Skip to main content

Father/Son trip: Italian soccer match

While Rebecca and Kailyn were in the states for mom Van Gilder's cancer procedure, Justin and I decided to get out of town and have a father/son adventure...so, we headed down to Milan, Italy to catch an AC Milan match...

We took the overnight train on Friday night, arrived in Milan on Saturday morning and toured the city during the day, went to the game Saturday night, saw some more cites in the city on Sunday morning, and then took an eleven hour train ride back to Vienna. We had splurged for first class on the trip home (a whole 20€ more) and enjoyed "free beverages" and comfortable seats for the entire trip. Arrived home at midnight:45 and then headed to school the next morning. Good times.

Seriously though, this was a really fun thing to be able to do with Justin...especially since Kailyn has taken "center stage" recently. Hopefully he and I will be able to do more of these types of trips in the coming years.

Waiting for our train.  Fun experience taking the night train....actually slept fairly well. Hopefully we'll be able to do it again soon!

Justin in front of the train

Welcome to Milano!

Justin feeding the pigeons in front of the Duomo. Ridiculously huge cathedral...

in front of the castillo

The view from our hotel. This was a very busy and popular shopping street...crazy just trying to get to the Metro.

Pre-game dinner. Hot, delicious sandwiches. Perfect. 

Ready to go in. Had to show our passports to buy the tickets AND 3 more times before getting to our seats. 

San Siro Stadium. Huge.

Watching the pregame

AC Milan warming up.

We had a pretty good view of the pre game ceremony/hand shake.

Italians with gigantic flags...oh, and flares.

Just a friendly little bonfire during the game.

The Ref trying to maintain order during a corner kick. 



More pictures of the "ultras"...oh, and more fire. 
There was a "Santa run" happening in the city...we were fortunate to be able to see this little beauty.

Justin chilling in our private, first class cabin.

Enjoying a free apfel saft in first class.

Thanks for reading!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who are these kids at ICSV...

Hi everyone... The first week and a half of school has been absolutely amazing! We have had some great opportunities to begin building lasting relationships with the students that God has brought to Vienna to be educated at the International Christian School of Vienna. Rebecca has been adjusting well to her role as secondary secretary. She is learning quickly the many demands of her new role and is doing quite well in supporting us teachers and the rest of the staff. Rebecca hard at work I have been really enjoying my classes. I have a total of 43 students spread out over 4 periods. The students I have represent 14 different home nations, with many of the students who are "Austrian" are first generation, so they are of other nationalities as well.  I have also had the opportunity to begin working with the soccer team...again, many nationalities are represented on the field, truly an international squad. Here are some pictures of the team training at the local club
5 comments
Read more

Almost a Year - A reflective poem by Rebecca

It’s been almost a year since we got on the plane. Knowing that we were leaving friends and family; we would never be the same. What has it been like leaving everything we know? Laughter and tears; sun and snow. Up and down; love and fear. All while trusting God for the reason we are here. Relying on support and prayers from the ones you care for, Though scary, freeing, challenging; it means relying on God even more. I’m so thankful to be part of a team who sees that Christ is our need Whether they can see the impact first hand or not, they have blessed students at ICSV. The students and families are so precious, eager to learn and understand What it means to love the Lord with all their hearts and to follow His command. At times I feel so left alone and wondering why God has called me here But then I talk to a student, or go to a school event, that’s when it all becomes clear. God never said life would be easy or even how we think it might be We just need to rely on Him, as He
3 comments
Read more

Clowns and Hospitals

Many of you might remember the 1998 film starring Robin Williams that chronicled the early career of Hunter "Patch" Adams. He began using humor as therapy in his sessions and opened a free hospital in West Virginia. Here is a clip from the film... Fast forward 13 years to a hospital in Vienna, Austria...to a children's surgery ward. As we were sitting talking with some visitors we noticed Justin had more visitors... They proceeded to hand out musical instruments; here's the problem...this was less than 12 hours after Justin's surgery. It really hurt him to laugh at this point...and he still felt horrible After that nonsense, the clowns made 2 more appearances; once when they delivered lunch, and once later in the day when we had our friend Tom Mason visiting. Tom is a fellow missionary serving as a pastor at a local church and a teacher at ICSV. He is also a amateur magician. Pictures of him doing tricks have found their way onto this blog
2 comments
Read more