Brose Win!!!!!

Even though we are 2 weeks into summer vacation (with the exception of Mia) I feel like every single day has been a puzzle trying to fit everything that we need to do into each day - I am waiting to have a day or 2 in a row of down days - hopefully sooner than later. We have had incredible weather lately, and with that comes LOTS of invitations to do things outdoors, and with 5 people getting these invitations, like I said - it is like a puzzle (especially with only 1 car).

Anyway... I have lots of pictures to post, but wanted to throw these up here first... Last Sunday evening, we went downtown to watch the winning National Championship basketball game with several thousand other folks. We got to the public viewing a little early, and we were able to scoop up a great place to stand right near the front. It was a true nail biter. Bamberg had won the first 2 games in the series of 5. If they won that night - they won it all (already having beaten Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt etc. it was a big deal). Bamberg tailed behind almost the entire game, but with 1 second to go, they were trailing by only 2 points.  The shot went up, and it was a miss, but one of our players got the rebound in the air for a dunk - IT WAS AWESOME!!!! It put us into over time and then we won the National Championships!!!!!  You do have to take into consideration that Germany is the size of Oregon (so the Nat. Championships, aren't quite what they sound - but for a little town like Bamberg to beat the big cities is very cool). What makes it especially fun, is the enthusiasm for everything in this town - including Basketball!  ***As a complete side note, they did something very cool that I had never seen before. Typically here, they always use real glasses and mugs for serving drinks. You usually pay a deposit of a few euro, but that way there is never trash. Being a sporting event, I guess they decided to use plastic cups for the drinks that were for sale (which I had never seen before here in 5 years). They still charged a .50 cent euro deposit though, which I thought was brilliant. After 3000 plus fans spent 2 hours in the town square, there wasn't a lick of trash, not to mention everything got recycled - BRILLIANT!!!!

A big sign in the square that says "Bamberg stands behind you" in support of the team...

Thousands of fans came out to support the team (the actual game was played in the arena about a mile away, but the "public viewing" was in the town square....

An unbelievable nail biter!!!

In over time - We won!!!!