Day three: A Trip to Germany and Game #2

Before I share our Tuesday, I wanted to point out that you can comment on these posts or ask questions of our players in the comments section below. If you have some questions you'd like me to ask the guys, please share them.

We'll start with tonight's game against the Musel Pikes, a professional basketball team in Luxembourg. The Muskies used a sharp defensive effort to lead 36-33 at halftime, but ran out of gas in the second half and lost 74-56.

A shot from Tuesday night's game.

The game was held on the Pikes home court in Stratbredimus, and a large crowd came out to watch the American college basketball team and to wish one of their players farewell. Sheboygan native Trent Wurtz had announced that this would be his final pro game. Trent graduated from Sheboygan North High School in 2002, played two seasons at George Mason University and two seasons at Indiana State University before a seven-year career in Europe that included stops in Copenhagen, Spain, New Zealand and Luxembourg. Trent was instrumental in setting up the three games for Lakeland this week, and he joined the Muskies for a post-game dinner at a nearby hotel. After the game, the mayor of Stratbredimus offered a toast to the visitors from the United States. You catch watch a video of his toast at the end of the blog.

The Muskies with Sheboygan native Trent Wurtz (#15 in white in back row).

From left, Trent Wurtz visits after the game with Joey Burris and Justin Ward.

The group spent much of the day in Germany (our third country on this trip) and saw some amazing history. The first stop was Trier, Germany's oldest city dating back to 16 BC during the reign of the Roman Empire. The group visited the massive, beautiful Trier Cathedral, which is the home of the Holy Robe, an artifact that many believe Jesus Christ wore before his crucifixion. You can read more information about this fascinating history here. The authenticity of the robe has not been verified, but it is an important symbol to millions, and several of our players were amazed to be standing so close to a piece of clothing that may have been worn by Christ.

One other interesting sight was the Porta Nigra (Latin for black gate), the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps and an amazing physical link to the Roman Empire. The photo at the top of today's blog has the team standing in front of the Porta Nigra.

There was also time in Trier to do some shopping and grab lunch. And on the bus ride back from Trier, we stopped in Saarburg, a tiny German community that might remind you of Elkhart Lake, where several people feasted on some amazing looking (and tasting) desserts!

Back to basketball for a moment - there is a great photo gallery of shots from Monday night's game located here. These were taken by photographers from RTL, the television station in Luxembourg. These photographers also attended the game against the Pikes, and we'll post that link when it becomes available.

Tomorrow we will explore portions of north Luxembourg, and play the final game tomorrow night.

Here are a few videos to wrap up today's post: