International Team Challenge 2013 Sept 7/8

[philqw78]

Look on the bright side Matt, you don't have to put up with dave for another day

[blackbeard66]

It's true that many Museums are closed on Mondays in Portugal. But not all of them!
Museu Militar is indeed closed on Mondays. That is really worthy a visit, and we can eventually include it on Friday's tour, but many of you have been there already, so we'll do it only if there are enough people interested.

I'm doing a little research on the forts that are available to visit on Lines of Torres Vedras, and what kind of support we can get from local entities. Watch this space!

For Monday I have two suggestions, depending on the time you have available. In Lisbon itself, Castelo de S. Jorge is a must, with magnificent views over Lisbon. It was built by the Moors and conquered by the one who would become our first king, D. Afonso Henriques, with a little help from a crusader fleet in route to the Holy Land.
They have guided tours included in the ticket price at 12h and at 16h, everyday.
http://www.castelodesaojorge.pt/index.php?lang=2

If you have the full day available, then my recommendation is to spend the day in Sintra. This is a magical place, World Heritage, full of places of interest. You can search on your own at the Town Hall site:
http://www.cm-sintra.pt/default.aspx
There are however two places that are an absolutely must go (both open on Mondays, I checked):
Castelo dos Mouros, like the one in Lisbon, built by the Moors, it's a mountain castle, quite well preserved and integrated in Parques de Sintra monuments and parks network. Guided tours may be arranged if booked beforehand.
http://www.parquesdesintra.pt/en/index. ... enu0Id=13#.

The other "must go" for me is Quinta da Regaleira. Watch the virtual tour here and decide for yourself:
http://www.regaleira.pt/Default.aspx

[grahambriggs]

The Berardo Museum of modern and contemporary art is in Belem just opposite the venue for the competition. It was open on the Monday last year and was very good.

[hazelbark]

I believe some of the other players willa rrive on Thursday or wednesday for more sigthseeing.

[dave_r]

The Berardo Museum of modern and contemporary art is in Belem just opposite the venue for the competition. It was open on the Monday last year and was very good.

Yes, the gb team went there a couple of years ago. they may have fixed the exhibit that rob broke...

[Robert241167]

They'll never prove a thing.

All the exhibits looked broken !!

Rob

[iversonjm]

Thank you, this is great advice. I'll start tour shopping!

It's true that many Museums are closed on Mondays in Portugal. But not all of them!
Museu Militar is indeed closed on Mondays. That is really worthy a visit, and we can eventually include it on Friday's tour, but many of you have been there already, so we'll do it only if there are enough people interested.

I'm doing a little research on the forts that are available to visit on Lines of Torres Vedras, and what kind of support we can get from local entities. Watch this space!

For Monday I have two suggestions, depending on the time you have available. In Lisbon itself, Castelo de S. Jorge is a must, with magnificent views over Lisbon. It was built by the Moors and conquered by the one who would become our first king, D. Afonso Henriques, with a little help from a crusader fleet in route to the Holy Land.
They have guided tours included in the ticket price at 12h and at 16h, everyday.
http://www.castelodesaojorge.pt/index.php?lang=2

If you have the full day available, then my recommendation is to spend the day in Sintra. This is a magical place, World Heritage, full of places of interest. You can search on your own at the Town Hall site:
http://www.cm-sintra.pt/default.aspx
There are however two places that are an absolutely must go (both open on Mondays, I checked):
Castelo dos Mouros, like the one in Lisbon, built by the Moors, it's a mountain castle, quite well preserved and integrated in Parques de Sintra monuments and parks network. Guided tours may be arranged if booked beforehand.
http://www.parquesdesintra.pt/en/index. ... enu0Id=13#.

The other "must go" for me is Quinta da Regaleira. Watch the virtual tour here and decide for yourself:
http://www.regaleira.pt/Default.aspx

[blackbeard66]

They'll never prove a thing.

All the exhibits looked broken !!

I see...
This gives me a hint regarding the recommended places to take you guys:
Castles and forts, centuries old, made of hearth and stone should be ok.
Museums with nice but breakable things are a no go.

Oh dear....

Fernando

[hazelbark]

We are up to 10 teams now. Are there any other nations out there that wish to participate?

[xavier]

We are up to 10 teams now. Are there any other nations out there that wish to participate?

We are gathering together a Spanish team. I don't know if you already counted with us...

Cheers
Xavier

[hazelbark]

We are up to 10 teams now. Are there any other nations out there that wish to participate?

We are gathering together a Spanish team. I don't know if you already counted with us...

Cheers
Xavier

I have counted you, but need ton know player names shortly or we need to find an alternative. We have 1 Australian available if you need a 4th.

[jorneto]

Who's attending? Who are the 10?

[dave_r]

Teams who have confirmed attendance are:

USA
GB
FR
FR 2
GB 2
US 2

Teams who have commited to going, but have yet to disclose full player details:

PT
PT 2
IT
SP

I strongly suspect it won't be a problem for Portugal, Italy I think have a team. Xavier has mentioned Spain are gathering.

These things take time, but it looks like it will be great event this year.

[hazelbark]

Dave you are out of date as usual

Teams who have confirmed attendance and roster are:

USA
GB
FR
FR 2
GB 2
US 2
PT
PT 2
IT

Teams who have commited to going, but have to send in their player roster:
SP

[jorneto]

It looks very promising.

But, what about other countries that already participated in the past, like Ireland, Greece, Belgium or Germany? Germany in particular surprises me a bit as the number of competing players as been growing since 2008 (whilst most countries declined since 2011 – at least, according to the slitherine lists of tournaments).

It is possible that many other simply aren’t aware of the ITC existence. Perhaps direct contacts with local organisations/clubs or even individuals would help on that point?

[hazelbark]

We have communicated to the German organization we can. I think i even posted to the German langauge forum. The owrd we got back was "next year".

Ireland does not seem to have a FOG interest level.
Greece I think has certain economic problems. We keep talking to them, but....
Australia and NZ assembled one player.
We have not had a Belgian team for many years not sure if one ever made it to Portugal.
Finland does not play FOG.

It is unfortunate. But the economy is clearly part of the problem.

[xavier]

When will we finish on Sunday? I'm checking flight prices and there are hige differencies depending on the time you want to fly...

Thanks,
Xavier

[dave_r]

There are two games on Saturday and two games on Sunday.

We normally finish around 5pm, so giving an hour for wrap up and prize giving I suspect you would be leaving around 6pm.

[xavier]

Perfect, thanks!

[dave_r]

Just to let you know, the venue is around 30 minutes from the airport, so if we finish at around 6pm, the closest flights would be around 8:30 pm.

In my opinon of course