2010 World Muzzle-Loading Championships – Getting There is (Not) Half the Fun
Braga, Portugal, 15 August 2010
The U.S. Team has arrived in Portugal for the World Muzzle-Loading Championships.
We left Newark, NJ, Thursday night. Checking in was not too much of a problem. We answered the usual questions. The TSA rep inspecting the guns was not terribly freaked OR weirded out…which is pretty good going, considering that we were bringing flintlock and matchlock arms.
The flight over was not TOO bad…for a commercial airliner. We flew TAP, the Portuguese national airline. About a 6.5 hour flight, as we had a good tailwind. I just hope we don’t have to buck it on the way back.
We arrived at Porto Friday morning. Porto is about 200 miles north of Lisbon, about three-quarters of the way up the country, and is right on the ocean. We didn’t get over land until we turned on long final for the airfield. Not a terribly big airport, either.
Clearing Customs was not overwhelmingly difficult. They did check our paperwork, and all the guns, but not all the serial numbers. It could have been much worse.
The Canadian team, which arrived earlier in the week, had a horrible time. The Portuguese have very restrictive firearms laws, and wanted to charge a deposit of €150 for each gun – to make sure that any firearms brought into the country went back out. I’m told the organizing committee chairman had to be contacted and signed his shooting federation up to cover any fees.
After getting our hardware through Customs, we boarded a coach for our hotel. The country here is rather pretty, very reminiscent of Southern California except that it is greener. And, of course, everything is smaller. Europe is like that – a ¾ sized world that takes getting used to.
One thing that I noticed on the way in (but was unable to photograph) was a billboard advertising the match. Apparently, the World Championships will be a Pretty Big Deal around here. We’ll see.
The U.S. and Canadian teams are staying at the Comfort Inn in Braga, about 10 miles from the range. We checked into the hotel (complete with 2-person elevator) around 1300 Friday. Most of us took a 3-4 hour nap at that point, having been on the go for 24+ hours.
Saturday was spent getting acclimated to the local conditions. Weather is running hot but dry, with temperatures in the high 80s and low 90s. It’s bearable if you stay in the shade. We located a small supermarket and the local equivalent of a Dollar Store within short walking distance. Don’t laugh…we all need munchies, and some of us prefer to pick up cleaning supplies like soap on the local economy instead of packing it.
The food so far has been good and inexpensive. You can get a decent meal for $15 or less, a far cry from the trip I took to Vienna last November. Gorgeous city, but expensive.
Language has not been as much of a problem as I had feared. Many of the local people speak some English, and most of us are equipped with Portuguese phrase books. We manage.
Sunday we got our powder and a first look at the range. It’s a nice facility, recently expanded – apparently for this event. I’ll try to get photos up.
The range was supposed to be open and guns inspected at 1000, but this slid to 1500…so a lot of us figured that it just wasn’t worth it to try to get the guns through inspection and do some practicing at that hour.
Which brings this up to date. We will go back out to the range tomorrow morning and start the formal practice/training sessions. Updates will be less frequent than I would like, as I’m having to pay through the nose for WiFi time. Hopefully I can find a free wireless hot-spot near the range.
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