Switzerland 2013

So this is what the whole trip was planned around ...going to the Spengler Cup Final . Now as soon as that idea popped up i jumped all over it as i have always mentioned that i wanted to go play there , i mean its so close to Germany and i am always there so why is it that i haven't been there yet ? Well , its expensive ... and i mean this made some countries in Scandinavia more appealing . Yes its expensive up there too :) I don't think any of us were really willing to temp losing our wallets staying here so Switzerland was more of an in and out thing . Our first run in with the prices and the country was for a late game in Grusch so driving there was pitch black and i couldn't see anything . Timo kept mentioning how beautiful it was around here but its too bad we are always travelling at night . This was planned as we all knew we would be pissing the night away LOL .

Rainer had a game set up for us against EHC Vaduz as you can see we were in room 3 under the name AC Rheinmann hahahaha !!! Seems like everywhere we go people are challenged to spell Rainman All Stars out ... no joke i have seen some many variations of my beloved travel clubs name . The guys from Vaduz took this game a bit more serious then we did and it seemed a bit dirty but in reality they were just trying to beat us , we didn't clear the cobwebs until the second half but it was too late as we lost by 1 goal :( technically it was a pickup game but in reality these guys took it serious ... good on them , they played well and it was nice to play against them . Originally we were hoping to meet some old friends here to play but none of them showed up and only 1 replied ... as i said some times i meet people and they move on , as sad as it seems that's the way it is . And then i make new friends . Thanks to the guys from EHC Vaduz you all were great sports , and it was nice chatting with a few of you outside after ... hope to see you all at some tournaments in the future !

Rainer was on a bender .As you can see above he is trying to feed me his stick and he already ( possibly still ) has a beer in his hands LOL ... the guys that drove him were the last to leave the rink and i am sure they had fun trying to get him out of there . He loves to sit in his equipment and drink LOL ... i don't blame him . Good job organizing this trip for us buddy ! When we left we stopped at a McDonalds on the side of the road .... we found out how expensive it is there , now i am not sure if this was Liechtenstein or Switzerland we were in but we had the choice of paying in Swiss Francs or Euros . Kathleen and myself had a meal each and i added McWings ... yeah i had to , over here in Toronto that would probably be about $15 or something like that ... well there it was $45 !!!! OUCH ... but at least the wings were good :) 

So when we started organizing this trip we were talking about the rink seen above ! That rink is just outside the Valiant Arena in Davos,Switzerland , unfortunately it was fully booked and we could not organize this . Also it would have been a royal pain in the ass to drag my gear on the train to go there , yeah we took a train and we overpaid as we all forgot we didn't need to pay full fare with our Spengler tickets ... oh the humble hangover strikes again . Whatever , we didn't skate on that ice and we paid extra to get to Davos ... it was really beautiful but mainly it was a ski town . Yeah they are pretty much all the same except not many have anything quite as prestigious as the Spengler Cup . Now for those of you that have been hiding under a rock for most of your lives :) the Spengler Cup is an invitational tournament that has been held since 1923 around the Christmas holidays with the final being held on the day of New Years Eve ... pretty good way to start the party ? Yeah unfortunately we had some problems getting some of our group in as Rainer went missing , well we left without him as he was sleeping/trashed LOL . So when we got in it was rammed , we should have entered earlier ... also Kathleen went missing !!! yeah she didn't watch any of the game at all with me , she was in a tent outside ... don't get me started . 

Of course the big wish for me was to see Team Canada vs. CSKA Moscow ... unfortunately Team Canada lost in semis to Geneve-Servette which if you ask me were the underdogs going into the final playing a KHL team . The KHL is regarded as the second best league in the world behind the NHL ... in my mind that is all arguable and Geneve-Servette proved that theory right as they won the Spengler Cup . They beat CSKA Moscow and to be fair they looked tired as they have been flying back and forth to Russia to play league games during this tourney .... it was a pleasure to see the likes of Sergei Fedorov and Alex Radulov and a whole other host of former Russian NHL players playing right in front of me . As you can see above there is proof of Fedorov playing :) 

I didn't buy any memorabilia from this event , everything was being sold at a ridiculous cost and in fact i didn't even buy a beer or any food on this foray into the country . It was great going to Switzerland and making it the 21st flag on my hockey bag ( which yes i did get back finally ) but its super expensive and i highly doubt i will go back ... going to the Spengler Final was somewhat of a bucket list thing and i am glad i experienced it , the first period was hard as i couldn't see anything as i was in a standing section in the corner . I had to wait there until someone left then i squeezed my way into a spot to see ... the whole time i was worried about the whereabouts of my girl friend , and to make it all worse i was sick .... going there was great i would suggest it to everyone but for me it was rough and i was happy to travel back to Austria , where it was much cheaper and i had a bed to sleep in . 

I would like to thank EHC Vaduz for playing us in Grusch ! sorry i couldn't make it back to the bar , some of us were really tired :( this crazy trip took a lot of energy LOL !!!