WASHINGTON – With its European spring break trip still in full swing, the Georgetown University women's soccer team had one more match left to play. The Hoyas took on Monchengladbach in their fourth and final game of the trip and ended in a fashionable 3-0 clean sheet. Freshman Maya Fernandez-Powell (Portland, Ore. / Catlin Gabel) provided details on the Blue & Gray's time in Germany with the fourth blog post of the journey.
Day 6 - Thursday, March 7
On Day 6, after fueling ourselves with Poffertjes (delicious mini Dutch pancakes), we headed to explore Maastricht in the Netherlands. My group had the pleasure of discovering the city with the help of our tour guide Cor, a Maastricht local with quite the sense of humor. In contrast to the buzzing, cosmopolitan city of Amsterdam, where several members of our team nearly met an early end due to lightning fast bikes, Maastricht was a quiet city. While our tour guides explained that the city was particularly sleepy as their carnival had just finished, constant traffic ceased to exist to Maastricht. Characterized by its medieval architecture and quaint shopping streets, Maastricht, similarly to Ghent, was yet another unexpectedly delightful city. Cor took us through small side streets where we discovered local bakeries, stands with endless amounts of cheese, unfortunate for Alyssa Cronin, and upscale shops.
After our morning of strolling through the streets of Maastricht, we drove to visit a nearby U.S. World War II cemetery. The area surrounding Maastricht, like all areas in Western Europe we've visited, was heavily impacted by World War II. As we drove up to the memorial, we were all struck by the beautifully manicured green lawns and perfectly polished stones engraved with the names of around 8,000 American soldiers who were killed on Dutch soil during World War II. Listening to our guide tell stories of the young men who lost their lives, many of whom were between the ages of 18 and 23, was a very sobering experience. Our guide explained that despite the memorial being for American soldiers, the local Dutch felt very emotionally connected to the memorial. For example, every soldier had been "adopted" by a Dutch family, which meant they brought the tombstones flowers as often as they could. We also learned that of the 8,000 soldiers, four were women. As instructed by our tour guide in Maastricht, we asked about Wilma Vincent, a nurse during the war who was shot down in flight trying to look for her best friend. In spite of the sadness we all felt from listening to stories of men and women our age losing their lives, the memorial was a truly beautiful place.
We concluded our day in the Netherlands with the most epic activity of the entire trip: cave biking. Located next to miles of fields, we entered a shack-like building where we met our two bike guides. They led us down an incredibly narrow set of stairs. As we walked directly down into the darkness, for what felt like an eternity, it's safe to say many members of our team were freaking out. Finally, we got to the caves, which were around forty meters underground! Once we got going on our bikes, most of us had a slightly wobbly start. With the ceilings of the cave being incredibly low at some points, it became clear that cave biking was actually a sneaky way for the coaches to improve our communication on the field. As we biked through kilometers of dark tunnels, most only lit by the lights on our helmets, we had to constantly yell "duck!", "left!", "right!" or, depending on which group you were in, "Lyndse!" or "Gian Carlo!" to check if they were still with our group. While most were able to dodge close-concussions with the ceiling, cave biking certainly didn't favor the tall amongst us – Charlie Kern took some hard hits and tumbles, and as you can imagine, provided constant entertainment for Dave Nolan directly behind her. Despite one group temporarily losing Gian Carlo, Alex Minton taking an embarrassing hit to the head and Charlie's constant struggle, cave biking was incredible. Nothing felt quite as freeing as the fresh air on our faces as we glided through the tunnels. Even for those with a couple of battle scars by the end of eight kilometer ride, most of us didn't want cave biking to end!
Day 7- Friday, March 8
We woke up on Friday with our bags packed and ready to embark on a trip to our final country: Germany! After only a couple hours on the bus, we arrived in Cologne, the fourth largest city in Germany. We were immediately struck by the incredibly imposing cathedral (or as the Germans call it, the "Dom"). The gothic cathedral, somewhat comparable to La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, was first constructed in 1248 and took 600 years to finish. While the outside of the cathedral was very dark and slightly creepy, the inside was breathtaking. With ceilings as high as 500 feet and endless colorful stained glass windows depicting stories of the Bible, the Dom was truly beautiful and impressive. On our tour, we learned that it's a miracle that the Dom remains in Cologne, as many parts of it were bombed during World War II.
As we exited the Cathedral, we soon learned that Cologne in general was massively destroyed during World War II. Despite the cathedral dating back to the 13th century, many of the buildings surrounding the area were from the 1950s. For this reason, Cologne did not have quite the same picturesque and medieval feeling as Maastricht or Gent. In spite of the freezing temperatures and the fact that some of us thought it was a good idea to leave our puffer jackets on the bus (who did that?!), we still had a great day in Cologne. The bridge by the river with thousands of love locks presented itself as a perfect Instagram photo opportunity and squares filled with cafés and shops still gave Cologne the typical European vibe. In our free time, we snacked on street food, such as thick-cut freshly made fries, pretzels bigger than our heads, sweet German pastries, gelato, and for the carnivores of the group, bratwurst.
Following our morning in Cologne, we headed to Dusseldorf, which was only a short drive away. After fueling up on our pre-game meal, where we learned that coffee is really never complimentary in Europe, we headed to play Monchengladbach in our fourth and final game of the trip. For our seniors, this was their last time representing the Hoya jersey. We got off to a strong start, with Jenna Menta blazing past their outside back for a perfect cross and finish by Paula Germino-Watnick. Despite the technical ability of our German opponent, we were able to match them and finish the first half leading 2-0. We finished the second half in style, especially for our seniors, with Caitlin Farrell scoring her final Georgetown goal, Leah McCullough coming in and making big blocks, and Alyssa Cronin and Meghan Shaver each hitting the post. In a strong performance, we won the game 3-0. Post match, as Alyssa Cronin savored her last ever no-cheese pizza, we headed back to Dusseldorf, exhausted but excited to sleep in before our last day in Europe.
