Travel in Pictures

By Tim Harwood

The Waterloo Black Hawks are in Moscow, safe and sound.  For a trip of this magnitude (both in distance and time) it couldn’t have gone better.  Here are some images from the marathon effort which lasted 24 hours in real time (not counting the nine time zone changes).

Josh Nenadal enjoys some preflight nourishment Sunday evening as the Black Hawks wait for their 7:15 Swiss Air flight from Chicago to Zurich.  Waterloo had arrived at the airport shortly after 4PM, following an 11AM departure from Young Arena.

Zach Stepan, Vince Hinostroza, and the rest of the team head for the jetway as boarding for the trip begins.  Players stick together in pre-assigned groups to make sure no one isn’t where they aren't supposed to be.

Monitors on the back of each seat tell you exactly where the plane is in relation to the flight plan.  However, best to spend the eight hour ride watching something else; it takes a long time for the plane to move on the map…even at 600 miles per hour.

Right to left, Alec Vanko, Eamon McAdam, and Ryan Papa show their passports in Zurich before boarding the connecting flight for Moscow.

The trip goes by a little quicker for Cal Petersen and Justin Kloos.  They relax during part of the three hours in the air between Switzerland and Russia.

 Destination Moscow.  A look at the airport where the Hawks have just landed.

It takes a lot of equipment for a trip like this.  After moving through customs, this stack of hockey gear is ready to be reloaded onto a bus for the final kilometers of this portion of the trip.

Finally at the Aerostar Hotel, time to get everything put away and get some sleep.  Tomorrow, breakfast, then practice at 1PM (that’s 4AM in Waterloo).