Innsbruck

     Last Friday I took the train to Innsbruck, Austria. It was a 2 hr and 15 min train ride through the Austrian Alps. It was an unbelievably beautiful ride, and though I didn't take any pictures along the way, it was awe-inspiring the entire time. Once I reached Innsbruck, the first thing I saw when I left the train station was a Burger King. I couldn't quite believe it. I have seen a McDonald's in just about every town, but this was the first American food chain I had seen since arriving here.
     The night before traveling to Innsbruck, I downloaded a walking tour to my iPod. I used a map I had downloaded to get me to the starting point of the walking tour, put my earphones in, and then simply pressed "play". The lady on the audio tour told me everything I was looking at and every turn to take. It was a very cool way to see the city. I'll post photos of Innsbruck at the bottom of this post.
     Tomorrow I am planning a trip to Liechtenstein, about 20 miles south of where I'm living in Austria. This will mark the fourth country that I have visited in just over a month since arriving in Europe. That will equal the number of countries I had visited in my entire 23 years leading up to now. I will have pictures of that trip for you on my next blog.
     Mike comes in on Monday, and I'm very excited. When he gets here, we will have all of our imports here and we will be ready to go. Our head coach comes in on Tuesday, and then we will officially begin our season. We are just over a month to our first game, and the anticipation is building.
     I apologize for the short post, but have to leave for practice here in a few minutes. I hope all is well back at home, and please check back in soon for more updates.

Go Blue Devils/Boys!
Mitch Niekamp

Goldenes Dachl (The Golden Roof). The most famous landmark of Innsbruck. This used to be a royal palace.
Austrian Alps in the background. 

St. John's Cathedral

A hotel that has been in operation since the 11th century. A stone slab on the side of the building lists the famous people
who have stayed here, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The river Inn, for which the city was named after. 

A rooftop view of the city of Innsbruck

1 Month In

     Today marks exactly one month since my feet landed in Zurich, and I began what will undoubtedly be a once-in-a-lifetime type of adventure. I didn't quite know what to expect before coming over here, but after being here for one month, I don't think I could possibly be any more happy or excited about where I am. The people continue to be more accommodating than I could have ever imagined, and the city is just amazing. Not only that, but my German is improving substantially nearly every day, which sounds impressive until I tell you that before arriving in Austria my complete knowledge of the language consisted of the words "gesundheit" and "Volkswagen".
     This past weekend I went night sledding in the Austrian Alps. I could try to describe it for you, but I promise that my words would not be sufficient. Standing atop 10,000 foot mountains while a full moon shines down and illuminates snow capped peaks was something that I will never forget. I would love to share pictures, but my camera couldn't capture the views due to the darkness of the night.
     Two other Americans came in today, and I'm excited to have them here. Recardo and Budd, both former Florida State Seminoles who have also signed to play with the Blue Devils this year. Mike comes in under two weeks, and once he gets here, we should be all ready to go.
     Well, that is all for now, just wanted to give a quick update. Hope all is well back in the States, and I'll post again soon.

Go Blue Devils/Boys!
Mitch Niekamp

Below is a quick picture from my recent trip into Germany. Sorry for the lack of details, I'm a little crunched for time at the moment. All I can say is that the German town of Lindau is pretty easily my favorite place that I've visited thus far. It was definitely amazing. This is the view across the lake from there.

View into Austria from Lindau (a German island on Lake Constance)

New Roommate/Ruins in Hohenems

Hello everyone, I hope all is well back in the States. This will be a short, quick post informing you of some of the goings-ons of the past week and a half or so. On Feb 1 I got a new roommate, Arto (pronounced R-2), a DB from Finland. Luckily, he speaks good English so communication is not much of a problem for us. He is a very nice guy and a good player, and we have gotten along very well since he came.

http://sportschump.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/green-bay-packer-cheesehead.jpg

I was able to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday (actually Monday morning for me). We went to an American style sports bar and were served all we could eat pizza, chicken wings, fries, potato wedges, all the healthy, American food that I have been missing since I came here. The game kicked off here at around 12:35 am local time Monday morning. I got home at 5 am, and went straight to bed. It was a cool experience to see the game at such a different time than I am used to, but it's definitely not the way I want to watch it every year. As a Bears fan, I would like to say congratulations to the Packers on their win. However, I would also like to remind everyone that this is still a franchise that most often associated with a dairy product...

This past Sunday a local girl took Arto and I on a hike up to the local ruins above the town of Hohenems. It was supposed to be a pretty easy hike up the mountain, but recent logging of the hill leading up the way turned the normally wider path into a 2-3 foot wide path covered in ice and mud going up an 800 foot mountain. I would consider myself something very far from adventurous, and needless to say, the trek uphill was fairly intimidating. However, when we got to the top, the treacherous journey had been worth it...

View of Hohenems and into Western Switzerland from mountain above Hohenems, Austria.
Southern Germany and Lake Constance are just outside of the right edge of this photo. 

There was an incredible view of the town below, as well as Lake Constance and on into Southern Germany. A sign at the sight told us that there used to be a castle at that spot that was built between 1160-1190 AD. Some of the walls and towers still remained, and it was pretty remarkable to think how old they were. That is about 600 years older than my home country, amazing. Below I will put some pictures of the ruins, hopefully you enjoy them.

Well, that's about it for now. Hopefully you all made it through the epic snow storm last week and are recovering from the terrible weather. It is starting to warm up here, and we just had a couple of days of about 55 degree weather (12 celsius...a measurement I'm still getting used to). Until next time...

Go Blue Devils/Boys!
Mitch Niekamp

Ruine Altems in Hohenems

Ruine Altems in Hohenems

Ruine Altems in Hohenems

On the way back down the mountain.