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...