Peter & Judith Kustermans

Unfortunately the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics have wrapped up yesterday after the closing ceremonies. It has been a great 17 days of bronze, silver, and gold.

 For the start of our Vancouver 2010 story we would like to take you back to the summer of 2003….. No we have not been in training since then however on August 12th, late in the afternoon we arrived in Whistler, BC. It was only weeks before that the IOC announced that the 2010 Winter Olympic Winter Games had been awarded to Vancouver and Whistler. It was back then that we said to each other that it would be great to watch (Winter) Olympic Games realizing immediately that that was unlikely to happen in Holland. Little did we know; 3 years later we immigrated to Canada and the rest of the story you probably know.

 In September 2008 the first round of tickets became available. After hesitating for about a month we decided to sign up for tickets about 1 hour before the deadline. Obviously we wanted to see speed-skating and hockey. Judith would really love to see the opening ceremony so we decided to sign-up for that as well. Yes sign-up… because tickets were going to be awarded based on a draw. In December 2008 we received an e-mail from VANOC that we had been awarded Opening Ceremony, men’s hockey, and 1,000m men’s speed-skating tickets. Lucky us! With only a few affordable tickets available for the opening ceremony we got a pair. The hockey game we signed up for was a ‘preliminary men’s hockey game on February 12^th @ 4:30pm’ not knowing who was going to play. However Judith had a strategy: February 12^th is the opening day of the hockey tournament, 4:30pm Pacific means 8:30pm in Atlantic Canada…. Probably Team Canada’s opening game. We’ll see…..

A couple of months later the schedule was announced; guess what…. Judith is always right: Team Canada vs. Norway. We got so excited for the Olympics that we decided to buy some more tickets: 5,000m men’s speed skating, a victory ceremony, and after searching for quite a while we found a bed-and breakfast to stay. The count-down started. In October 2009 the Olympic flame made is way from Greece to Canada for a record long torch relay. On day 81 of the torch relay the Olympic Flame passed through Okotoks and we celebrate the arrival @ Olympic Plaza in Calgary. The ambiance was amazing and we could hardly wait. Let the Games begin!!!!

 Okotoks-Vancouver is about a 11,5 hour drive and not knowing what the weather was going to be like we decided to leave Calgary on Wednesday February 10^th. After a 3,5 hour drive we arrived @ the Wilson family in Nicholson. Mark, Vicky, and Lucy stayed with us for couple a weeks after they immigrated to Canada a couple of years ago and it was very nice of them to invite us in their home. (Thanks guys; it was nice to catch up). We left Nicholson around 8am; good road conditions, nice weather, and 7 hours later we arrived in Chilliwack, BC where we crashed in our hotel room. After a good night sleep, and Tim Horton’s breakfast we were on the road again for the remaining one-hour drive to Coquitlam. After checking-in @ Sophie’s Retreat Bed & Breakfast, and unloading our car, the host gave us a quick tour through Coquitlam and dropped us off at the sky-train station. Vancouver here we come! We got off at the Waterfront station and explored a cloudy downtown Vancouver. The countdown clock near Robson Square indicated only 5 hours and 4 minutes to go before the Openings Ceremony. After a quick bite we made our way BC Place. The information package that came with our tickets indicated tight security and possibly long line-ups when you carry backpacks. Tip: there will be express lanes for people with small hand bags. Let us give you one advice… never take any advice. The line-up for the express lanes was huge and no line-ups for screening lanes – good that we both took a backpack.

Shortly after we climbed up to our seats where we found our audience kit, we started rehearsing for the light effects in the ceremonies. Before we realized it was 6:30pm and the Opening Ceremony started. It was an amazing show! Being part of and seeing the opening of 21^st Olympic Winter Games was something we will never forget!

 The next morning, after a nice breakfast, we left early to make our way to the Richmond Oval for the 5,000m men’s speed-skating. The Oval is probably the nicest venue we visited during the Games. That day, Saturday February 13^th, became Sven Kramer Day!!! The ambiance at the mainly orange-colored Oval was outstanding; it got even better after Sven Kramer broke the Olympic record and at the end won The Netherlands’ first Gold Medal. After the flower ceremony we left the Oval and made our way to the Holland Heineken House where the party continued with a ceremony for Sven Kramer’s win earlier that day and a concert of Marco Borsato.

 Sunday February 14^th we went to Stanley Park, the Saskatchewan Pavilion to watch the 3,000m women’s speed-skating and BC Place to see the BC-night Victory Ceremony (with Sven Kramer receiving his gold medal), learned that Canada won it’s first (but not last) gold medal on home soil, and enjoyed Nelly Furtado’s concert.

 The next day was our day off! No events so we took the time to further explore the Russian pavilion (2 hour wait to get in to see Russia show casing the next Winter Olympic Venues in Sochi – 2014) and the Olympic Flame. In the evening we met with Joanne, Graham, Ethel, and Bob at the Holland Heineken House. They made a special trip to Dutch party house for ‘kroket’ on a bun, fries with ‘frietsaus’, ‘zuurkool’ with ‘rookworst’, and of course Heineken. It was great to catch up with Joanne again and what was even better is that she offered us a place to stay for extra couple of nights if we wanted too. That was a no brainer for us. Thanks again Joanne!

 Tuesday the 16^th was hockey day. Before the game started we met with Steven and Marcy who had just arrived in Vancouver for their experience of a life-time. We lined up (read: lined-up for three hours) at the Royal Canadian Mint to see and touch the medals for these Olympics and Paralympics. The first time in history the general public got this opportunity. After this great experience and a quick lunch we made our way to Canada Hockey Place to see Canada blowing away Norway in their opening game: 8-0. The first step to a gold medal – and we were there!!! Amazing

 Wednesday morning we checked out at the B&B and drove about 3 minutes to get to Joanne’s place (yes we were the close) where we dropped off our stuff and had a quick coffee. Joanne showed us around at the golf course she runs and offered us delicious lunch before we took the train to the Richmond Oval. The 1,000m men’s speed-skating that day was going to be our last event. A gold medal for Shani Davis and as a bonus Judith won a pair of tickets for Thursday’s Victory Ceremony. Now we ‘had’ to stay longer! Good that we ‘checked in’ at Joanne’s place earlier that day because by the time we got home it was well after midnight.

 Thursday morning we had breakfast at Joanne’s first, made plans for Friday (yes we decided to skip the skiing and stay one more day), visited the Ontario pavilion (they had a very nice 4-D presentation on display), picked-up our ceremony tickets, checked-out Granville Island, and had a typical Swiss lunch @ the Swiss house where we watched Christine Nesbitt winning her gold medal on the women’s 1,000m speed-skating.

Later that afternoon we took the water taxi back to downtown, bought hockey tickets for the next day, and watched the Victory Ceremony up-close-and-personal (first row tickets) with the medal ceremony for Nesbitt, Annette Gerritsen, and Laurien van Riessen and a live concert of Hedley. What a party!!

 Friday we wandered around downtown to take in more of the Olympic ambiance before we headed to Canada Hockey Place for the Sweden-Belarus game (final score: 4-2). Later that evening Joanne and Graham served us a very nice diner and after sharing more of our Olympic experiences with them it was time to go to bed. This fantastic, unique, once in a lifetime experience had come to an end. The only thing left were an 11,5 hour drive back to Okotoks, priceless memories, and lots and lots of pictures (see elsewhere on our website).