AMSTERDAM

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All the excitement of Donald's hockey is now over, as well as the World Cup tournament for the Australian men and women in The Hague. Donald's team played a fantastic final against Netherlands, but unfortunately missed out on the gold, taking home the silver medal. The team had plenty of chances, but it did not happen for them this time. Anyway, every Australian Masters Team in The Hague and also in Rotterdam, won bronze, silver or gold. That included 8 men's teams, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70 and 75, as well as 5 or 6 women's masters teams, also all winning a medal. A major feat- we imagine it will make the front pages of all major newspapers at home!!! We were discussing this feat the other night and all agreed that probably not one paper anywhere, except perhaps one or two country town papers, will acknowledge these achievements. Anyway we did attend the finals on Saturday and Sunday of Australia's premier teams, the Hockeyroos on Saturday and the Kookaburras on Sunday. Two great days of top class hockey. On Saturday we were blown away by the enthusiasm of the 15,000 crowd passionately cheering for their own Dutch team which won the gold against our Aussie women. The Dutch women clearly outclassed our women. The noise was deafening. Then on Sunday, it was Australia's turn to win. The men's team, the Kookaburras, were simply outstanding. We all said we had never seen such a dominant or more outstanding game by any team before. The players were so fit, fast and so skilful. The crowd of again about 15,000 were stunned. Each time Australia scored, there were these little pockets of "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, etc" cheering as loudly as possible. The Dutch always acknowledged the goals, but it was amazing to be part of the crowd where they were simply stunned by the "brilliance" of our Aussie men.

So now we have said our goodbyes to all our hockey friends, left our hotel in The Hague, and this morning caught a train for a pleasant trip to Amsterdam. Lo and behold, on the train, we sat down opposite a couple from Maryborough, who were friends of the parents-in-law of Liam De Young in the Aussie Men's Team. Small world. And it turns out this couple were also doing a boat cruise to Budapest, but they go tomorrow, and with a different cruise company. So now we are settled into our hotel right on a canal close to the centre here in Amsterdam, just a short walk from the station. Donald is having a sleep, hoping to ditch this flu he has. Soon we will take a walk and do some exploring by foot. However it has turned quite cold so will see how much we do, depending on how Donald feels. Tomorrow, we are taking a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus tour of the city, and hope to do a Heineken Brewery Tour. Wednesday morning we will do more exploring, as we do not need to meet our Boat Cruise Tour Group till later in the afternoon, at a hotel just diagonally across the canal, very handy. For some reason our luggage seems so much heavier, although our extra purchasing has not been too great. Maybe we need to do some re-arranging of all the gear. Donald's hockey bag is very heavy and we suspect it may be too heavy on the flight home, so may need to off-load some into hand luggage or somewhere. Some players who were doing other tours posted their hockey gear bag home, but Donald chose not go, as we had made arrangements to take it on the cruise boat anyway. So till next blog, take care all. Donald and Carol

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