We were delighted to welcome the girls' team from Neumarkt Vampires Handball Club in southern Germany to Birmingham for a short trip at the end of February. Originally planned before covid struck, the visit was the idea of the girls' coach, Ralph Stadat, with the aim of giving the girls a taste of English life as well as playing some friendly handball against our girls. We had a great time, and thoroughly enjoyed hosting the vampire youth over the few days they were here. And this is what they got up to!

Thursday 29th February.

The team arrived at Birmingham and went to their hotel for a brief rest before heading out to train with our Bison girls and playing a friendly with them... some of them also joined in with our women's training, before returning to their hotel for the night!

Friday 1st March.

A slow start to the day, after travelling such a long way the previous day, and then being woken by a fire alarm early at their hotel in the morning! The vampires first visit of the day, appropriately, was to the Coffin Works Museum, where they clearly felt at home!

Following this, they spent the day going round Birmingham, seeing some of the sights, eating and shopping, and then having a rest before a meal out in town.

Saturday 2nd March.

The Vampires joined us at the Bison's Winter Academy, where again they enjoyed training with our young boys and girls. We were joined for the morning by some of the girls from Northampton Handball, and again after a little training, most of the time was spent playing some small games. After this, they bravely went on a walking tour of part of Birmingham, in the undoubtedly the worst weather of the trip. However, the weather could not damp their spirits, and they did some more shopping before they were joined by some of the Bison girls for a meal in the evening. Some new BFFs were made before we said a sad farewell, "Tschüss"!

Sunday 3rd March.

The vampires had the best of the weather as they had a chilled day before returning home, but we were pleased to hear that they had arrived safely back home. A fantastic trip, a brilliant experience for our girls and a great way to build relationships with the handball family in Europe! We've already had requests to go over to Germany.... watch this space!