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.

World Junior Tournament

We're starting to get excited about our trip to Sweden for the World Junior tournament.  Here is a countdown clock for when we depart from Vancouver.