 Yard Field Turf
field with all the numbers and lines
WOW!
The sun setting behind the
ancient cemetery next to our field
At 9:00 p.m., we were joined by Co-Europe Warriors Founding Father Jesús Sánchez whose flight from Madrid had just arrived.
Time to eat yet again, just as a courtesy to Jesús you understand.
We were told by people at the hotel
that this was THE place to dine
Unfortunately, by the time that we walked there their kitchen was closed.
Time for Plan B.
PLAN B!
Damn that was GOOD!
It was another solid day
for Physical Fitness
Wednesday's Schedule for
the Warriors will be dedicated
to picking up our players and
getting them to the hotel
We have players arriving from ten different European countries via planes, trains, busses and automobiles.
LOGISTICS, you can't be an American Football coach without a good understanding of this concept!
Let the fun begin!
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