http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Abbo/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Abbo en-us Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:59:54 +0000 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:59:54 +0000 Whilst most of us had lie ins a couple of the boys who were staying with teachers had to go to school early before the midweek game. Here is a match report by captain Cameron SkinnerldquoA for once sunny English morning greeted the boys as they arrived at Pannal CC to play St. Aidenrsquos. After winning the toss and electing to bowl Tynan and Jake Sullivan both started strongly to take wic http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/North-Yorkshire/blog-415536.html Thursday saw us leaving our billets at St. Aidanrsquos and moving on to Yarm School about ten miles southwest of Middlesborough. After departing early in the morning we proceeded to travel to York an old city which has been inhabited since Roman times and has been an important stronghold for many civilisations. We were given the instructions to be back at the bus by 330 and therefore had a f http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/North-Yorkshire/York/blog-414904.html We left our mansion at the Holloway University after a big breakfast on the day that we would meet our first billets of the tour. We had a fair bit of sightseeing to do first and this included a trip to Windsor Castle. Once we found how to get in and subsequently bought 32 tickets we entered the Queenrsquos residence and it was a sight not many of the boys had seen before with the size and stru http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/blog-414380.html Today was a free day with our billets. A handful of us went into Manchester City Centre where we were more scared than we ever have been in our entire life brisbane makes you feel a lot safer http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/blog-413489.html The earliest start of the tour did not begin in good fashion as we encountered our first bit of serious rain so far. We met at the school at 645 and following some farewells we hopped on the bus ready for the 5 hour coach journey to Manchester. The majority of this journey was spent catching up on sleeping from parties in previous nights. We stopped at some services to get food and coffee then we http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/blog-413488.html Today was going to be our most relaxing day of the tour so far. Although late nights for 95 of the team meant that the 8 orsquoclock start was not welcome everyone clambered onto the bus. Our first stop was Hambledon a small village with a cricket oval. It was here that the rules for cricket were first drawn up and has a place in sporting history as the original home of cricket. Around the p http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/East-Sussex/Brighton/blog-413487.html We awoke on Monday and stumbled half asleep into the dining hall for our last meal at the school. Another fry up with a cereal of our choice set us up for the day. However there was one more thing I had to do before we left. In our time there most of us had become friends with Liam. Liam was a Welshman who played U16 rugby for Cardiff Blues and used to be at the Charlton Athletic soccer academy. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/blog-413486.html We awoke in our dorms on Sunday ready for our first game. Adam Nightingale and I were to take the game off as part of our rotation system. Following a fry up and cereal in the school dining hall we went out to watch the military parade of the school as a practice for when a member of the royal family comes to watch them in two weeks. Though we started off very interested after an hour and a half http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/blog-413485.html The final morning of mainland Europe started by some more long life milk. After quickly packing our bags we quickly got on the bus. Of course the drive couldnrsquot be without incident as we encountered another stage of the rally and had our driver had to pull off some fantastic manoeuvring to get us back on the road. A number of us slept on this trip and awoke as we were coming up to customs i http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/blog-411670.html We awoke on Friday to another continental breakfast before starting the dayrsquos activities with a visit to the largest British cemetery in the world Tyne Cot. There were over 11000 graves there and about 1800 belonged to Australians. Our guide gave us a run down of the events that led to this mass murdering. This was followed by a visit to a museum that had real preserved trenches along wit http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/blog-411669.html The team woke at various intervals on Thursday morning as we were given a free reign to do what we wanted until 1130 that morning. Jacob Sullivan and I awoke early for breakfast in order to try and get the most out of our first time in Paris. We walked around aimlessly for 3 hours but attempted to see a side of the city that was not all sightseeing by travelling down side streets. This walk concl http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/blog-411668.html After a long flight and an early lsquoplanersquo breakfast the boys were left slightly worse for wear and with tired and hungry stomachs got onto the bus which was to deliver us to our hotel in Paris. Having arrived at about 6 am local time and it then being about 8 am by the time we got to the bushellip. The French rush hour had started and we were stuck in traffic for a bit longer than ev http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-411667.html We soon found out we were not the biggest tour group on the planehellipcertainly the loudest but not the biggest no surprises thereBeing Benrsquos 17th birthday a cake was provided and as you can imagine a rather large chorus of lsquoHappy Birthdayrsquo was soon to follow much to the annoyance of the other passengers. Hopefully 17 will not be the only milestone someone from our team m http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Singapore/Changi/blog-409572.html Today the boys underwent our final training session before the tour. We did 2 hours of fielding drills in an attempt to get us alert and ready for our 8 games overseas. I will endeavour to update this as much as possible letting everyone know whats going on halfway across the worldThe boys would all like to thank their parents for making this trip become a reality and special mention to Debbie C http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Brisbane/blog-407970.html