Augsburg's women's soccer team is sending daily diaries during the team's trip to Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. Here's head coach Mike Navarre's diary entry for Thursday, May 13:
Players enjoyed biking through the caves outside of Valkenburg on Thursday morning. It's the longest system of caves in Europe. We went to a European championship qualifying match between two Dutch teams,
Roda JC and
FC Utrecht, on Thursday afternoon.
Today (Friday), we are in Maastricht, the oldest city in the Netherlands. We visited an American World War II cemetery outside of Maastricht where
Kristi Castelic (SR, De Pere, Wis./West De Pere HS) found the grave of her grandmother's brother. Now we are enjoying walking around Maastricht.
We had training this morning with a member of the Dutch national federation coaching staff. The players are excited to play a match tomorrow!
Here's some thoughts on Thursday's activities from Auggie players Courtney Gamrath (SO, St. Michael, Minn./St. Michael-Albertville HS) and Kristi Castelic (SR, De Pere, Wis./West De Pere HS):
We started out our day with a cave adventure at the Valkenburg Caves. We split into two groups and did a bike and walk tour underground. The caves were 40 meters below ground. There were 76 kilometers of
trails with over 3,000 tunnels. The Valkenburg caves are the largest cave system in Europe and were interesting to see.
Besides the bike tour, we had a team bonding walking tour where we had to find our way around, like “The Legends of The Hidden Temple" with clues. We climbed through tiny tunnels, walked around in the dark and maneuvered our way across water with ropes and a boat.
After the caves, we went back to the hotel and got ready for the soccer match between
Roda JC and
FC Utrecht. The match was for a place in the European league next fall. We were seated in the first and second rows while cheering for Roda JC. We watched the game in awe because it was not your typical soccer game environment. The fans were extremely into the game and doing cheers and jumping around like crazy! A net and a row of security guards separated the home fans and away fans. Roda JC lost 2-0 during this playoff match but we enjoyed the European play.
After the match we were on our own to explore the city of Valkenburg. All in all, everyone had a good day and enjoyed the nightlife around our hotel.
Some interesting cultural differences:
-- In Europe, you cannot receive your driver's license until you are 18 and it costs about 3,000 euros to do so. You need a different license in order to operate a scooter and only have to be 16.
-- The majority of stores are closed on Sundays.
-- Payment is needed to use public restrooms and the only free water comes from your sink.
-- Dogs can go into stores, restaurants and supermarkets with owners.
