Day 4 - March 22, 2014

After another great breakfast at the Millennium Bailey Hotel in London, everyone met outside and loaded up the buses for the drive out to Heathrow Airport.  Once at the airport we made our way through security relatively quickly.  I am not sure if it was a quiet time at the airport, or if Heathrow is so big that they have everything down to a science, but everything was very efficient.  Once we were through, the group spent their time either sleeping, shopping or eating.  It took awhile, but our gate was finally announced and we made our way to where we needed to be.  On the way to our gate, many of the girls were excited to see the Sting legend - Ms. Beaker Gabert, who was passing through London on one of her international trips.  At our gate, we all hopped onto several buses and were transferred across the tarmac to our awaiting Boeing 767 for the flight to Sweden.

The flight went very well, and we arrived on time at Stockholm's airport.  This airport is considerably smaller than Heathrow and it was nice to get away from the crowds.  I would guess that this airport is even smaller than the Edmonton International Airport - which is an easy one to fly into/out of.  We shared the flight with a large group of Swedish high school students who were returning from a London shopping trip.  I am confident that none of our girls noticed the Swedish boys.

At the airport, once we collected our luggage and loaded the two buses, we were off to the hotel.  Arriving just at dusk, we had enough time to check in before everyone scattered for supper.  As the group sporadically returned to the hotel after a long day, the girls went to bed and the parents finally gathered downstairs for a much needed debriefing.  Most of the parents were there, and though many eyes looked around the room for our missing contingent of teachers, Mr. Caine stepped up and proudly represented the one noticeably absent profession.

Today was really just a travel day, but everyone is looking forward to tomorrow and our first game against the Swedes.  Game line-ups have been announced and tomorrow will see Sting finally hit the international ice.  Go Sting Go!

My observations for the day:

• It was great to see Greg Cherniak join the group today.  I have attached a photo of him and Darren Dreger at the airport.  The totality of three days in London had clearly caught up to Darren, but Greg appears fresh and well rested.  Weird.
• A few of us found the most delightful restaurant near our Swedish hotel with a very charming atmosphere.  Our hopes and dreams are with young Gavin K to do Canada proud.  A few others had dinner at the Hard Rock cafe, but I understand the atmosphere was a little more "hard core".
• British Airlines rocks!  The service on the plane was excellent and they had an entire crew of flight attendants efficiently making sure the team's needs were met.
• We had a Final 19 actually close down the lounge in Stockholm.  That may be a Sting record.  Photo is attached.  Looks like yet another in a long line of  Final pictures in Stockholm without Coach Darcy.
• Rum is clearly not a big seller here as the parent group actually finished all that they had in stock.  And reserve.  
• Finally, we were lucky to have the 2012 Foothills Cowboy Association Cowboy of the Year, Troy Pollitt join us tonight.  It did not take long to see that the cowboy makes the buckle, the buckle DOES NOT make the cowboy.  Oh my.