Miami's women's basketball team prior to their last game in Germany.  • Europe Trip Index Page

Hello from Freiburg!!!

It is our first full day in Freiburg, Germany, and it turned out to be a beautiful Saturday for shopping. We had free time from 10-2 p.m. to go shopping and sightseeing around the city. I went with Jen Beardslee, Nicki, and Mel to the local market, which is held on Saturdays outside Munster Cathedral. We spent about an hour going from stall to stall looking at all the local fare. The market had fresh fruit, vegetables, flowers and other assorted goods for sale. I got great deals on hand-made soaps and honey.

After shopping at the market, we went looking for a café to have a cup of coffee. I had never had coffee before, but Jen told me that the coffee we were drinking was much better than the generic coffee in America. She also told me I ruined my cup because of all the sugar I added (about ¼ cup). I'm not sure if I will ever be a coffee drinker, but at least now I can say I have tried some of the best.

On our way back from shopping, Mel stopped at a bakery that specialized in soft pretzels and bought one to eat and one to try to take home to her mom, who is a pretzel-lover. We figured it might be a little stale, but it would still be worth the effort because they were so good.

After shopping we all went to a restaurant that served authentic German food for our pre-game meal. Fried pork and steak cutlets are very popular with fries or spaztel. We went back to our hotel after lunch to rest and get taped for our last game against a German team at 6:30 p.m.

Playing in Europe has been interesting because of some of the differences in the rules and regulations. The paint isn't a rectangle, it is a trapezoid, with the wider end toward the low block. There also is a 24 second shot clock, and we play with a men's ball. Furthermore, you can only substitute into the game when the ball is in your team's possession. We didn't have a problem playing with a bigger ball, because the week before we left, we made sure to practice with a men's ball, so we would be accustomed to the difference. The court is also narrower, and that was really hard for us to adjust to as we stepped out of bounds four or five times tonight. We played very well despite the new differences, and we won by about 40 points.

After our game we went to another German restaurant that was similar to the one we went to for lunch. About 11 p.m. the team headed over to a club called the Jazz Haus. It was fun to see how different dancing and music was in Germany. After about three songs we realized that it was oldies night, because there were posters up everywhere advertising the "Summer of Love - 60's & 70's Night". They played Elvis, Janis Joplin, and songs from the soundtrack of Grease and the Jungle Book. Everyone in the club seemed like the were having a great time singing all of America's oldies, and some of them knew the words to the songs better than we did; it was a good time.

We got back to the hotel around 12:15 a.m., (45min ahead of curfew) and winded down to get some rest. Tomorrow we are staying in town to watch the World Cup game between Germany and Brazil, and then we are headed to Strasbourg. Your RedHawks are 4-0 in Europe... See you all soon!

Andrea Pruett

Thanks to Elaine Hieber for contributing toward our meals today!