Game 3 - Slovakia Dec. 30, 2013

We left for the arena just after 12:00 pm, arriving before 12:30.  That gave us enough time to go to where we like to sit and watch the games, in the end zone where the flags are raised for the winning team.

The first game was the Germans taking on the Czech Republic.  When the German team came on the ice, it was obvious the Canadians were cheering for them, as the crowd erupted in noise.  What a good game.

The Czechs were favoured, in my mind, and played with confidence and skill.  However, the Germans were just as quick, and just as tenacious.  They basically bottled the Czechs up, similar to how the Czechs stymied the Canadian team in their game.  With both teams being so quick, it was an exciting game, and when the German team scored their first goal, it was pretty exciting.

Suffice to say that the Germans won the game 3-0, which was clearly disheartening for the Czechs, but tremendously uplifting for the Germans.  They gave the Canadian fans acknowledgement for their support, and we left the rink quite happy.

Then it was the hour and a half wait for the Canada-Slovakia game.  We went to an area called the Fan Zone where there were a couple big screens set up, showing the broadcast of the Russia-Finland game from the other arena.  That was fun to watch for what was left of their second period.  There sure weren't many fans in attendance in that big arena.  We were happy to see the Finns score 3 goals in the 2nd period, after trailing 1-0 coming into the period.

Then, off to our game.  It was exciting, but there were lots of nervous people.  Once again, the reception for Team Canada was awesome.  The crowd was big, loud, and boisterous.  I took a short video of the crowd, which I've included here.

Slovakia played a hard checking trap game, and really bottled our team up.  They were quite opportunistic, and have some skilled players.  All of them are quite aggressive when attacking the puck, but the Canadian plan seemed to be to hit them every chance they had.  They did, but received a penalty right away for a bad hit - the guy ducked and got it in the head - which allowed the Slovaks to score the first goal.  Very quiet for a few minutes in the arena, but the crowd quickly got back at it.

We took some penalties that were deserved, but also some that we thought were not deserved.  We had a couple 5 on 3s against us, and both the Slovaks scored both times.  However, Canada was able to come back and eventually tie the game in the 3rd period.  Canada was very strong in the 3rd, out playing and out hitting the Slovaks.  Eventually, with about 3 minutes left in the game, Canada scored to go ahead.  Shortly after that, the Slovaks pulled their goalie (about 1:40 left to play) and hit the post. Off that post, Team Canada came down the ice on a 2 on 1, and managed to put the puck in the net to ice the game.  How exciting was that?

Oh Canada

Of course we stayed for the presentations and the flag raising, and to sing Oh Canada, and then out to get on our bus before it left.  That part is a bit of a gong show as we are never sure where our bus will be in the long line of buses parked outside the stadium, so it is a walk back and forth until we can spot our bus number.  It was a much happier crowd on the ride back to the hotel, with lots of folks starting to make their predictions for the US game tomorrow.

Saluting the Crowd

Optional Tour of Copenhagen - Dec. 29, 13

We were up early again today.  Slept much better last night, but still awake at 6:00 am.  We got up and showered, and then headed for breakfast so that we could be ready for the bus that was to pick us up at 8:30 am.  All of our tour group was now here, and this was the earliest that most people had to get up, so there was a good crowd at the breakfast buffet.

Once on our bus, there was some confusion.  Our tour guide was changed.  This new one was named Helka, and she was similar to Isabella, but older.  She also talked a lot.  Gail McDonald, one of the leaders for Destiny Tours is on our bus, and so was Neil the entertainer.  Gail was rushing around making sure everything was ready for us to go, and once Neil took attendance, he told Helka that we were all there, and we could go.  So, off we went.

Helka started talking immediately, telling us (again) about the area we were driving past.  We were about 5 minutes gone from the hotel, when the driver's phone rang, and while Helka was talking, he answered the phone.  It turns out that we had left someone at the hotel, so we had to go back to get her.  The someone was Gail, and she had all the passes to the places we were going to visit during the tour, so she was important to have on the bus.  She was also somewhat POed about the bus having left without her - when she found out it was Neil who told the driver to go, she told him off (in a polite, but firm way).  This is one of the problems of having two people who both think they are the leaders.

Entrance to the Tunnel

Speed Limit Right Now

So, off we went, onto the bridge and over to Denmark.  We had another interesting tour of some of the places we had already seen - the Queen's castle, some of the downtown, the Little Mermaid, and Tivoli.  We also went to the Royal family's summer castle, Rosenborg Castle, which is now mainly a tourist attraction, although it does hold the Crown Jewels in the Treasury.  We were warned not to touch anything in the Treasury as alarms would go off, and we would likely spend some time in their

Royal Crowns

Royal Sword

Danish prison.  They had military guards here, too.  We did see some with the fancy head wear that was worn by the guards at the Queen's palace.  The ones walking their post at the Treasury were regular soldiers, with their rifles and bayonets.  Must be a boring job.  They likely hoped that someone would try something so they could get "some action".

From there, we went off to a tour of the Carlsberg Beer Brewhouse.  This was a guided, historical tour, explaining the history of the founding of the brewhouse.  It was built quite a ways outside of Copenhagen in the 1800s, because the water was good there, as opposed to the water in Copenhagen at the time.

Dated Carlsberg Brew House

One of the Brewing Vats

Old Delivery Truck

Carslberg Horse for the Wagon

One of the Delivery Wagons

Reception and Game 2 vs Czech Republic - Dec. 28, 2013

Rita and John - Destiny Tours

Had to get going early today as our bus was going to pick us up at 10:30 am.  We were off to the official Destiny Tours reception.  We didn't know what to expect, but when we got to Swedbank Stadium (about a 3 minute walk from the Malmo Isstadium where our pool games are located), we were treated to a welcome, a meal (which we couldn't eat because we were still full from breakfast), and some fun entertainment.  It was pretty amazing to see 520 Canadians, most in red and white, filling this huge banquet hall built in to the side of a huge sports field.

Ron Asselstyne

After a number of welcoming speeches from the tour organizers, introductions of the group leaders, one being ex-NHL referee Ron Asselstyne, prizes for some who had been on 3 tours, and big prizes for the couple who were on their 6th tour, we were introduced to the main entertainment.  This was a fellow (Neil (didn't get his last name)) who rode on our bus dressed as an RCMP officer in red serge, carrying a wand that is like those used for security that he used to check some folks for "contraband".  He was pretty funny on the bus ride to the Stadium, giving a running commentary on whatever he felt like saying - one that stands out is when he mentioned we could see the national bird of Sweden - the crane - by looking at all the construction of high rise buildings in the area near our hotel.

Neil - the entertainer

He did a great job of warming up the crowd and getting us laughing.  He went through each of the provinces, making jokes about different areas.  The only Territory not represented in our crowd was Nunavut, so he had lots to talk about.  Every other province and Territory was represented in our crowd.  Lots of funny things to listen to.  Finally, after reminding us that we represented Canada, the same as the boys on the team (a reminder to be polite and not to get out of line), we ended with Oh Canada, and everyone was on their feet singing our anthem.

After that, we picked up our jackets (very nice ones, indeed) before heading over to the Malmo Isstadium to watch the US/Slovakia game.  It was a good game, but the US was just too strong for the Slovaks, and beat them pretty soundly.

Then, about an hour and a half wait for the Canada/Czech game.

Czech team getting ready

Big Canadian crowd

For this one, there were 2200 people announced in attendance.  About 2000 of them appeared to be Canadian, although there must have been less than that.  The place was red and white, and quite loud.

Paterson - Canadian goalie

It was a good game, with lots of back and forth play.  The Czechs played aggressively, and were very good at getting their sticks on the puck.  They scored first, which quieted the crowd for a short while.  However, the noise started back up, and when Canada scored, the place went crazy.  Enough to say that Canada never got a lead in the game, but did keep coming back after each Czech goal, and managed to tie the game to send it into overtime.  We had lots of chances, but their goalie played very well.  They had lots of chances, too.

Here we go.

In the shootout, Canada went first and scored.  They missed on their first shot.  Canada missed on their next two shots, and the Czechs scored on their second.  It was quite intense for their 3rd shot, and the Czech player made a great move and tucked it in the goal for the win.  Very quiet at that time.

The big face-off.

We waited for the Czech National Anthem, and then went outside to find our bus.  It was a somewhat quiet ride back to the hotel, but by the time we got there, most people seemed to have it out of their system.

We stopped into the mall grocery store to purchase some things to eat, and went back to our room for the rest of the evening.  It is an early start tomorrow.  The bus picks us up at 8:30 for an all-day tour of Copenhagen - yes, we booked to go on this one, too.

Tour of Malmo

Today was a day off from hockey.  We had agreed to a tour of the city of Malmo, to get a flavour of this city in Sweden.  It is very similar to Copenhagen, just not nearly as big.  There are about 300 000 people who live here.  It is apparently the 4th largest city in the country.

We had Isabella for our tour guide again today, and by now, we are getting used to her, and she to us.  She is quite knowledgeable, but it seems that tour guides must talk most of the time.  I guess that is what one pays for, in order to learn about the places you are seeing.

We toured around the main area, where our hotel is located.  It is near Central Station, which is the main place for all the trains that are a major form of transportation in this country (as well as most European countries, I assume).  Another major form of transportation is the bicycle - everywhere, and

Twisted Torso

they seem to have the right of way, or at least think they should.  One must always look to the right when getting off the bus, especially if there is a bike path there.

We travelled to the beach and the location of the world famous Twisted Torso apartments.  This apartment building is famous because of its architecture, and the way it is designed, it is supposed to look like a twisting human spine.  It can be seen that way, with every 5th floor or so having an exercise/gym area, that looks like the cartilage between the bones of the spine.  Quite neat to look at, and according to Isabella, very expensive to live in.  The building is for sale, if one has a number of millions of Swedish Krowns laying around.  I don't think the photos I took do justice to it.  The sun was in the wrong position to get a good, clear shot.

Older looking apartments

Then we moved on to view some of the residential areas.  The regular houses are similar to ours - all/most have steep roofs, and small windows.  I suppose that is to keep the snow off and the cold out, but from our experience, there doesn't seem to be a lot of snow.  They tell us that winters are similar to ours - sometimes 2-3 weeks of cold and snow, sometimes a few days of cold and snow, and other times not even below freezing.  Perhaps this season it will come later on in the winter.

Newer apartments

There are lots of apartment buildings here - of course, we are mainly in the city, so that stands to reason.  Apartments look a lot like in Canada, except a lot of them have the old brick facade that makes them blend in with the old style buildings that can be found in older European countries.  They look nice from the outside, but it would be nice to see what they look like on the inside.

We drove out by the bridge to Denmark (Øresund Bridge) and did a short walk-about to take some photos.  It was fairly overcast, so the view wasn't too spectacular, but it is pretty impressive, just the

Øresund Bridge

same.  The bridge is 8 km long from the Swedish side, and ends at the man-made island called Pepper Island.  From there is continues the remaining 4 km to Denmark through a tunnel.  This allows the planes to safely land at Copenhagen airport, rather than worry about the towers of a bridge on one of their flight paths.

Then on to look at other pretty fancy places - some very expensive homes near the beach, some very inexpensive (but dangerous) areas that are called Freetown (people are like squatters and quite suspicious of outsiders).  We didn't drive in or through this area, just near it.  They don't own the land, but they may build houses of one sort or another, and one "never goes there without a tour that is paid for, and never ask questions or take photos".  I guess we won't go there.

Water tower

Then we went over by the new shopping centre that has recently been completed.  This is where the big arena is, where Sweden is playing their games in the tournament.  The arena there holds about 13 000 people, so if Canada gets to play any games there, it will be quite full.  Good thing we already have our tickets to any games that we would be seeing there.

The shopping centre is quite futuristic in design, and it certainly sounds like the people are proud of the design.  There is a huge water tower there that looks like a space ship.  Quite interesting.

Big Lamp sculpture

Christmas tree

Our group in the market

Finally, we went back to the main downtown area, and spent some time walking around the markets that are spread around the old area of downtown Malmo.  There are 4 markets, and we walked through the first and second markets, which are from centuries ago.  Nowadays, they have been upgraded, but apparently these were the areas where farmers and vendors sold their wares, and the townspeople did their purchasing.  This was also where families stayed and lived while waiting for their partners to get out of jail.  An interesting bit of information that Isabella told us was that if someone stole something from you, and you accused that person of it, they got thrown in jail until time for their trial.  The bad thing is that if you accused them of the crime, you were responsible to pay their room and board while at the jail, waiting for that trial.  I wonder if many of these disputes were solved in other ways?

Finally, there was an old church (one of the originals, I think) that we got to walk through and take photos.  This was a pretty spectacular sight to see.  The designs inside the church were magnificent.  We really enjoyed walking through there, and hope that the photos do justice to what we saw.

Exterior of the church

One of the locations for the priest

From the entrance to the front

Information about the church

By this time, we were quite tired of walking, and the wind was really cold.  We were only a short, 3 or 4 minute walk from the hotel, but I had no idea in which direction to go.  So, we hung around until Isabella took us back.  We got back to our hotel about 1:15, and had the rest of the day to ourselves.  We did go to the mall next door and purchased another bag.  This one was far more expensive than the other one we had looked at.  However, it is a very nice bag, and besides, it was priced at 30% off (how could we pass up a bargain like that?).  Then back to the hotel and we basically sat and read/watched TV until time for bed.  There were a few hockey games on TV.  Who cares if the announcing was in Swedish - the puck still gets passed and shot in whatever language is used.

First Games at the Tournament

We got up in the morning and went down for breakfast (after figuring our the shower).  Another nice buffet with fruits, meats, eggs, breads, pancakes (more like crepes but called pancakers), and juices.  Of course, coffee was the first thing to be picked up.

Then, we went back to our room to get ourselves ready.  We needed to visit the bank machine that was just around the corner from our hotel, at a mall.  We went through, looking for another bag to replace Dawn's backpack - it is very small and starting to tear, so we thought if we could find something, we would get rid of the backpack.  We did find a store with some bags, and sort of fixated on a nice, leather bag we could use as a carry-on in the plane.  We looked at the price - about 1000 Swedish Krone, which as it translates, is about $180 Canadian.  We thought better at that point, but, it is still early, and we do have a trip to Stockholm coming up.  My money says we get it, or another that was also interesting to us, but about SEK 600.

Part of our crowd at the arena

Once back outside, we spoke with some other Canadians who were just walking around.  They said the bus left the hotel at 12:00, while I was sure I had read the itinerary as 11:00.  On closer inspection, I realized I was looking at the schedule for yesterday, when we left Copenhagen, so we had an extra hour to kill.

Warm up

Once safely on the bus, we left for the Istadium - it is the smaller of the two arenas, and where Canada plays all our pool games.  We got there early, before the doors into the arena opened, but we did get some time to go through the small souvenir shop.  There wasn't a lot there, but what was there, was very expensive.  We hoped to find a shirt or hoodie, but this store didn't get them.  The guy said they have 5 shops, and the others got most of their stock, so they didn't have much.  Unfortunate for them because the Canadians would have spent all of their money there.  The place was full to bursting with red and white shirts, looking to purchase whatever they could.  We ended up with a couple decks of cards, and some fridge magnets.  I'm sure they will get more stock in, but they may have missed their opportunity at that shop.

Canadian player of the game

Post game celebration

We found our seats, among the sea of Canadians.  The arena is small, looks like it holds about 5000 fans.  It has a low ceiling, and time clocks at both ends.  There are also a couple big screens in opposite corners of each other.  When the Canadian team came out for their warmup the crowd went crazy, cheering and clapping.  Then, they went back in for the ice cleaning, and all got ready for the game.

I noticed there was internet available in the arena, but a password was needed.  I asked one of the ushers if he knew what it was, so he went and found someone who did know.  I was trying to access the public hotspot, which didn't work, but once he showed me which wireless to attach to, I was on.  That is why I was able to send some emails and photos, during the game.  It was sort of hit and miss, but it did work part of the time.

Raising the Canadian Flag

The game was Canada and Germany, with Germany scoring within the first couple minutes.  The crowd got somewhat quiet at that point, but after a while, Canada scored and they/we were excited.  Then we scored again, and everyone thought we were on our way, but Germany responded with another.  Then, Canada sort of went to town, scoring 5 more and finishing the game in pretty good fashion.

After that, it was walking around, and then finding the hospitality room for our tour.  Lots of folks in there, and they ran out of hamburgers.  I was hungry, but if there wasn't any, there wasn't any.  So back out of the room and walking around.  We found one of the hotdog stands that are in the arena, and got a couple dogs and drinks.  Very spicy hot dogs - the wieners were about twice as long as the buns, so that was interesting.

We decided to sit in another spot for the next game (USA vs Czech Republic), so went to the ends, near where the ice cleaning machine comes out.

Crowd in the Hospitality Room

We had a much better view of the ice surface, but it was really cold.  The US team is very fast and attack the puck all the time.  It looked like it would be a blowout, but teh Czechs stuck with them, for the most part.  Again, the crowd was mostly Canadians, and they were cheering for the Czechs.  I overheard one lady say, "anyone but the Americans", so I guess that is where the loyalites lie.  The Americans won that game, 5-1, and then we left to get on our bus and go back to the hotel.

The hotel had a post-game buffet, but it was SEK 225 each, which is about $37, so we passed and went up to our room.  We did have a couple buns left from Copenhagen, so we each had one (they were getting dry) and that was it.  The TV in our sitting area had been fixed while we were out, so we watched the Sweden/Swiss game that was on at the other arena.  Strangely, it went off in the 3rd period, so we don't know how it ended up.  We did find another game taking place at the Spengler cup, and watched the rest of that one.  Canada did come back to win that game.

Then it was off to bed, getting ready for a short tour of Malmo tomorrow.

Christmas Day - Move to Malmo

Boy oh Boy.  Didn't sleep well last night at all.  Dawn was in bed early as we were quite tired, and I went to bed about 11:00.  By 3:00, I was wide awake, and sleep was not going to arrive.  I lay there until about 4:15, and then decided I would get up and read.  Dawn was awake, too, so we both got up.

I read and responded to a couple emails until about 6:30.  Then showered, and we headed downstairs for breakfast.  Again, a nice buffet (just like the past 2 days), with a good selection of items.

Ate too much, again.  It's like being on a cruise, so I will have to learn to limit my intake.  The only problem is that I want it to last until dinner, so maybe I will have to ensure I continue to eat lots.

Once back in the room, we had to start getting ourselves packed to leave for the next hotel.  We were supposed to be on the bus by 11:00 am, and figured we should head downstairs by about 10:15.  We were ready by 9:30, so Dawn suggested I go down and see if we could do the initial checkout and settling of our bill, early.  I did, and we could.  After that, all we had to do was to get our bags down to the lobby, turn in our room keys, and get on the bus.

We did head downstairs at about10:30.  It was very busy down there.  The lobby was pretty full of our group, standing around with their suitcases.  There was quite a long line waiting to check out, so I was happy Dawn had suggested checking out earlier.

Looking toward Malmo

Then the buses started arriving.  We were scheduled for bus #2, and of course, it was the last in the line.  Had to drag our bags down the street, load them into the belly of the bus, and then get in and wait until we left.  One of the young fellows who was sitting in front of us wasn't feeling too well.  He indicated that he had enjoyed himself last night, but wasn't having such a good time now.  At least he took responsibility for his actions.  He did tell his friend that he could have said no at any time.

The drive to Malmo was about 45 minutes.  We had to go across the new Øresund Bridge that

Tunnel exits from Copenhagen

connects Denmark to Sweden.  I opened in 2000, with much fanfare.  First, we went underwater in a tunnel, then we came up to above water after about 5 minutes of driving.  This part is a man-made island (Pepper Island - called that because there is a natural island nearby called Salt Island), and is where the tunnel ends and the bridge begins.  The bridge is 4 lanes wide, 2 lanes each way., with a speed limit of 110 KPH.  Of course, when the wind is blowing like it was today, they reduce it to 70 KPH, and if the wind gets worse, they close it altogether.

About 500m from the end of the bridge, there was a small boat just to the right, that appeared to have run aground and tipped onto its side.  Everybody got worried about it, but the driver didn't seem to be concerned.  It must have been there for a while.  Apparently they have incidents that occur where ship captains from Russia, sometimes drink too much, and their boats get away from them.  The guide thought this might be one of those times.

The driver decided to take us by the 2 arenas where the games would be played.  We did that, and then carried on toward our hotel.  We met another bus from the same company, which looked like it might be another of our group.  Turned out it was Team Canada (some folks recognized Sutter, the coach).  They must have been returning to their hotel from a practice.

The hotel is in downtown Malmo, and is older than the one in Copenhagen.  Our room is on the 2nd floor.  When we got in, it turned out to be fairly large.  There is a bedroom area that is somewhat separate from the rest of the living area, with a queen size bed.  There is a TV at the end of the bed, and another TV in the sitting area.  I couldn't get that one to work, so after a while called down to the desk for help.

The fellow that came up is from Kosovo, and was very polite and helpful.  He seems to be the handyman, and was phoned by his boss at least 3 times while he was with us.  He is very busy.  He said the usually there are 2 guys on shift for this sort of thing, but the other guy took today off for a vacation.  Of course, the other guy is usually the one who works with the TVs, so he will have to come tomorrow while we are away at the games.  Some folks had given him a small Canada flag, and Dawn gave him a Canada flag pin, that he put on right away.  It was a small thing, but it seemed to please him.

We don't know the arrangements for dinner, although we know we are supposed to go to a buffet in the hotel.  We figure to go for a short walk to see if we can figure out where to go for dinner, so it is time to shut this down.

Until tomorrow...

Short tour of Copenhagen

We were awake early this morning.  Before they started making noise outside the restaurant, we were already awake.  I think our bodies are having a little trouble with the time changes.

Down for breakfast, just after 7:00.  Not busy at all.  The food was the same as what we paid for yesterday (restaurant on the top floor), but this is included in our stay here, so it saved us a bunch.  It is a very tasty buffet - scrambled eggs (somewhat runny so I didn't go for them today), bacon, sausage (a couple kinds), hard and soft boiled eggs, other meats and cheeses, a couple kind of herring, lots of croissants and other danish pastries, with jams, etc., and fruit bowls.  As usual, like on the ships, we/I ate too much (but it has to last the rest of the day until supper, doesn't it?).

We went back up to our room, and had quite a bit of time until our short tour of Copenhagen was to depart the hotel.  So, sat around, read books, played cards, and finally went downstairs to be ready for the bus.

Isabella - our tour guide

We were on bus 7 of 8, and supposed to leave at 11:00 am sharp, but for some reason, didn't pull out until about 11:15.  This is not good technique, because just like students, people will believe they aren't as strict about times as they indicate.  Off we went for a couple hour tour.  We had seen some of the places yesterday when going around Tivoli, but it was still interesting to learn about the architecture and the reasons for the buildings that we saw.

One of the Royal Guards

We drove around quite a few places, visiting a "walking street" (lots of high end stores), the Royal family castle in Copenhagen (they were away at another castle due to renovations taking place on this one), and the site of the Little Mermaid statue.  It was a nice tour, and short, but it gives us a taste of the tour we will be on later in the tournament.

In Scandinavia, they celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, so things pretty much close up around 2 or 3 (those that were open at all).  We are going to stay at the hotel for the rest of our afternoon and evening, and will eat the last of the buns, meat, and cheese we purchased yesterday.  We'll likely continue to watch some Netflix programs - started watching House of Cards last night.  It is really interesting, so we will likely get in a few episodes tonight.

Tomorrow, we move from here over to the Radisson in Malmo.  We are supposed to pull out at 11:00 am sharp (who knows what that means now), and with having to get checked out, we should be downstairs and ready to go, no later than 10:30.

Until then, Merry Christmas.  Enjoy your dinners tonight.  It is just after 4:00 pm as I'm writing this, which is about 7:00 am at home.

Copenhagen, Denmark - First Day

We arrived in Copenhagen at about 3:00, and after

Copenhagen airport from our bus

picking up our bags, we headed outside to find our tour group.  They were waiting for us just at the exit from the baggage claim area, and directed us to the buses that were waiting to take us to our hotel for the next 3 days.  It was a 15-20 minute drive, after we finally collect everybody - there were 5 buses in total, and we got on bus #5.  Some folks' bags didn't all show up, so there was a delay while they were making any arrangements that had to be made.  Apparently, one of the women saw here bag sitting on the tarmac when we took off, so she was kind of expecting at least one bag to not make it to Copenhagen.  They told the folks that they would get the missing bags to them in the next couple days - hopefully it will happen.

Dawn writing her emails

Anyhow, off to the hotel.  We are staying at the Radisson Blu

Tivoli after dark

in downtown Copenhagen.  A very nice looking hotel, right across the street from Tivoli, a well-known amusement park, that looks somewhat like Disneyland, from our perspective.  We have tickets for Tivoli today (Monday, Dec. 23), and will go there sometime in the afternoon.  Our room in the hotel is on the top floor (20th floor) and looks out over Tivoli and a lot of the downtown.  We have a spectacular view.

View from our room

We didn't really know the arrangements for breakfast.  Our room is right beside the restaurant on the 20th floor, and we thought that was where we were to go for breakfast.  So, we walked in, started ging through the buffet, and the waiter came to us and asked for our name and room number.  A short while later, he cme back to tell us that our included breakfast was in the restaurant on the ground floor. This one was a club of some sort, and it was a pay breakfast.  Because we had already dished up our food, we decided to stay and pay - very expensive, but pretty good selection.  Our mistake, but now we know.

Then it was back to our room, but it was being cleaned, so we went downstairs, got our Tivoli tickets, and then went in a got our big cups filled with coffee at the restaurant that we were supposed to be at.  The food looked very similar, so I guess we will eat there the next 2 mornings.  Apparently it gets very busy with a long line of people, so we will have to time things carefully, to beat the rush.

We're soon off to explore around our hotel, so it is time to end this part.  More to come.

Frankfurt and on to Copenhagen

Well, a long flight .  10 hours in the plane was somewhat long.  Our rear ends were getting tender by the time we arrived in Frankfurt (about 8:30 am their time, but 11:30 pm Pacific time) on Sunday morning.  The weather was overcast, and fairly warm, but no snow visible anywhere.  What a big airport.  We walked for what seemed an hour to get to our next gate to wait for the flight to Copenhagen.  We are supposed to start boarding about 11:50 am, and fly out at12:20, for a 1 hour 20 minute flight.  More when we get there, if I don't fall asleep (starting to run out of gas).

Early Getaway to Beat the Weather

We left early (Thursday about 11:00) to get to the coast before the bad weather came in.  After waking up on Friday morning, we were pretty happy that we did.  It had started snowing about 11:30 pm Thursday night, and was still snowing at noon on Friday, in Abbotsford.  There was lots of wet, heavy snow accumulated on just about everything.  Schools were closed all over the Lower Mainland.  We laugh because it is just snow, but when we saw the picture of the school bus, slipping down the road backwards, it wasn't quite so funny.  This stuff turns to ice as soon as it is driven over.

A lot of snow

About 2:00, we decided it was time to head into Richmond to our hotel, before the big trip Saturday.  Getting from our friend's place to the highway was the worst of the trip.  They live on a mountain, and the snow was thick and heavy.  As we got down to the valley bottom, it got wetter and slushier (is that a word?), until we got to the freeway, where it was bare.  I took a couple pictures of our car that was covered in snow, so we could remember how much snow there was.  Walking in it was like walking on water - snow on top, but it froze to ice under our feet as we stepped on it and packed it down.

Lots to clean off before driving.

Got into our room about 4:00 Friday, and started to think about all the things we had to do before we left Saturday.  Besides, the Canucks came on TV playing in Chicago, and that was a pretty good game to watch.  After going to Moxie's for dinner (after the game), we came back to our room, I made sure I had some books downloaded to read during our trip, and we got some other things done, and then it was into bed.

Strange, we didn't sleep overly well.  A different bed, different pillows, noise in the room, and general excitement all assisted in keeping us awake at various times during the night.  Now we are getting the final sorting of bags, trying to make sure that we have everything we need on the flight, and in our carry-ons.  Of course, I realized that I had forgotten my Canucks sweatshirt, as well as my other sweatshirt, so it is a good thing I had packed the Canada Hockey sweatshirts first thing, or I would have been in a lot of trouble.

Anyhow, it is time to go, soon, so that is it for now.