December 26, 2005:
Jacksonville group arrives in Venice at 9:20am. The entire group will go directly from the Airport to the Center of Venice. Normally it will be cold and you need to be prepared to spend the next four to six hours outside walking around the wonderful city of Venice and taking the water-buses. Around 4:00pm the entire group will make the 2-3 hour bus ride to Izola, Slovenia.
December 27, 2005:
Atlanta group and S. Unger arrive at 11:40am in Venice while the Alaska group arrives at 12:10pm. Both groups will leave together and go directly from the airport to the city center of Venice. It will be cold and you need to be prepared to spend the next four to six hours outside walking around the wonderful city of Venice and taking the water-buses. At 5:00pm both groups will meet for a group dinner in Venice.
Note: If one of the two groups arrival time is delayed, the other group will need to wait at the airport until both groups arrive. Sorry, but Venice makes life very difficult for tour buses to come and go from the airport.
San Jose group arrives at 3:30pm and will go directly from the airport to the city center of Venice. It will be cold and you need to be prepared to spend the next four to six hours outside walking around the wonderful city of Venice and taking the water-buses.
Around 7:00pm all groups will make the 2-3 hour bus ride to Izola, Slovenia and meet up with the Jacksonville group.
The Jacksonville group will have the entire day to practice, sightsee and enjoy Izola.
December 28, 2005:
All teams will be allowed to practice prior to the start of the tournament. Exact details of the Izola tournament will be posted at a later date when all the details are finalized. While in Izola, all the American teams will stay at the Hotel Marina, where breakfast, lunch and dinner will be served. Since Izola is a small coastal village and the hotel is situated right next to the gym and city center, everyone will have plenty of time to wonder around this wonderful town.
That night, Elan (A Slovenian Ski Company, see www.elan.si) will come to the hotel for private ski rental sessions. All people wishing to rent skis or snowboards will have the opportunity to do so at this time.
December 29, 2005:
Entire day will be spent at the Izola tournament and sightseeing in town.
December 30, 2005:
The Izola tournament will conclude around 1:00pm and all teams will make the 3-hour trip to Maribor, Slovenia. All players, and most of the group, will stay at the Hotel Arena at the base of the Pohorje Ski Resort. However, because the hotel only has 51 beds, the remainder of the group will stay two minutes away at the Hotel Villa Merano. That night there will be a reception hosted by Elan Skis and Sport Center Pohorje during a private (and discounted) shopping session at a local discount retailer.
All meals while in Maribor will be at the Hotel Arena.
December 31, 2005:
Players can either spend the day skiing in Maribor, or sightseeing in this wonderful town. Practice time will also be available upon request.
All day there will be activities and festivities on the Pohorje Mountain and ski resort and everyone in the group can participate. In addition, everyone will have use of a five star wellness resort. See http://www.termemb.si/ie/English/Hotel_Habakuk/hotel_habakuk.html
That afternoon everyone will take the gondola/tram to the top of the Pohorje Mountain and meet at Marion’s Famous Mountain Restaurant (no actual name) to kick off the New Years celebrations.
New Years Eve will be spent at the Hotel Arena Ballroom and Restaurant where all the players are staying.
January 1, 2005:
Players can either spend the day skiing in Maribor, or sightseeing in this wonderful town.
Later in the afternoon, those adults wishing to attend a special wine tasting function can do so in the old town part of Maribor. Maribor is known for its white wine.
January 2, 2005:
All teams will leave for Prague, Czech Republic around 9:00am. Three hours into the drive we will stop and have four hours to tour the city center of Vienna. Around 4:30pm we will board the bus and make the four/five hour trip to Prague where dinner will be at our hotel upon arrival.
In Prague, the hotel, restaurant and gym are all in the same location 30 minutes outside of Prague in a small village.
January 3, 2005:
The entire morning will be spent sightseeing in Prague. We are staying at a volleyball center about 30 km outside of Prague and our tour bus will take us to the metro stop, which will take us to the center of Prague.
Note that taking the metro in and out of Prague saves about 1 hour in transportation time as traffic in Prague can be very heavy.
We will return to the hotel around 1:30pm, have lunch and the tournament will start at 3:00pm that afternoon.
Again, the tournament format in Prague will be announced at a later date when all the information is available.
The tournament will run into the evening.
January 4, 2005:
Again, all teams will tour Prague in the morning until around 1:30pm when they will return, have lunch at the hotel and start the second day of the tournament at 3:00pm.
After the tournament ends later that day all teams, (including the Czech teams) will have an end of tournament dinner together at the hotel.
January 5, 2005:
All teams will have the entire day to sightsee in Prague. Everyone will meet for a final dinner in Prague that night.
January 6, 2005:
The Jacksonville group will leave the hotel at 3:00am, yes 3:00am, for their five-hour bus ride to Munich to board their plane home. Fun! All other teams will be transported to the Prague airport arriving two hours before their flight home.
Note: All players will need to bring a liability waiver (provided by their coach, online version available on this site also) signed by their parents. Also, as this is an u16 / u18 tour, BIP will enforce a no-alcohol policy. Adults are of course on their own during free time, but minors will be expected to refrain from drinking for the duration of this tour.