Today Toni and I practiced at 10am for an hour, then were bumped…the courts were jammed most of the rest of the day. There are 680 entries (more than double that of the European Championships, a MT1000 held last week), and not many courts as they are using only one venue with about 10 or so courts. Matches are scheduled as late as 2nd match after 9:30…so around 11am. The lights looked very good though.
There was a very long line to register and pay (only one guy registering and processing payments)…so we left and met up around 12:15 to check out the markets. It’s Sunday so there was a lot of activity in the park leading to the handicraft markets…families out and about and painters selling their wares as well as a handicraft market set up from now till the 19th of June.
We took a look at the handicrafts…lots of textiles and silver jewelry, and walked into the nearby church, which was lovely, with beautiful stained glass windows
We wandered in and out of many shops, which seem to be selling lots of alpaca wares, blankets, scarves, purses, pillow covers, ponchos, and hats, plus silver jewelry with bright stones or enamel. It was fun to wander around though after a while it all looked a lot alike!
After a slow meander down to the shops our return was quicker. We returned to Woo…I needed a few things I’d forgotten or just didn’t bring on purpose, knowing I could buy them (sunscreen amongst them) and got some berries and apples, and an empanada…when in Peru…
We parted ways and I promptly ran into Luisa Gouveia from Portugal, who is a member of the German team I am playing on. Then I went to register. The line was shorter, but still very long and very very slow. I eventually paid, got my player gift (a towel and a pouch with the club logo on it) and found out where we could try to get practice courts as the club has none available for players. Matches start at 8am.