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.

Well, it would seem that it is a pretty straightforward thing to try and get from point A to point B in this day age, but not today.

The N'Ice Guys were scheduled to go from Toronto to Philadelphia to Munich and then by bus to Bolzano and we arrived in plenty of time to make all of that happen.  Seems like the travel Gods had different ideas.

First of all there was the mystery of the hats. 14 were ordered but only 12 made it to the airport. In an act of Christian kindness, I gave mine up to Uncle Krissypants (don't ask).  I could say more, but do I need to?  Let's just say a tantrum was involved and I didn't have any candies in my purse, so this was the next best thing.

Check in was a breeze.  No line up but a caveat from the agent at the desk who said for us to have as little as possible to go through security and to pack as much as possible in our checked suitcases.

I made the guys all wear our team jackets and the next stop was the US Customs and Immigration.  My customs man was a lovely fellow who wanted to know why I hadn't taken the direct route to Italy and where he could go public skating with his family in the city.

I am going to cut to the chase.  After hanging around for the better part of the afternoon  and seeing that our flight was going to be delayed by at least two hours, I did some quick math in my head and realized that with a layover of only 1.5 hours in Philly was going to mean that we would surely miss our connection.  A quicik trip to the desk, where I spoke to (happy sigh) Alberto who told me that if I could gather ALL of the boarding passes he would tell me what he was going to do with me. (swoon).

The boys all wondered how this happened and J-bird even went so far as to ask if I had um...flashed my...er....tassels.  He thought he was being a Smart N'Ice Guy and asking me in front of another team member. Sadly no.  Just some strange man in a dark vest who declared that if he had "tassels" he would be flashing them too for a seat. (or 14)

So believe it or not; armed with new flights, we had to clear customs (but Alberto....I haven't been anywhere yet??!!) and pick up our bags and leave the secured area to go to our new airline and start all over again with the check-in and the boarding pass and the security (which was very professional and efficient both times...go Molly!....I read the name tag!) and the waiting.

There was a moment where B-rat wanted to take off his pants but instead, and in his own charming way was able to convince security to "have a little fun" with "neverbeenanywahereJamie".  We all laughed like mad as they checked him over thoroughly and am sure he should be able to sit comfortably again by Tuesday. 

Suffice to say, 3 are going to Munich via Frankfurt on a completely different airline but only after sprinting through the airport to make the flight.

7 of us are going DIRECT to Munich on a certain Canadian carrier!!!  Woo hooo! the skates are going to make it !   4 are still on standby.  Frankly, if they don't make the flight, I don't care as I have been upgraded!!!

And this is just the beginning...Stay tuned for more updates!