Day 7, Sunday 3rd August 2014 – Amsterdam and Johan Cruyff Shield

Today was a busy day both socially and culturally.After a 7-30am breakfast we made the 2 hour coach journey east in to Amsterdam where we had a Stadium Tour of the Amsterdam Arena which is where Holland play most of their games also home of Ajax,after which we made the 15 minute transfer in to the city centre.The coach dropped us off outside central station which was the start of the tweet tour.The players were split in to groups of 4 and were given 12 points of interest that they had to try and visit and take a photo then tweet the photos back to Simon Williams who is our LFE representative.The winning team who got most photos in 2 hours were given a prize.Some of the sights included were the National Monument and the Royal Palace both situated in Dam Square.Ann Frank house,Van Gogh Museum, Flower Market,Rijksmuseum which is the biggest museum in Holland.On return we then transferred back to the Amsterdam Arena where we made the short walk to the Ajax Academy complex which is named De Toekomst (the future).We then had a Question and Answer session with Edwin Van De Sar and his son Joey who is currently on the books of Ajax academy himself also a goalkeeper.It was a very informative session as he reiterated the importance of working hard,preparing properly both on and off the pitch.He spoke about his career in Holland also playing in England and Italy and the players he has played with also his achievements in the game.After a photo with them both we walked back over to the Arena to watch the Johan Cruyff Shield which is the equivalent to our Charity Shield,the curtain raiser to the season.The Dutch League winners Ajax played the Cup winners PEC Zwolle. The game a tactical affair with a young Ajax team having plenty of possession but were unable to break their opposition down.Pec Zwolle eventually went on to deservedly win the game 1-0. After watching the celebrations we made the 2 hour coach journey back to our Hotel in Delden .We were all tired after the long day but got a lot of memories to take back.