Today was our first full day on tour, and as we were all somewhat jet-lagged, we had a rest day. Not wanting to completely waste a day in Europe, a tour of Amsterdam by none other that our very own Dennis “Dusty” Giles had been organised. Dennis is a long-time Australian Korfballer, who now lives in Holland. On a more personal note, he is the one who got me involved with Korfball, along with a few other members of the team, so it was great to catch up with him again.

First stop was a glass-topped boat ride through some of Amsterdam’s famous canals, where some of the sights and history of Amsterdam were shown and explained, thankfully in English. Next up was a cafe called Blue, on top of a shopping centre, with great views of Amsterdam from above. It was really interesting to be able to see Amsterdam from both above and below, so to speak. After that was exploring the main shopping district, which is always good fun. Next it was time for a quick tour of one of the more famous districts of Amsterdam. Given it was the first time in Amsterdam for many members of the squad, and it’s probably fair to say it was an eye-opening experience. We capped off the day with dinner in a nice local pub.

The train trip home was relatively uneventful, until I fell asleep on the train and ended up two towns over, without a phone, having already lost that on the transit over here (it’s probably fair to say my trip can only improve). However, thanks to the generosity of a few of the locals, who allowed me to get in contact with the team, and who made sure I got on the right train back, I returned unscathed, although at the mercy of plenty of ribbing.

We are looking forward to tomorrow, which is our first day of training, as well as including a shooting competition against some of the youth players from our host club, KV Wageningen. After that we are off to watch a Holland-Chinese Taipei practice match, which should be a lot of fun.

Remember to keep checking the Facebook page and/or the National Teams page to keep updated with everything that’s going on.