On the road with WRT in Chicago for our seventh annual trip to the United Center, as giant whale and small defenseman combine as Wild beat Hawks
As Minnesota Wild road trips go, it was probably the easiest one around. Our seventh annual road trip to Chicago's United Center, as both the Wild and the Chicago Blackhawks played the last game prior to the NHL All-Star break.
We start at MSP Airport's Terminal 2 (nee-Humphrey Terminal) where we were about to board our Southwest Airlines flight to Chicago Midway Airport. The flight was no where near full (a rarity for Southwest), where even their 'DING' application never features the Twin Cities, when they call for last-minute fare specials.
As we begin to line up (by number; remember, Southwest boards by group and boarding number, not by row and seat) I look over and see our 737-700 aircraft, and it is none other than the Sea World-sponsored 'Shamu' aircraft, one of a phalanx of special planes in Southwest's over-600 aircraft fleet, painted for a specific attraction or state. Inside, 1/3rd of the overhead luggage bins feature a very large and famous whale, on the outside of the bin.
Our flight takes off nearly 20 minutes late (late arrival from Chicago) but some deft traffic control gets us into the gate (B-1, next to all the goodies) only 5 minutes late at 2:10 PM. Walking thru the airport en route to the Orange Line 'L' train to the Chicago Loop, we (wife and I) are feeling good about everything...but the game itself. We are hoping for the game not to get blown out by the high-flying (at least until this season) Hawks, who are also in the fight for the last four playoff spots in the Western Conference.
My wife has an idea to get some real, honest-to-God Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, and then meet us at our North Michigan Avenue hotel. So, I agree to go on to the hotel, with not only my bag, but hers as well, hers being lighter than mine due to no netbook, no C-PAP machine (I use it in order to sleep), and very little clothing (I think I had more than she did).
I check in, go up to our 20th-floor room, and barely get in the door when I'm asked by my wife to come down and get the pizza, while she goes a couple doors over to get beverages at a local Walgreens store (and before you ask; yes, CVS Pharmacy is right across the street).
We stay at this hotel (which she stayed at earlier in the fall when she took relatives to Chicago) because she wants to, the price was right ($81/night) and the fact that I need to do something to change my Chicago luck. (We've seen two losses in the last three games at the United Center).
And, across the street, is none other than the Blackhawks team store! (A definite plus.) A quick trip across the street yields two T-shirts, one long sleeve, with all four Blackhawk logos in team history; and the other one short sleeve, named 'the Failed Nine', with the logos of the nine NHL franchises which have folded in the modern era (that's post-World-War-II, for you young whipper-snappers out there in the blogosphere).
Anyhow, after my foray across the street, we get to game time, and the CTA #19 United Center Express bus. Now, despite the bus sign saying 'Go Bulls', we board and eventually we pick up a fairly good load (and one drunk asshole, who we let off at Wacker Drive). The bus seems to take forever, as the streets are, of course, full as it is the tail end of the afternoon rush hour. We get off in front of the cavernous arena and enter at 6:45 PM, 45 minutes before first puck drop.
We find our club-level seats, next to the TV camera pavilion, and see that no less than 6 cameras are working this nationally-cablecast game (Versus, TSN2) while the Hawks' fans are in full party mode as they settle in for the evening. At least, until the national anthem is sung. Then, the Hawks' fans go absolutely crazy, as Jim Corneilson belts out a wonderful rendition, nearly drowned out by the cheers of 21,247 UC patrons as his mother, an 88-year-old WAC member from WWII, stood next to her son. She had never heard her son sing the song, which he has become famous in the hockey world for, before last night.
After that, how could the young and still speedy Hawks not come out like gangbusters? But, after Martin Havlat's laser-shot goal opened the scoring, the Wild managed to survive the rest of a first period where Corey Crawford, Hawks' goaltender, looked like he had the night off, and was watching a game played on a half-rink. Two goals scored in the first (by Patrick Sharp and Troy Brower) by the Hawks and the Wild fans in the arena were wondering what was coming next.
What was coming next was 'the Minnow'... and no, we're not talking about the ship featured in the 60's TV series, 'Gilligan's Island', either. We are talking about the Wild's diminutive blue line find, Jared Spurgeon, he of the continuing to impress Wild brass, into a full-time NHL job. Currently playing for the injured Marco Scandella, it will be a very tough decision to send this kid back to AHL Houston, when the somewhat banged-up Wild returns to full health later next month. Spurgeon played against the speedy Hawks like an old vet, not taking chances with the puck, skating it out of the defensive zone when necessary, clogging lanes, you name it, he did it.
With the defensive side holding its' own (and Niklas Backstrom turning in another stand-on-his-head performance: the save on Brower in the first, after Backstrom was forced to slide across the crease on his belly in order to reach the puck, is a 'must-see') it was time for the offense to assert itself, much to the dismay of the big UC crowd, as Chuck Kobasew first found twine out of a Spurgeon shot (Spurgeon's first NHL point, BTW) and then with 3:47 left in the stanza, Antti Miettinen deflected Andrew Brunette's wrister from the boards, to make it 3-2 for 'the good guys', as White Sox announcer Ken 'Hawk' Harrelson would say.
The third period was a lot like the second, as the Wild took the game to the Hawks, especially after Pierre-Marc Bouchard's wrap-around goal made the score 4-2, up to the end, save for one spot when a Jonathan Towes shot was blown dead when referee Stephane Auger, with whom the Wild have had a few run-ins with previously, lost sight of the puck. Since the referee lost sight of the puck, it is NOT, by definition, a reviewable decision by the Toronto 'war room', the decision stood, despite a vehemous protest by Hawks coach Joel Quenneville, and the game played out, to the Wild's good fortune.
Post-game, we make our way thru the sullen crowd to a line of four CTA 'big bend' buses, ready to take passengers back into the Loop. One big difference than normal, though; normally, there is a steady line of people waiting to get on the buses in order to get onto trains going home. Not last night. A lot of them bailed out on the Hawks after Bouchard's goal, leaving the rest of the crowd to see the finish, of what was a very competitive hockey game. We board, find seats, and watch as the usual crush-load of Hawks fans get aboard. This is a very quiet bus (for once) as we make our way past Oprah's Harpo Studios, down Washington and towards the railroad stations, Ogilvie and Union, and the Loop.
We get dropped off directly across the street from our hotel, and we end the night, happy and feeling that it was definitely well worth the effort, to go to the Windy City for a night of really good puck. All in all, it was an effort well worth doing, even though the trip home was uneventful (despite an absolutely full flight). I wish all trips were like this.
Maybe the next one (Feb. 5, at Phoenix) will be as successful. Who knows...?
Showing posts with label Road Trips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Road Trips. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Thursday, November 11, 2010
'Blackhawks South' scalps hapless Wild
Thrashers win 5-1; as for the Wild, the night the lights went out in Georgia
By Wild Road Tripper
ATLANTA -- Thank God the Minnesota Wild Official Road Trip was not scheduled for tonight's game at Philips Arena. Because, they would have been better off across the street, doing the 'Dirty Bird' with 71,500 Atlanta Falcons fans.
At least, they would have had more fun. I know, sitting in the stands tonight, that I would have.
The Wild came out after what Coach Todd Richards called 'one of the best pre-game skates' of the season, with as lacklustre an effort this blogger has seen, since Hartwall Areena in Helsinki, en route to a 5-1 thrashing by the Atlanta Thrashers, in front of an announced 10,055 (were they tickets distributed or seats empty? Only the Thrashers know for sure.)
All three of Atlanta's signings from Chicago this past summer -- Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager, and Andrew Ladd -- figured in the scoring. Byfuglien with two assists, Eager and Ladd a goal each, with Ladd adding an assist on Atlanta's last goal, as the Wild flat out failed to launch any offensive pressure tonight at all.
No one had a good game tonight. NO one. They all sucked. And, they know it. They'll spend tomorrow in Sunrise, Fla., prior to facing the Florida Panthers tomorrow night at BankAtlantic Center. Hopefully, the Wild will bring their 'A' game along, because it sure wasn't here in Georgia this evening.
By Wild Road Tripper
ATLANTA -- Thank God the Minnesota Wild Official Road Trip was not scheduled for tonight's game at Philips Arena. Because, they would have been better off across the street, doing the 'Dirty Bird' with 71,500 Atlanta Falcons fans.
At least, they would have had more fun. I know, sitting in the stands tonight, that I would have.
The Wild came out after what Coach Todd Richards called 'one of the best pre-game skates' of the season, with as lacklustre an effort this blogger has seen, since Hartwall Areena in Helsinki, en route to a 5-1 thrashing by the Atlanta Thrashers, in front of an announced 10,055 (were they tickets distributed or seats empty? Only the Thrashers know for sure.)
All three of Atlanta's signings from Chicago this past summer -- Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager, and Andrew Ladd -- figured in the scoring. Byfuglien with two assists, Eager and Ladd a goal each, with Ladd adding an assist on Atlanta's last goal, as the Wild flat out failed to launch any offensive pressure tonight at all.
No one had a good game tonight. NO one. They all sucked. And, they know it. They'll spend tomorrow in Sunrise, Fla., prior to facing the Florida Panthers tomorrow night at BankAtlantic Center. Hopefully, the Wild will bring their 'A' game along, because it sure wasn't here in Georgia this evening.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Finland XIII: No place like home
(In this 13th and final installment of my blog series regarding NHL Premiere 2010, featuring the Minnesota Wild in Helsinki, Finland, we finally pack up and head for home.)
All good things, must come to an end. And so did our trip to Europe, after ten days and over 11,000 miles, as we packed up in the middle of the night in our Helsinki hotel room, following two losses by the Wild to the Carolina Hurricanes at Hartwall Areena.
And so, here we are, 36 of us mustered in the hotel lobby at 4:20 in the morning to board a bus for the 30-minute trip out to Vanataa Airport, some 18 miles (30KM) north of the city's center. We board, depart, and drive thru the mostly deserted streets of the sleeping city, as the lack of traffic allows us the freedom to move quickly, thru streets mostly devoid of traffic. Not even the trams are running at this hour, those being replaced by special night buses also running on a limited schedule.
From the relative quiet of the city itself, the noise and bustle of Vanataa is a shock to the system, as is the realization that the trip is quickly coming to an end. We check in at Finnair for our flight to Paris, with the connection there for Minneapolis/St. Paul. Thru security for the first time, then down to our gate. I stop to look at all the destinations on the departures board; Las Palmas, Oulu, Berlin, Amsterdam, Oslo, Copenhagen, Moscow, and many, many more.
The concourse, while not wall-to-wall people, is bustling for 6:00 AM, as Europe gets on the move for another day. And the list of airlines is as impressive as the destinations: Finnair, KLM, Aeroflot, MAV (Hungarian), Bulgarian, and offshoots of numerous airlines. Our gate is occupied by an Air Berlin A320 Airbus destined for the German capital. They load, leave, and our plane is dragged into position.
Our Finnair flight, surprisisngly, is not full as we depart a few minutes late, which would hurt us later. A very uneventful flight, as average a flight as one could ask for. And then, there is Paris...
...Charles De Gaulle airport, which is northeast of the City of Lights, and a whole lot different than any other terminal I had ever seen before. The airport is three massive terminals, and for security reasons, all flights across the North Atlantic have been grouped in the same terminal area. All passengers must go thru security again before transiting the airport, even if you went thru security before (you had to go thru it before you boarded your connecting flight inbound, anyways) and that's where our simple trip home, turned into an episode of 'The Amazing Race'.
You need to take a shuttle bus from one part of the terminal to another, the terminals are THAT big. We missed the shuttle by seconds, and then were left to sit for nearly five minutes while the next shuttle loaded. Our bus stop was the second (of three) on the circular route which runs around the terminal, as massive aircraft (Airbus 380's, Boeing 767's, 777's, and the 747-400) occupied nearly every gate as we drive underneath between ends of the massive terminal.
We finally get to the end of the line (for us, anyway) then find out we have to go thru security AGAIN to get thru to the gate areas for aircraft destined for North America. The security line is not moving well. Too many families, too much baggage, too much everything. Throw in the fact that someone put speakers in his carry-on baggage and didn't declare it (and put them in the tray like he should have) and now we were in trouble. We realized, then and there, that we were probably going to miss our flight home, the only one of the day directly from Paris to MSP.
'Go thru', I said, 'let's just go thru. Something may just happen, you never know.' So, we got to our boarding gate just in time...to see the plane being pushed back. It had happened.
We saw our plane leaving. Without us on it.
We saw the agent at the gate, who told us to see customer service at the next counter over. That, believe it or not, is where we finally caught a break.
A kind, intense young woman agent at the Air France customer services counter, took over and really saved our bacon. She worked on our reservation for over an hour in order to try and get us home. We were otherwise stranded in Paris (not the worst place to spend a night, I suppose, but I was out of clean clothes and stamina) and looking at a night in transit somewhere, somewhere we were not prepared for.
'You will be sleeping in your own bed tonight, I promise you'. With those words, she reassured us that we would be going home today, not tomorrow. That really helped what otherwise was a disasterous situation. She found two seats on a 747-400 bound for Logan Airport, Boston, then we would change there for Minneapolis/St. Paul on Delta. She had done it!
With a very heartfelt 'Merci, madame', we took our new boarding passes and then joined the crowd boarding this massive jet for New England and, eventually, our own bed, which was really sounding good right about now.
We had Row 53, Seats 'B' & 'C', near the tail of the aircraft. But, at that point, who really cared? We were just happy to be crossing the North Atlantic at this point, as the 747 departed Paris bound for the USA. I almost wanted to shout 'Hooray! We made it!' or something like that, but I just squeezed my wife's hand and said, 'Here we go'.
They served two meals on this flight, and of course, being an Air France flight, four different kinds of wine. The flight was a long, 7:20 trip across the Atlantic, all in daylight; it was 2:40 PM when we departed Paris, and 2:40 pm when we turned over Quincy, Mass., on final approach to Logan Airport. At this point, we had been on the move for the better part of 21 hours. And, we still had 5 hours to go before arriving at home.
Another round of security, this time inbound, for both baggage and passengers, then re-check the bags onto the Minneapolis-bound flight, then cross the Logan concourses to the 'A' concourse for our connecting Delta flight for MSP.
We went thru security (for a fourth time), then made the long walk to the very far end of the 'A' concourse, and waited for our Minneapolis-bound flight. Another packed plane, but we were able to sit together for the last 2:15 as the familiar sights of Minneapolis approached, we felt a great sigh of relief.
We were finally at home, after 26 hours on the road. Turned on the TV at home, just as the Yankees' Nick Swisher put the final nail in the Twins' playoff coffin, with a home run off 'Moon Shot' Scott Baker. And then we knew.
All was right with the world, once again.
(end of series)
All good things, must come to an end. And so did our trip to Europe, after ten days and over 11,000 miles, as we packed up in the middle of the night in our Helsinki hotel room, following two losses by the Wild to the Carolina Hurricanes at Hartwall Areena.
And so, here we are, 36 of us mustered in the hotel lobby at 4:20 in the morning to board a bus for the 30-minute trip out to Vanataa Airport, some 18 miles (30KM) north of the city's center. We board, depart, and drive thru the mostly deserted streets of the sleeping city, as the lack of traffic allows us the freedom to move quickly, thru streets mostly devoid of traffic. Not even the trams are running at this hour, those being replaced by special night buses also running on a limited schedule.
From the relative quiet of the city itself, the noise and bustle of Vanataa is a shock to the system, as is the realization that the trip is quickly coming to an end. We check in at Finnair for our flight to Paris, with the connection there for Minneapolis/St. Paul. Thru security for the first time, then down to our gate. I stop to look at all the destinations on the departures board; Las Palmas, Oulu, Berlin, Amsterdam, Oslo, Copenhagen, Moscow, and many, many more.
The concourse, while not wall-to-wall people, is bustling for 6:00 AM, as Europe gets on the move for another day. And the list of airlines is as impressive as the destinations: Finnair, KLM, Aeroflot, MAV (Hungarian), Bulgarian, and offshoots of numerous airlines. Our gate is occupied by an Air Berlin A320 Airbus destined for the German capital. They load, leave, and our plane is dragged into position.
Our Finnair flight, surprisisngly, is not full as we depart a few minutes late, which would hurt us later. A very uneventful flight, as average a flight as one could ask for. And then, there is Paris...
...Charles De Gaulle airport, which is northeast of the City of Lights, and a whole lot different than any other terminal I had ever seen before. The airport is three massive terminals, and for security reasons, all flights across the North Atlantic have been grouped in the same terminal area. All passengers must go thru security again before transiting the airport, even if you went thru security before (you had to go thru it before you boarded your connecting flight inbound, anyways) and that's where our simple trip home, turned into an episode of 'The Amazing Race'.
You need to take a shuttle bus from one part of the terminal to another, the terminals are THAT big. We missed the shuttle by seconds, and then were left to sit for nearly five minutes while the next shuttle loaded. Our bus stop was the second (of three) on the circular route which runs around the terminal, as massive aircraft (Airbus 380's, Boeing 767's, 777's, and the 747-400) occupied nearly every gate as we drive underneath between ends of the massive terminal.
We finally get to the end of the line (for us, anyway) then find out we have to go thru security AGAIN to get thru to the gate areas for aircraft destined for North America. The security line is not moving well. Too many families, too much baggage, too much everything. Throw in the fact that someone put speakers in his carry-on baggage and didn't declare it (and put them in the tray like he should have) and now we were in trouble. We realized, then and there, that we were probably going to miss our flight home, the only one of the day directly from Paris to MSP.
'Go thru', I said, 'let's just go thru. Something may just happen, you never know.' So, we got to our boarding gate just in time...to see the plane being pushed back. It had happened.
We saw our plane leaving. Without us on it.
We saw the agent at the gate, who told us to see customer service at the next counter over. That, believe it or not, is where we finally caught a break.
A kind, intense young woman agent at the Air France customer services counter, took over and really saved our bacon. She worked on our reservation for over an hour in order to try and get us home. We were otherwise stranded in Paris (not the worst place to spend a night, I suppose, but I was out of clean clothes and stamina) and looking at a night in transit somewhere, somewhere we were not prepared for.
'You will be sleeping in your own bed tonight, I promise you'. With those words, she reassured us that we would be going home today, not tomorrow. That really helped what otherwise was a disasterous situation. She found two seats on a 747-400 bound for Logan Airport, Boston, then we would change there for Minneapolis/St. Paul on Delta. She had done it!
With a very heartfelt 'Merci, madame', we took our new boarding passes and then joined the crowd boarding this massive jet for New England and, eventually, our own bed, which was really sounding good right about now.
We had Row 53, Seats 'B' & 'C', near the tail of the aircraft. But, at that point, who really cared? We were just happy to be crossing the North Atlantic at this point, as the 747 departed Paris bound for the USA. I almost wanted to shout 'Hooray! We made it!' or something like that, but I just squeezed my wife's hand and said, 'Here we go'.
They served two meals on this flight, and of course, being an Air France flight, four different kinds of wine. The flight was a long, 7:20 trip across the Atlantic, all in daylight; it was 2:40 PM when we departed Paris, and 2:40 pm when we turned over Quincy, Mass., on final approach to Logan Airport. At this point, we had been on the move for the better part of 21 hours. And, we still had 5 hours to go before arriving at home.
Another round of security, this time inbound, for both baggage and passengers, then re-check the bags onto the Minneapolis-bound flight, then cross the Logan concourses to the 'A' concourse for our connecting Delta flight for MSP.
We went thru security (for a fourth time), then made the long walk to the very far end of the 'A' concourse, and waited for our Minneapolis-bound flight. Another packed plane, but we were able to sit together for the last 2:15 as the familiar sights of Minneapolis approached, we felt a great sigh of relief.
We were finally at home, after 26 hours on the road. Turned on the TV at home, just as the Yankees' Nick Swisher put the final nail in the Twins' playoff coffin, with a home run off 'Moon Shot' Scott Baker. And then we knew.
All was right with the world, once again.
(end of series)
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Finland XII: Out and About
(In this 12th installment of my blog series in regards to NHL Premiere 2010, featuring the Minnesota Wild in Helsinki, Finland, we focus on life with Finns in various settings, and how the tourist benefits from traditional Finnish stoicism.)
Finland is the land where everything is slow and warm. Very warm.
You walk into any Finnish building in October, and the heat is ON. Not just barely working, but full-bore, cranked-up ON. From our hotel room, to the souvenir shops, to Central Station, Helsinki, all the way to the Visitor Center at the Summolinna Sea Fortress, you will never, EVER be cold in Finland. You would have to take it to the extreme, in order to be cold in Finland.
It was the best week for that time of year most Finns could remember. Last week was the annual Herring Festival at the City Market in Helsinki, where various types of herring are available for sample (and, purchase) in both cooked and uncooked versions. There are other things at the market, also, such as faux firs, artwork, crepes and numerous ways to serve reindeer meat. But this week, the herring holds sway, and from what I had of it, it's really good herring, also. Of course, it's also really, REALLY fresh herring, just caught less than 24 hours before being served.
Finnish food is very subtlely flavored, but since we stayed at a hotel which caters to international travellers, they actually had such items for us Americans as Tabasco sauce. Scrambled eggs and bacon were as much on the menu at the breakfast buffet each morning, as were the ever-British porridge, wiener sausage and baked beans in tomato sauce. For the Russians, the traditional zakuski of soft-or-hard boiled eggs, cucumber, tomato, meats and cheeses were available. Five different kinds of cold cereal were available, as were every topping imaginable. You could also enjoy some of the world's best breads, as the Finns have the bread thing down pat.
A lot of Finnish restaurants would be closed until at least late afternoon (dinner hour in Finland generally is not before 7:00 PM) but they do stay open until late evening. Lunch is the domain of the two fast-food imports (McDonald's and Subway, who are everywhere) or of places like the Forum shops, a Finnish 'Loondale', complete with Finnish versions of your favorite mall food court eatery.
The No. 1 option for why people go into central Helsinki, however, is the massive, 10-story, 12-floor Stockmann department store. Stockmann's is the place for EVERYTHING -- this store has everything from fashion, to souvenirs for the folks back home, to the toiletries you need for your next trip, to the luggage to haul it all around Europe in, to an in-store deli, and not one but THREE places to grab an ice cream cone while you shop. This massive throwback to old-fashioned consumerism, circa 1967, is the busiest single location in the country. It was so busy there when I walked in, you had to go on a down elevator, in order to go UP on an elevator, to the upper floors. And how old is this building? There are NO escalators to serve the hordes of people who venture out to brave the crowds in order to look really, really good.
Finnish stoicism abounds. Everyone knows that with time, you'll figure it all out, and you will be just like them. Stoic, reserved, and happy just to be warm and in Finland. That's when you know that they've got you, and that you will be back, someday, and for a long, long time. Everyone knows it, whenever that hits, you will be 'one of us'.
I could go on, but real Finns never brag. They're too stoic to blow their own horn.
(to be continued)
Finland is the land where everything is slow and warm. Very warm.
You walk into any Finnish building in October, and the heat is ON. Not just barely working, but full-bore, cranked-up ON. From our hotel room, to the souvenir shops, to Central Station, Helsinki, all the way to the Visitor Center at the Summolinna Sea Fortress, you will never, EVER be cold in Finland. You would have to take it to the extreme, in order to be cold in Finland.
It was the best week for that time of year most Finns could remember. Last week was the annual Herring Festival at the City Market in Helsinki, where various types of herring are available for sample (and, purchase) in both cooked and uncooked versions. There are other things at the market, also, such as faux firs, artwork, crepes and numerous ways to serve reindeer meat. But this week, the herring holds sway, and from what I had of it, it's really good herring, also. Of course, it's also really, REALLY fresh herring, just caught less than 24 hours before being served.
Finnish food is very subtlely flavored, but since we stayed at a hotel which caters to international travellers, they actually had such items for us Americans as Tabasco sauce. Scrambled eggs and bacon were as much on the menu at the breakfast buffet each morning, as were the ever-British porridge, wiener sausage and baked beans in tomato sauce. For the Russians, the traditional zakuski of soft-or-hard boiled eggs, cucumber, tomato, meats and cheeses were available. Five different kinds of cold cereal were available, as were every topping imaginable. You could also enjoy some of the world's best breads, as the Finns have the bread thing down pat.
A lot of Finnish restaurants would be closed until at least late afternoon (dinner hour in Finland generally is not before 7:00 PM) but they do stay open until late evening. Lunch is the domain of the two fast-food imports (McDonald's and Subway, who are everywhere) or of places like the Forum shops, a Finnish 'Loondale', complete with Finnish versions of your favorite mall food court eatery.
The No. 1 option for why people go into central Helsinki, however, is the massive, 10-story, 12-floor Stockmann department store. Stockmann's is the place for EVERYTHING -- this store has everything from fashion, to souvenirs for the folks back home, to the toiletries you need for your next trip, to the luggage to haul it all around Europe in, to an in-store deli, and not one but THREE places to grab an ice cream cone while you shop. This massive throwback to old-fashioned consumerism, circa 1967, is the busiest single location in the country. It was so busy there when I walked in, you had to go on a down elevator, in order to go UP on an elevator, to the upper floors. And how old is this building? There are NO escalators to serve the hordes of people who venture out to brave the crowds in order to look really, really good.
Finnish stoicism abounds. Everyone knows that with time, you'll figure it all out, and you will be just like them. Stoic, reserved, and happy just to be warm and in Finland. That's when you know that they've got you, and that you will be back, someday, and for a long, long time. Everyone knows it, whenever that hits, you will be 'one of us'.
I could go on, but real Finns never brag. They're too stoic to blow their own horn.
(to be continued)
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Finland XI: Highballin' to Helsinki, Part 2; Helping to clean up the Swedish gene pool
(In this 11th installment of my blog series, leading up to NHL Premiere 2010, featuring the Minnesota Wild in Helsinki, Finland, we look at the second half of the trip itself, featuring three different modes of transportation, several hundred drunk Russians, all in the same place; and one very dumb Swede.)
As we sat and waited to depart Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport rail station, our Swedish SJ conductor came on the public address system and started to go on about something. It took him a while to get all the info out, but then, they came back in English, and said:
"There is an accident ahead on the tracks just east of Malmo. You will stay on this train to Malmo, then you will take the bus to Lund, where another train will then take you to Stockholm."
In other words, we are getting bussed around whatever the hell happened up there. At this point, we didn't know what it was, nor did we really care. There were 1 1/2 busloads of really sullen people on this train, then, as we crossed the Oresundbanen (Oresund Rail Link, the tunnel and bridge connection across the North Sea between Denmark and Sweden) and headed on into Malmo.
At Malmo, it was mass chaos, as we tried to get off, and everyone from the connecting train (they got bused to Malmo from Lund) was trying to get on, all at the same time. We finally found the right buses and settled in for the short, 25-minute bus ride to Lund. The bus had to pick its' way thru the center of Lund on a Saturday shopping day, so it was not exactly the fastest trip in Swedish history. At Lund, we found out what happened:
Some idiot in a private auto tried to play 'beat the train' at a grade crossing, one of the few on that route segment, and lost the bet. I do not know if the driver was injured or killed, but if there ever was a reason to shoot a Swede, that moron would have been one, right there. The Swedish national traffic management agency (Trafikverket), responsible for safety of all modes of transport within the country, had shut the railway down in that immediate area, to conduct their investigation of the accident, so that precipitated the 'bustitution' of our train around the site.
At Lund, we found our new X2000 train waiting for us, but it was one car short of what we had originally had. Instead of a 6-car train, we were now a 5-car set, departing Lund 40 minutes late, and going upwards of 180-200 KPH over the Swedish mainline towards Stockholm. I had made arrangements to have lunch on board the train, which, it turns out, was a very precipitous move, as we would see when we got into Stockholm Central station.
The rest of the afternoon was spent quietly observing the Swedish countryside, a far cry from the bustle of the previous day in Paris and Cologne. No wonder why so many Swedes come to Minnesota each and every year; it so much reminds them of home in Northern Minnesota, that they come over in droves. I though for a minute or two several times we were up near the Iron Range as we shot past smaller Swedish towns, each of which had a neat, tidy station on the main line from where the locals take local trains to larger towns, where trains like ours stops, and then takes them to Stockholm or Copenhagen to fly from there internationally (like, overseas.)
The X2000 arrived Stockholm 40 minutes late, just as it had left Lund; now the problem was how to negotiate the labyrinth, which is the Central Station -- Cityterminalen complex to find our next transport; the Flygbussarna bus to the Viking Line ferry dock at Stadsgarden, where our ferry to Finland would be arriving at the same time as we would be.
My wife bailed us out here, as she acutely observed that there was a red line on the floor, to direct people to Cityterminalen across the street. We dutifully followed the red line, and made our way first to the Viking Line ferry office to buy our bus tickets, then out to the bus itself, in order to get out to the ferry slip.
The bus was not full by any means, as we departed on time at 6:30 PM for the Viking Line ferry terminalen at Stadsgarden, which is about 5 miles east of Central Station. We then proceeded to obtain our ferry tickets and the all-important coupon for the Viking Buffet dinner service, then waited in the terminal's waiting room until the ship's 7:40 PM boarding time.
That's when the drunk Russians showed up. One even managed to get himself dragged onto the boat by his buddies, he was so in the bag before they even opened up the ferry for service, and even more Russian alcohol consumption.
The Russians love to drink. And drink. And, drink. And drink some more. There were so many drunk Russians on this boat, no wonder why they painted the outside of it red; to honor the bloodshot eyes of all the hung-over ex-Soviets who ride to and from the West on 'booze cruises' whereby they go to Scandinavia to get away from their bleak, Russian existence. Now, I had been warned prior to starting this trip (by several people, mind you) that there would be a LOT of drinking on this trip. Not even those warnings, dire as they sounded, could have prepared me for what was to come.
The dinner buffet was an exotic array of dishes from all over the place, but what impressed the most is the amount of Russian alcohol consumption in the buffet, where the beer and wine were all included in the price. The best thing about all this is when we retired to our cabin, and we could lock the door and peacefully sleep, knowing full well that we wouldn't be disturbed, so long as the bars and cocktail lounges on the ferry stayed open. After that, all bets were off.
As we passed thru the night, we went thru the Aland Islands, stopping at Langnais, then it was on towards the Finland coast, and our date with a train Sunday morning at Turku Satama (Harbor) station. Towards morning, when the last of the bars closed, the hallways started filling with loud, drunk Russians, all trying to find a place to sleep it off before starting in again.
As our ship neared the Finnish coast, it was time for breakfast, so it was back to the buffet line we went, only to find that the Russians were already there, trying to eat as much as possible, before boarding their buses to take them home, from their three-day drunkfest. They were rude, cut in line frequently, and the crew could do nothing about it, as there weren't enough of them to take on the number of Russians who were causing the trouble. All this, while the Finnish coast was quickly coming into view, in the fog of a Sunday coastal morning.
The boat docked at 7:35 AM, right on time. The passengers were led down the gangway, and all was going well, until someone stopped the whole thing by falling down...drunk. We won't tell you the nationality. (Do we HAVE to by now?)
We quickly made our way the one-half block to the Turku Satama train station, where our Finnish railways train to Helsinki would shortly arrive. And in it came from the fog, a six-car train with a locomotive at each end. We boarded, found our assigned seats, and found that we were the only ones booked in Business Class for the 197-KM (122 mile) trip to our final destination of Helsinki.
Despite having what one would call 'normal' equipment, we still clipped along at 75 MPH across the south of Finland, which reminded me of parts of the Iron Range, where everything is covered in rock. Granite predominates in these areas, as we shot through on a very sleepy Sunday in super-Lutheran Finland. You didn't expect anyone on Sundays, but we picked up a pretty fair number of passengers as we approached Helsinki.
Once in the suburban train zone, we started seeing something we hadn't expected: Minnesota Wild apparel! Seems that the Mikko Koivu influence on the young of this country means that there were a lot of Wild-apparelled families on trains to Pasila, the station which is direct across the parking lot from Hartwall Areena, where NHL Premiere is to happen on Thursday and Friday.
Final arrival time at Helsinki was one minute early, at 10:56 AM, local Finnish time. We had done it! 1766 train miles, 162 nautical miles by seas and the 22-mile bus ride from Malmo to Lund. And my wife's final comment at the end of it all?
'Let's got to the hotel, and take a nap.'
And so, we did.
(to be continued)
As we sat and waited to depart Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport rail station, our Swedish SJ conductor came on the public address system and started to go on about something. It took him a while to get all the info out, but then, they came back in English, and said:
"There is an accident ahead on the tracks just east of Malmo. You will stay on this train to Malmo, then you will take the bus to Lund, where another train will then take you to Stockholm."
In other words, we are getting bussed around whatever the hell happened up there. At this point, we didn't know what it was, nor did we really care. There were 1 1/2 busloads of really sullen people on this train, then, as we crossed the Oresundbanen (Oresund Rail Link, the tunnel and bridge connection across the North Sea between Denmark and Sweden) and headed on into Malmo.
At Malmo, it was mass chaos, as we tried to get off, and everyone from the connecting train (they got bused to Malmo from Lund) was trying to get on, all at the same time. We finally found the right buses and settled in for the short, 25-minute bus ride to Lund. The bus had to pick its' way thru the center of Lund on a Saturday shopping day, so it was not exactly the fastest trip in Swedish history. At Lund, we found out what happened:
Some idiot in a private auto tried to play 'beat the train' at a grade crossing, one of the few on that route segment, and lost the bet. I do not know if the driver was injured or killed, but if there ever was a reason to shoot a Swede, that moron would have been one, right there. The Swedish national traffic management agency (Trafikverket), responsible for safety of all modes of transport within the country, had shut the railway down in that immediate area, to conduct their investigation of the accident, so that precipitated the 'bustitution' of our train around the site.
At Lund, we found our new X2000 train waiting for us, but it was one car short of what we had originally had. Instead of a 6-car train, we were now a 5-car set, departing Lund 40 minutes late, and going upwards of 180-200 KPH over the Swedish mainline towards Stockholm. I had made arrangements to have lunch on board the train, which, it turns out, was a very precipitous move, as we would see when we got into Stockholm Central station.
The rest of the afternoon was spent quietly observing the Swedish countryside, a far cry from the bustle of the previous day in Paris and Cologne. No wonder why so many Swedes come to Minnesota each and every year; it so much reminds them of home in Northern Minnesota, that they come over in droves. I though for a minute or two several times we were up near the Iron Range as we shot past smaller Swedish towns, each of which had a neat, tidy station on the main line from where the locals take local trains to larger towns, where trains like ours stops, and then takes them to Stockholm or Copenhagen to fly from there internationally (like, overseas.)
The X2000 arrived Stockholm 40 minutes late, just as it had left Lund; now the problem was how to negotiate the labyrinth, which is the Central Station -- Cityterminalen complex to find our next transport; the Flygbussarna bus to the Viking Line ferry dock at Stadsgarden, where our ferry to Finland would be arriving at the same time as we would be.
My wife bailed us out here, as she acutely observed that there was a red line on the floor, to direct people to Cityterminalen across the street. We dutifully followed the red line, and made our way first to the Viking Line ferry office to buy our bus tickets, then out to the bus itself, in order to get out to the ferry slip.
The bus was not full by any means, as we departed on time at 6:30 PM for the Viking Line ferry terminalen at Stadsgarden, which is about 5 miles east of Central Station. We then proceeded to obtain our ferry tickets and the all-important coupon for the Viking Buffet dinner service, then waited in the terminal's waiting room until the ship's 7:40 PM boarding time.
That's when the drunk Russians showed up. One even managed to get himself dragged onto the boat by his buddies, he was so in the bag before they even opened up the ferry for service, and even more Russian alcohol consumption.
The Russians love to drink. And drink. And, drink. And drink some more. There were so many drunk Russians on this boat, no wonder why they painted the outside of it red; to honor the bloodshot eyes of all the hung-over ex-Soviets who ride to and from the West on 'booze cruises' whereby they go to Scandinavia to get away from their bleak, Russian existence. Now, I had been warned prior to starting this trip (by several people, mind you) that there would be a LOT of drinking on this trip. Not even those warnings, dire as they sounded, could have prepared me for what was to come.
The dinner buffet was an exotic array of dishes from all over the place, but what impressed the most is the amount of Russian alcohol consumption in the buffet, where the beer and wine were all included in the price. The best thing about all this is when we retired to our cabin, and we could lock the door and peacefully sleep, knowing full well that we wouldn't be disturbed, so long as the bars and cocktail lounges on the ferry stayed open. After that, all bets were off.
As we passed thru the night, we went thru the Aland Islands, stopping at Langnais, then it was on towards the Finland coast, and our date with a train Sunday morning at Turku Satama (Harbor) station. Towards morning, when the last of the bars closed, the hallways started filling with loud, drunk Russians, all trying to find a place to sleep it off before starting in again.
As our ship neared the Finnish coast, it was time for breakfast, so it was back to the buffet line we went, only to find that the Russians were already there, trying to eat as much as possible, before boarding their buses to take them home, from their three-day drunkfest. They were rude, cut in line frequently, and the crew could do nothing about it, as there weren't enough of them to take on the number of Russians who were causing the trouble. All this, while the Finnish coast was quickly coming into view, in the fog of a Sunday coastal morning.
The boat docked at 7:35 AM, right on time. The passengers were led down the gangway, and all was going well, until someone stopped the whole thing by falling down...drunk. We won't tell you the nationality. (Do we HAVE to by now?)
We quickly made our way the one-half block to the Turku Satama train station, where our Finnish railways train to Helsinki would shortly arrive. And in it came from the fog, a six-car train with a locomotive at each end. We boarded, found our assigned seats, and found that we were the only ones booked in Business Class for the 197-KM (122 mile) trip to our final destination of Helsinki.
Despite having what one would call 'normal' equipment, we still clipped along at 75 MPH across the south of Finland, which reminded me of parts of the Iron Range, where everything is covered in rock. Granite predominates in these areas, as we shot through on a very sleepy Sunday in super-Lutheran Finland. You didn't expect anyone on Sundays, but we picked up a pretty fair number of passengers as we approached Helsinki.
Once in the suburban train zone, we started seeing something we hadn't expected: Minnesota Wild apparel! Seems that the Mikko Koivu influence on the young of this country means that there were a lot of Wild-apparelled families on trains to Pasila, the station which is direct across the parking lot from Hartwall Areena, where NHL Premiere is to happen on Thursday and Friday.
Final arrival time at Helsinki was one minute early, at 10:56 AM, local Finnish time. We had done it! 1766 train miles, 162 nautical miles by seas and the 22-mile bus ride from Malmo to Lund. And my wife's final comment at the end of it all?
'Let's got to the hotel, and take a nap.'
And so, we did.
(to be continued)
Monday, October 4, 2010
Go See Cal! Go See Cal! Go See Cal!
Clutterbuck makes Finnish SM-liiga team pay for concentrating on countrymen, as Wild finally get off pre-season schneid with 5-1 win
By Wild Road Tripper
In Tampere, Finland Monday night, the Ilves Tampere (Tampere Lynx) were shown that they coudn't contain him, either, as the Minnesota Wild came away with a 5-1 win, the only win the Wild will have in pre-season, before an announced 4,625.
The Finnish locals, who came out despite the ticket prices of upwards of 75 Euros each, gave both sides a standing ovation at the end of the game for a great show, despite the fact that for the first two periods, the Wild looked like once again they were going thru the motions. Fans in the Wild official cheering section were noticably disappointed, in the first two periods of this one.
But Clutterbuck went about his work, not exactly setting a single-game record for hits, but being in the right place, at the right time, sure helped the Wild to their first win of the pre-season, in their last pre-season game.
That entire line -- Clutterbuck, John Madden, and Chuck Kobasew -- proved to be the difference last night. But the fact was that the Finns were so intent on shutting down the Wild's No. 1 line, Mikko Koivu-Antti Miettinen-Andrew Brunette, that they quite literally forgot that with the expanded SM-liiga 22-man active roster, the Wild could roll four lines and four full seats of defense. And, they did.
Practice was cancelled for Tuesday, as the team awaits the arrival of the Carolina Hurricanes from St. Petersburg, Russia, where they lost last night to Evgeni Nabokov and SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL, 5-3, after 'Canes coach Paul Maurice benched star forward Eric Staal, after it was said that the Russians were going after his knees.
Hopefully they won't say the same things, after Thursday night's NHL Premiere regular season opener.
Next Game: vs. Carolina, Thursday, October 7, 11:00 AM Central Time (7:00 PM East European Time), Hartwall Areena, Helsinki. (TV: Versus).
By Wild Road Tripper
HELSINKI, FINLAND -- Cal Clutterbuck. You can't forget him. You can only hope to contain him.
Did you ever think Wild fans would say that?In Tampere, Finland Monday night, the Ilves Tampere (Tampere Lynx) were shown that they coudn't contain him, either, as the Minnesota Wild came away with a 5-1 win, the only win the Wild will have in pre-season, before an announced 4,625.
The Finnish locals, who came out despite the ticket prices of upwards of 75 Euros each, gave both sides a standing ovation at the end of the game for a great show, despite the fact that for the first two periods, the Wild looked like once again they were going thru the motions. Fans in the Wild official cheering section were noticably disappointed, in the first two periods of this one.
But Clutterbuck went about his work, not exactly setting a single-game record for hits, but being in the right place, at the right time, sure helped the Wild to their first win of the pre-season, in their last pre-season game.
That entire line -- Clutterbuck, John Madden, and Chuck Kobasew -- proved to be the difference last night. But the fact was that the Finns were so intent on shutting down the Wild's No. 1 line, Mikko Koivu-Antti Miettinen-Andrew Brunette, that they quite literally forgot that with the expanded SM-liiga 22-man active roster, the Wild could roll four lines and four full seats of defense. And, they did.
Practice was cancelled for Tuesday, as the team awaits the arrival of the Carolina Hurricanes from St. Petersburg, Russia, where they lost last night to Evgeni Nabokov and SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL, 5-3, after 'Canes coach Paul Maurice benched star forward Eric Staal, after it was said that the Russians were going after his knees.
Hopefully they won't say the same things, after Thursday night's NHL Premiere regular season opener.
Next Game: vs. Carolina, Thursday, October 7, 11:00 AM Central Time (7:00 PM East European Time), Hartwall Areena, Helsinki. (TV: Versus).
Friday, October 1, 2010
Finland X: Highballin' to Helsinki, Part One
(In this tenth installment of my blog series leading up to NHL Premiere 2010, featuring the Minnesota Wild in Helsinki, Finland, we look at the first half of the trip to Helsinki itself; some surprises, and some disappointments.)
We are finally on our way to Helsinki.
After eight months of planning, saving, more saving, more planning and still more saving, the hockey holiday has indeed begun. And so far, the only glitch is that we didn't start this trip sooner, so as to enjoy more of what modern, united Europe has to offer.
We would have arrived London sooner than we actually did, but for the British Airways Authority (BAA) not allowing planes to land outside of their alloted 'slot time'. As it was, we were both so screwed up over the 6-hour change in time that the first thing we did in Europe, was...
...take a nap.
Friday, it was up REALLY early for the first Eurostar train of the day thru the 'Chunnel' to Paris. Travelling thru the eighth wonder of the engineering world is really something, especially when one considers that plans for a trans-English Channel link had been in the works for nearly 150 years when the Channel Tunnel opened in 1995. It was really an eye-opening experience as we sped across northeastern France between Lille and Paris, with other trains passing us every 4-5 minutes.
We arrived Paris 4 minutes late (due to SNCF commuter train traffic, just north of Paris) then, after spending a few minutes reconnoitering our position, we spent the day trying to ascend to the summit of the Eiffel Tower. The operative word here is TRYING. Not succeeding. There was a four-hour wait to ascend from the second level to the summit. The people were packed in like sardines in a giant steel can, waiting in line, after line, after line, to be elevated to the summit level. Some, like us, just gave up. Others decided to just stand there and wait, and shuffle, and wait some more. It was not the way we wanted to spend our day in the fabled City of Lights, so we moved on.
We had a delectable lunch at the Brassiere Terminus Nord, directly across the street from the station where we had arrived, and were also due to depart later that afternoon. A real, French, white-linen, businessman's lunch. My wife enjoyed it immensely, and we both had a wonderful time.
We then went across the street, back to the station where we were to depart for Cologne (en route to Helsinki) on another high-speed train, this time the Thalys high-speed service, which uses the same tracks between Paris, and the outskirts of Lille, that Eurostar uses. So, more 300 KPH (186 MPH) running thru the light rain that was falling as we sped towards Brussels, Liege, and eventually Cologne.
There we changed again, this time to the overnight German 'City Night Line' sleeper train for Copenhagen. This would be the longest single train trip in our itinerary, covering 661 miles (or roughly the distance from Fargo to Chicago) in a shade under 12 hours. Our room was already made up as we boarded in Cologne, and after a few formalities, we quickly fell asleep. In the morning, we were in Denmark, which reminded me of parts of central Minnesota in that there cows, cows and oh, yeah, cows. Windmills (old style and modern-day turbines) abound. Also, the bicycle as a commuter tool is very much in vogue in Denmark, as well. No wonder why Europeans are generally healtier that their American counterparts. Our train lost an hour of running time (we had to go in the siding for other passenger trains no less than four times in Denmark alone) so we arrived Copenhagen one hour late.
After another train change, we now departed for Stockholm aboard a Swedish X2000 high-speed train, as we departed Copenhagen we were just settling in as we arrived at the stop for Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport. Or so we thought...
(to be continued)
We are finally on our way to Helsinki.
After eight months of planning, saving, more saving, more planning and still more saving, the hockey holiday has indeed begun. And so far, the only glitch is that we didn't start this trip sooner, so as to enjoy more of what modern, united Europe has to offer.
We would have arrived London sooner than we actually did, but for the British Airways Authority (BAA) not allowing planes to land outside of their alloted 'slot time'. As it was, we were both so screwed up over the 6-hour change in time that the first thing we did in Europe, was...
...take a nap.
Friday, it was up REALLY early for the first Eurostar train of the day thru the 'Chunnel' to Paris. Travelling thru the eighth wonder of the engineering world is really something, especially when one considers that plans for a trans-English Channel link had been in the works for nearly 150 years when the Channel Tunnel opened in 1995. It was really an eye-opening experience as we sped across northeastern France between Lille and Paris, with other trains passing us every 4-5 minutes.
We arrived Paris 4 minutes late (due to SNCF commuter train traffic, just north of Paris) then, after spending a few minutes reconnoitering our position, we spent the day trying to ascend to the summit of the Eiffel Tower. The operative word here is TRYING. Not succeeding. There was a four-hour wait to ascend from the second level to the summit. The people were packed in like sardines in a giant steel can, waiting in line, after line, after line, to be elevated to the summit level. Some, like us, just gave up. Others decided to just stand there and wait, and shuffle, and wait some more. It was not the way we wanted to spend our day in the fabled City of Lights, so we moved on.
We had a delectable lunch at the Brassiere Terminus Nord, directly across the street from the station where we had arrived, and were also due to depart later that afternoon. A real, French, white-linen, businessman's lunch. My wife enjoyed it immensely, and we both had a wonderful time.
We then went across the street, back to the station where we were to depart for Cologne (en route to Helsinki) on another high-speed train, this time the Thalys high-speed service, which uses the same tracks between Paris, and the outskirts of Lille, that Eurostar uses. So, more 300 KPH (186 MPH) running thru the light rain that was falling as we sped towards Brussels, Liege, and eventually Cologne.
There we changed again, this time to the overnight German 'City Night Line' sleeper train for Copenhagen. This would be the longest single train trip in our itinerary, covering 661 miles (or roughly the distance from Fargo to Chicago) in a shade under 12 hours. Our room was already made up as we boarded in Cologne, and after a few formalities, we quickly fell asleep. In the morning, we were in Denmark, which reminded me of parts of central Minnesota in that there cows, cows and oh, yeah, cows. Windmills (old style and modern-day turbines) abound. Also, the bicycle as a commuter tool is very much in vogue in Denmark, as well. No wonder why Europeans are generally healtier that their American counterparts. Our train lost an hour of running time (we had to go in the siding for other passenger trains no less than four times in Denmark alone) so we arrived Copenhagen one hour late.
After another train change, we now departed for Stockholm aboard a Swedish X2000 high-speed train, as we departed Copenhagen we were just settling in as we arrived at the stop for Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport. Or so we thought...
(to be continued)
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Finland IX: Ramped Up and Amped Up
(In this ninth installment of my blog series leading up to NHL Premiere 2010, featuring the Minnesota Wild in Helsinki, Finland, we look at the past week as the date draws closer.)
OK, so we finally are in the home stretch of the planning phase. Now the preparing and packing really begins in earnest.
Last night we attended the pre-trip meeting, an opportunity to meet some of our fellow travellers (a.k.a. crazed Wild fans) in a hospitality area at Xcel Energy Center, then were given the opportunity of remaining in a suite for the pre-season game between the Minnesota Wild and the Philadelphia Flyers, a game which the Wild lost, 3-2, in the shootout.
We have a very diverse group of 110 people travelling in three distinct groups; those, like us, who will get to/from Helsinki on their own; those who will travel via SAS (Scandinavian Airways System) between Minnesota and Finland; and a third group, who will fly Delta/KLM both ways to and from Europe.
They split us up into three bus loads (apparently) for all events, including the trip on Monday night (October 4) to Tampere for the exhibition game vs. the Tampere Lynx (Ilves Tampere); Tuesday's team practice and lunch at Hartwall Areena; the optional trip to Porvoo on Wednesday (my wife and I will not be doing this, we will treat this as a 'lay day' in Helsinki); the two games at Hartwall vs. the Carolina Hurricanes (Thursday and Friday, Oct. 7 & 8); and, most importantly, the all-important airport transfer on Saturday morning, in order to depart Helsinki and get back to Minneapolis/St. Paul.
We were also asked to fill out emergency contact forms (you all know why, if you're over about age 6) and were given a black book-bag style backpack with more pockets than any human being has a right to have. Even has a pocket in the padded shoulder strap itself. If I load every pocket on THIS thing, people might think I've developed apoplexy. This bag would definitely give the TSA people fits, if this thing shows up at the Lindbergh Terminal when we depart Wednesday night.
Already in this bag were the following items:
OK, so we finally are in the home stretch of the planning phase. Now the preparing and packing really begins in earnest.
Last night we attended the pre-trip meeting, an opportunity to meet some of our fellow travellers (a.k.a. crazed Wild fans) in a hospitality area at Xcel Energy Center, then were given the opportunity of remaining in a suite for the pre-season game between the Minnesota Wild and the Philadelphia Flyers, a game which the Wild lost, 3-2, in the shootout.
We have a very diverse group of 110 people travelling in three distinct groups; those, like us, who will get to/from Helsinki on their own; those who will travel via SAS (Scandinavian Airways System) between Minnesota and Finland; and a third group, who will fly Delta/KLM both ways to and from Europe.
They split us up into three bus loads (apparently) for all events, including the trip on Monday night (October 4) to Tampere for the exhibition game vs. the Tampere Lynx (Ilves Tampere); Tuesday's team practice and lunch at Hartwall Areena; the optional trip to Porvoo on Wednesday (my wife and I will not be doing this, we will treat this as a 'lay day' in Helsinki); the two games at Hartwall vs. the Carolina Hurricanes (Thursday and Friday, Oct. 7 & 8); and, most importantly, the all-important airport transfer on Saturday morning, in order to depart Helsinki and get back to Minneapolis/St. Paul.
We were also asked to fill out emergency contact forms (you all know why, if you're over about age 6) and were given a black book-bag style backpack with more pockets than any human being has a right to have. Even has a pocket in the padded shoulder strap itself. If I load every pocket on THIS thing, people might think I've developed apoplexy. This bag would definitely give the TSA people fits, if this thing shows up at the Lindbergh Terminal when we depart Wednesday night.
Already in this bag were the following items:
- an official puck, specially labeled for our group
- a Wild-logo Totes umbrella
- a scarf, with the Wild logo on one side and the NHL Premiere Helsinki logo on the other
We also received a list of who our 'team mates' were for this trip, in a notebook which also doubles as our itinerary, assembled in AAA TripTik style, sort of like a reporters' notebook. We were also given contact information, and the all-important luggage tag for our bag, for the various buses we will have to take during our six days in Helsinki.
We raised more than a few eyebrows, when we said we were only taking carry-on baggage (as we normally do, when travelling in North America) especially after someone asked me why we weren't checking baggage, I replied:
"There's no checked baggage on European trains."
They smiled, and wished us a pleasant trip.
(to be continued)
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Finland VIII: Making a list, checking it twice...
(In this eighth installment of my blog series leading up to NHL Premiere 2010, featuring the Minnesota Wild in Helsinki, we look at preparing to depart the USA and some of what one must bring when travelling over 5,500 miles away from one's own bed.)
"If you pack it, you take it, and you're responsible for it."
I recently told my wife this in regards to the amount of items she was planning to take with us on our trip to NHL Premiere 2010 in Helsinki. She was worried about a hair dryer. "I would think that the hotel would have one, dear," I said. "Besides, that's one more thing to worry about, and have to deal with the changes in voltage over, and so on."
Yes, Virginia, not all electrical current is created equal. While the USA and Canada have standardised 110/120 volts, 50Hz electrical power pretty much everywhere, Europe runs on 220 volts, 50Hz power pretty much everywhere in the EU. You need adapter plugs for most every thing that is electrically powered (and the knowledge that most modern items are set up for dual voltage use). Computers, medical devices (such as a C-PAP machine, which I use while sleeping) and today's electrical gadgetry (Ipods, DVD players, etc.) require that the power keep on coming, no matter what. Since I didn't want to blow out everything I own, I proceeded to a local area travel store to obtain adapter plugs for the upcoming trip. What I got was a short course on adaptability.
"You don't need a converter for most of what you've got," the sales clerk replied. "Most of your electrical items -- computers, Ipods, etc. -- are dual-voltage. Just make sure you have the right plug for where you are, and you'll be OK."
(I wondered at that point if I could quote her on that, as my netbook computer suddenly blows up somewhere in Helsinki.)
Traveling in Europe will be an abject lesson in learning what's important to you, as there is no such thing as checked baggage on the European railways. 'You tote 'em' is the rule of thumb, so if you can carry it without assistance, you can take it with you onto the trains of Europe. Now, there are exceptions (skis on Eurostar, as an example) to that rule, but they are very few and very, very far between.
Planning for this trip has taken a sharply upward turn in the last week. The Wild have a pre-trip meeting scheduled at the 'X' for prior to the Philadelphia-Minnesota pre-season game this coming Saturday, where we all finally get to meet one another. (In other words, we have to admit, in public, that we are all, indeed, crazy screwed-up Wild fans.) The up side (should there be one) is that we will get the final itinerary for the trip, and meet the tour guides (for whom we shall be leaning on heavily, as neither my wife nor I speak any Finnish).
Not to mention the fact that we will be able to stay for the game that night in a party suite (the same ones where the major TV networks had set up shop, during the Republican National Convention in 2008) so I might finally, after all these years, get a crack at that five-layer chocolate torte I always see, while going up Minnesota's longest escalator to the 200-level at the 'X' on game nights. (I could never get one handed over to me, 'on the fly', as I go up the escalator, could I?)
Now that, dear readers, would be a way to welcome me back to the hockey season...
(to be continued)
"If you pack it, you take it, and you're responsible for it."
I recently told my wife this in regards to the amount of items she was planning to take with us on our trip to NHL Premiere 2010 in Helsinki. She was worried about a hair dryer. "I would think that the hotel would have one, dear," I said. "Besides, that's one more thing to worry about, and have to deal with the changes in voltage over, and so on."
Yes, Virginia, not all electrical current is created equal. While the USA and Canada have standardised 110/120 volts, 50Hz electrical power pretty much everywhere, Europe runs on 220 volts, 50Hz power pretty much everywhere in the EU. You need adapter plugs for most every thing that is electrically powered (and the knowledge that most modern items are set up for dual voltage use). Computers, medical devices (such as a C-PAP machine, which I use while sleeping) and today's electrical gadgetry (Ipods, DVD players, etc.) require that the power keep on coming, no matter what. Since I didn't want to blow out everything I own, I proceeded to a local area travel store to obtain adapter plugs for the upcoming trip. What I got was a short course on adaptability.
"You don't need a converter for most of what you've got," the sales clerk replied. "Most of your electrical items -- computers, Ipods, etc. -- are dual-voltage. Just make sure you have the right plug for where you are, and you'll be OK."
(I wondered at that point if I could quote her on that, as my netbook computer suddenly blows up somewhere in Helsinki.)
Traveling in Europe will be an abject lesson in learning what's important to you, as there is no such thing as checked baggage on the European railways. 'You tote 'em' is the rule of thumb, so if you can carry it without assistance, you can take it with you onto the trains of Europe. Now, there are exceptions (skis on Eurostar, as an example) to that rule, but they are very few and very, very far between.
Planning for this trip has taken a sharply upward turn in the last week. The Wild have a pre-trip meeting scheduled at the 'X' for prior to the Philadelphia-Minnesota pre-season game this coming Saturday, where we all finally get to meet one another. (In other words, we have to admit, in public, that we are all, indeed, crazy screwed-up Wild fans.) The up side (should there be one) is that we will get the final itinerary for the trip, and meet the tour guides (for whom we shall be leaning on heavily, as neither my wife nor I speak any Finnish).
Not to mention the fact that we will be able to stay for the game that night in a party suite (the same ones where the major TV networks had set up shop, during the Republican National Convention in 2008) so I might finally, after all these years, get a crack at that five-layer chocolate torte I always see, while going up Minnesota's longest escalator to the 200-level at the 'X' on game nights. (I could never get one handed over to me, 'on the fly', as I go up the escalator, could I?)
Now that, dear readers, would be a way to welcome me back to the hockey season...
(to be continued)
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Finland VII: Anticipation...it's making me wait...
(In this seventh installment of my blog series leading up to NHL Premiere 2010, featuring the Minnesota Wild in Helsinki, Finland, we look at the season ahead, and also a few updates on other items, from earlier installments of this series.)
Well, folks, in less than three weeks the Great Adventure will indeed begin. And, there is a calm optimism in the WRT household. I am optimistic that all the planning, the research, the investigating, the hours at the computer will have all been worth it. My wife continues to say that she hopes her husband will come back to her, after the Great Adventure is over.
Her husband does, too, let me tell you. After this, all other road trips will seem extremely tame. Even the one to Detroit later this season. Tame, tame, tame, almost to the point of being boring. But, let's look ahead to the question of the day:
Where will the Minnesota Wild end up this season?
Wild fans are a hopelessly optimistic bunch, especially after the free agent signings of Moorhead native Matt Cullen, ex-Blackhawk (and NJ Devil) John Madden, and the second-generation grit of Eric Nystrom show the way to an upgraded roster, where a lot of the dead weight that ex-GM Doug Risebrough saddled the franchise with has now been swept away, and shown the door.
Granted, two fan favorites -- Owen Nolan, a.k.a. 'Cowboy' and 'the Irish God of War', or 'IGoW', and enforcer extraordinare Derek Boogaard -- were released; Boogaard winding up with DR in Gotham with the NY Rangers, Nolan still waiting for a call from one of the California clubs (he lives in San Jose, where he co-owns a restaurant) as his career winds down. Ex-SJ Shark Brad Staubitz now fills the 'enforcer' role with the Wild, but at least he can score a goal now and then, something which finally caught up with the likeable Boogaard, as no one was willing to even fight him, making his roster spot even more vulnerable. Boogaard's new $1.65M/season contract was too much for the Wild, who are now within $2.9 million of the NHL's salary cap, and that's including the contract of Pierre-Marc Bouchard, who will attempt to return from his concussion first suffered March 25, 2009 at Nassau Coliseum, in a 6-3 victory against the lowly Islanders.
The right shoulder and right knee of captain Mikko Koivu, both of which required surgery following the season are both at 100%, and the young man who some Wild fans have dubbed, 'the Franchise', is ready for a return to his homeland next month, with about 23 of his closest friends, including new Wild assistant coach Darby Hendrickson, who leaves the Fox Sports North studios (where he was in-studio co-host, on Wild and Gopher hockey telecasts) for the bench, where he will be a 'younger influence' on the roster, a different voice that has recently played the game in this modern era. How this will sit with some of the more tenured players on the Wild roster, such as Andrew Brunette, Nick Schultz and Brent Burns, who actually played with Darby when he was a grinder with the Wild, is yet to be determined.
Optimism runs high amongst Minnesota hockey fans right now, But there has yet to be played even a pre-season game, and not even an official practice has been held. Of course, optimism runs high...as nothing has been decided, save for the fact that James Sheppard, the favorite whipping boy for many Wild fans, will not be playing hockey until after the New Year, due to an ill-advised turn on an ATV in Colorado, during a break in pre-season workouts. Most Wild fans see this unfortunate turn of events for the former first-round pick, as another reason he should be shown the door, as soon as they can find a taker for his 'services'.
My view: After the Finland trip, 8 of their next 10 games will be at home. They must rack up regulation-time wins early, to get a leg up on the rest of the West, as 13 of the following 21 (and 22 of the following 37 games) will be on the road.
This team cannot afford another disasterous start, like last season's losing eight of their first nine debacle. Should they survive the first half of the season, the second half should be an easier half, with all but 5 games played after the All-Star game being within the Western Conference.
This team cannot afford to have long losing streaks. Their talent level is not that of even the now-gutted Chicago Blackhawks, nor San Jose, nor even Detroit, as elderly as that roster looks on paper. Vancouver, everyone's darling pick for the top spot in the West? Nah. Not even close. Maybe not even Calgary or Colorado, who surprised many in hockey and made the playoffs last season, a season which was supposedly a 'rebuilding' year.
They need to score more, especially in regulation. They need to not give up multiple goals in short defensive lapses, especially on the road against divisional opponents (games in Calgary come to mind when I say that). The synergy that was the Guillaume Latendresse-Martin Havlat pairing from last season, needs to be fed from the center position this season. Often. And in bunches.
Had the Wild been able to start the season in December last season, instead of October, they might have just made the playoffs, as banged up as the roster was going into the last weeks of the season, had they not had the disasterous start that this team did last year. This cannot happen again, and the club's hierarchy KNOWS it. The hockey minds know it.
Again, optimism reigns supreme. With that, in my opinion, the Wild will wind up as a playoff team in April. Probably no better than a No. 7 seed, which will probably mean a first round match-up against either of the top two teams in the West (San Jose or Vancouver), neither of which will allow the Wild to go farther than the first round in the playoffs.
But, considering the fact that less than two years ago, this team was totally in shambles, the first round is an achieveable goal, I believe, for this group of Wild players. You have to walk before you can run, and running with the big boys in the West is the immediate goal of this franchise. Reserving the right to change my mind...
...let's see what they can do.
As promised, some updates from earlier in the series:
Seems we've booked onto the 'party cruise' from Stockholm to Turku. The Viking Line ferry boat is known throughout Scandinavia as a 'booze cruise' (those of you who've sailed on the Duluth harbor tours know what I speak of; only this one is a LOT longer). The competing Silja Line ferry, as I said in Part IV of this series, is booked out on a charter that night, as a fund-raiser (presumably) for the Stockholm Symphony Orchestra. Several people have come to me telling me they can't even remember their crossing, due to all the liquor consumed on the ships.
(And, of course, there will be us, still trying to get over jet lag...)
Laundry update: There is no guest laundry at the hotel in Helsinki, so now our question is: Do we get laundry done professionally in Helsinki, Russo-style, by sending out the wet wash? Or, do we ship a box of clean clothes over to Finland, and that same box (with dirty clothes and some papers) back to the USA? Or, do we take some laundry soap with us, and rinse the stuff out in the bathroom sink? What do we do? (We don't want to offend anyone while in Europe...)
(to be continued)
Well, folks, in less than three weeks the Great Adventure will indeed begin. And, there is a calm optimism in the WRT household. I am optimistic that all the planning, the research, the investigating, the hours at the computer will have all been worth it. My wife continues to say that she hopes her husband will come back to her, after the Great Adventure is over.
Her husband does, too, let me tell you. After this, all other road trips will seem extremely tame. Even the one to Detroit later this season. Tame, tame, tame, almost to the point of being boring. But, let's look ahead to the question of the day:
Where will the Minnesota Wild end up this season?
Wild fans are a hopelessly optimistic bunch, especially after the free agent signings of Moorhead native Matt Cullen, ex-Blackhawk (and NJ Devil) John Madden, and the second-generation grit of Eric Nystrom show the way to an upgraded roster, where a lot of the dead weight that ex-GM Doug Risebrough saddled the franchise with has now been swept away, and shown the door.
Granted, two fan favorites -- Owen Nolan, a.k.a. 'Cowboy' and 'the Irish God of War', or 'IGoW', and enforcer extraordinare Derek Boogaard -- were released; Boogaard winding up with DR in Gotham with the NY Rangers, Nolan still waiting for a call from one of the California clubs (he lives in San Jose, where he co-owns a restaurant) as his career winds down. Ex-SJ Shark Brad Staubitz now fills the 'enforcer' role with the Wild, but at least he can score a goal now and then, something which finally caught up with the likeable Boogaard, as no one was willing to even fight him, making his roster spot even more vulnerable. Boogaard's new $1.65M/season contract was too much for the Wild, who are now within $2.9 million of the NHL's salary cap, and that's including the contract of Pierre-Marc Bouchard, who will attempt to return from his concussion first suffered March 25, 2009 at Nassau Coliseum, in a 6-3 victory against the lowly Islanders.
The right shoulder and right knee of captain Mikko Koivu, both of which required surgery following the season are both at 100%, and the young man who some Wild fans have dubbed, 'the Franchise', is ready for a return to his homeland next month, with about 23 of his closest friends, including new Wild assistant coach Darby Hendrickson, who leaves the Fox Sports North studios (where he was in-studio co-host, on Wild and Gopher hockey telecasts) for the bench, where he will be a 'younger influence' on the roster, a different voice that has recently played the game in this modern era. How this will sit with some of the more tenured players on the Wild roster, such as Andrew Brunette, Nick Schultz and Brent Burns, who actually played with Darby when he was a grinder with the Wild, is yet to be determined.
Optimism runs high amongst Minnesota hockey fans right now, But there has yet to be played even a pre-season game, and not even an official practice has been held. Of course, optimism runs high...as nothing has been decided, save for the fact that James Sheppard, the favorite whipping boy for many Wild fans, will not be playing hockey until after the New Year, due to an ill-advised turn on an ATV in Colorado, during a break in pre-season workouts. Most Wild fans see this unfortunate turn of events for the former first-round pick, as another reason he should be shown the door, as soon as they can find a taker for his 'services'.
My view: After the Finland trip, 8 of their next 10 games will be at home. They must rack up regulation-time wins early, to get a leg up on the rest of the West, as 13 of the following 21 (and 22 of the following 37 games) will be on the road.
This team cannot afford another disasterous start, like last season's losing eight of their first nine debacle. Should they survive the first half of the season, the second half should be an easier half, with all but 5 games played after the All-Star game being within the Western Conference.
This team cannot afford to have long losing streaks. Their talent level is not that of even the now-gutted Chicago Blackhawks, nor San Jose, nor even Detroit, as elderly as that roster looks on paper. Vancouver, everyone's darling pick for the top spot in the West? Nah. Not even close. Maybe not even Calgary or Colorado, who surprised many in hockey and made the playoffs last season, a season which was supposedly a 'rebuilding' year.
They need to score more, especially in regulation. They need to not give up multiple goals in short defensive lapses, especially on the road against divisional opponents (games in Calgary come to mind when I say that). The synergy that was the Guillaume Latendresse-Martin Havlat pairing from last season, needs to be fed from the center position this season. Often. And in bunches.
Had the Wild been able to start the season in December last season, instead of October, they might have just made the playoffs, as banged up as the roster was going into the last weeks of the season, had they not had the disasterous start that this team did last year. This cannot happen again, and the club's hierarchy KNOWS it. The hockey minds know it.
Again, optimism reigns supreme. With that, in my opinion, the Wild will wind up as a playoff team in April. Probably no better than a No. 7 seed, which will probably mean a first round match-up against either of the top two teams in the West (San Jose or Vancouver), neither of which will allow the Wild to go farther than the first round in the playoffs.
But, considering the fact that less than two years ago, this team was totally in shambles, the first round is an achieveable goal, I believe, for this group of Wild players. You have to walk before you can run, and running with the big boys in the West is the immediate goal of this franchise. Reserving the right to change my mind...
...let's see what they can do.
As promised, some updates from earlier in the series:
Seems we've booked onto the 'party cruise' from Stockholm to Turku. The Viking Line ferry boat is known throughout Scandinavia as a 'booze cruise' (those of you who've sailed on the Duluth harbor tours know what I speak of; only this one is a LOT longer). The competing Silja Line ferry, as I said in Part IV of this series, is booked out on a charter that night, as a fund-raiser (presumably) for the Stockholm Symphony Orchestra. Several people have come to me telling me they can't even remember their crossing, due to all the liquor consumed on the ships.
(And, of course, there will be us, still trying to get over jet lag...)
Laundry update: There is no guest laundry at the hotel in Helsinki, so now our question is: Do we get laundry done professionally in Helsinki, Russo-style, by sending out the wet wash? Or, do we ship a box of clean clothes over to Finland, and that same box (with dirty clothes and some papers) back to the USA? Or, do we take some laundry soap with us, and rinse the stuff out in the bathroom sink? What do we do? (We don't want to offend anyone while in Europe...)
(to be continued)
Monday, September 6, 2010
Finland VI: Diversions
(In this sixth installment of my blog series leading up to NHL Premiere 2010, featuring the Minnesota Wild in Helsinki, Finland, we look at other diversions which interferes with trip planning, and we look at planning what to take...and what not to.)
It is now the end of the summer. Labor Day. A holiday set aside to honor the American worker, and the efforts of labor to build a great nation. Of course, in Minnesota, there is another event passing today.
The end of the Minnesota State Fair signifies the end of 'deep-fried' season, when any food stuff that can be breaded and fried, is then sold to nearly 2 million normally very hungry patrons, throughout the fair's 12-day run.
It's also start time to think about what's ahead. Specifically, four weeks from today, when the Minnesota Wild take the ice, at the Tampeeren jäähalli against the Tampere Lynx (Ilves Tampere) for their lone European exhibition game, prior to the NHL Premirere 2010 series against the Carolina Hurricanes.
So, for me (and my wife), what's ahead?
We need to make a list for exactly what we want to take, how much, and where we will put it en route, as we will be extremely limited as to the amount of baggage we will be able to carry. Unlike Amtrak (and VIA Rail Canada), European railways generally do NOT handle checked baggage. It's kind of the 'You tote 'em' theory of travel; you can bring along what you can carry on, and that's it. Period. Most people cannot carry more than two pieces of baggage, anyway, so that kind of limits what people take onto European trains (most trains between major centers run often enough, that a lot of business is done as same-day trips, anyways.)
We are already resigned to probably buying a bag in Finland, in order to take all the souvenirs back from Helsinki that we will have collected en route, for friends and others who ask.
The looming big question: will the hotel we are staying at in Helsinki have a guest laundry? (By Day 5, we will need to be washing clothes. Definitely, will need to wash clothes by that time.) The rest of the Helsinki details (since we are part of a tour this time, for the first time in our personal history) will either be taken care of once we get there, or are items we do not need to worry about, as they have been arranged in advance.
So let's see, here... underwear, socks, shirts, slacks, Wild jerseys, Wild hat, Wild pins... and of course, passport...
(to be continued)
It is now the end of the summer. Labor Day. A holiday set aside to honor the American worker, and the efforts of labor to build a great nation. Of course, in Minnesota, there is another event passing today.
The end of the Minnesota State Fair signifies the end of 'deep-fried' season, when any food stuff that can be breaded and fried, is then sold to nearly 2 million normally very hungry patrons, throughout the fair's 12-day run.
It's also start time to think about what's ahead. Specifically, four weeks from today, when the Minnesota Wild take the ice, at the Tampeeren jäähalli against the Tampere Lynx (Ilves Tampere) for their lone European exhibition game, prior to the NHL Premirere 2010 series against the Carolina Hurricanes.
So, for me (and my wife), what's ahead?
We need to make a list for exactly what we want to take, how much, and where we will put it en route, as we will be extremely limited as to the amount of baggage we will be able to carry. Unlike Amtrak (and VIA Rail Canada), European railways generally do NOT handle checked baggage. It's kind of the 'You tote 'em' theory of travel; you can bring along what you can carry on, and that's it. Period. Most people cannot carry more than two pieces of baggage, anyway, so that kind of limits what people take onto European trains (most trains between major centers run often enough, that a lot of business is done as same-day trips, anyways.)
We are already resigned to probably buying a bag in Finland, in order to take all the souvenirs back from Helsinki that we will have collected en route, for friends and others who ask.
The looming big question: will the hotel we are staying at in Helsinki have a guest laundry? (By Day 5, we will need to be washing clothes. Definitely, will need to wash clothes by that time.) The rest of the Helsinki details (since we are part of a tour this time, for the first time in our personal history) will either be taken care of once we get there, or are items we do not need to worry about, as they have been arranged in advance.
So let's see, here... underwear, socks, shirts, slacks, Wild jerseys, Wild hat, Wild pins... and of course, passport...
(to be continued)
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Finland 2010, Part V: And now, the hockey part
(In this fifth installment of my blog series leading up to NHL Premiere 2010, featuring the Minnesota Wild in Helsinki, Finland, we look at the other planning, now that the overland European rail segments are complete. And, we get team news.)
The planning is complete for the land portion of this Grand Adventure. The air portion is secured, save for seat assignments on the Helsinki-Paris segment on the return (since the flight is an Air France codeshare, {actually, it's a Finnair flight} we are bound by the rules of Air France, who do not pre-assign seats on flights within Europe). I still think that one of us will be waiting for the other one at Charles deGaulle when we land. But, that's just me, I guess.
We then turn our attention to the games themselves, as the Wild post a brief video showing the inside of Helsinki's Hartwall Areena, the site for the two NHL regular-season games between the Wild and the Carolina Hurricanes. Hartwall is large by European standards, but in the NHL, this arena would stand some expansion. Especially if the team was actually GOOD.
We also hear that Pierre-Marc Bouchard is healing well from his concussion, and is skating in open scrimmages in and around his native Montreal. That is another good sign for a team which, quite frankly, could have used a few down the stretch last season. Also, as summer drags on, the good news continues as the Wild have their developmental camp at the 'X', one which hopefully will bear fruit, in the form of young, hungry NHL-quality players. And soon, as the roster turnover continues, and the mistakes of the former regime are, one by one, politely shown the door.
We call our travel advisor about the game in Tampere. We are, indeed, hoping that the trip from Helsinki to Tampere (115 miles, or the distance from the 'X' to Willmar, Minnesota) will be by 220 KPH (135 MPH) 'Pendolino' tilt train, especially since the arena where Ilves Tampere plays is less than 2 KM (1.2 miles) from the train station. No suck luck; the trip is billed as a motor coach excursion.
"Oh, well," I kind of resignfully tell him. "Yeah, we'll do it anyway."
So, it will be off to Tampere we go on that Monday, Oct. 4, leaving around 2 PM Finnish time (6:00 AM at home) for a 7:00 PM Finnish time start (again, 11:00 AM in Minnesota). The trip is billed to return to the hotel at about 12:30 AM, so it will make for a long, long day. That will be a real jet-lag day for the rest of the group, who will have just landed the night before, after their all-air journeys from Minneapolis-St. Paul.
(Here's hoping everyone isn't too grouchy...)
Now we begin looking almost daily at exchange rates between the US dollar and the Euro, as we will need spending money while we're there, and there is no point giving the banks any more than we need to, in order to get this done. The Yo-Yo nature of currency exchange shows that it's up one week, and down the next. "We have to get this right," I tell my wife, "or otherwise we could be paying upwards of $100 more than we need to, for the same amount of money."
"That's your department, dear," she replied.
(to be continued)
The planning is complete for the land portion of this Grand Adventure. The air portion is secured, save for seat assignments on the Helsinki-Paris segment on the return (since the flight is an Air France codeshare, {actually, it's a Finnair flight} we are bound by the rules of Air France, who do not pre-assign seats on flights within Europe). I still think that one of us will be waiting for the other one at Charles deGaulle when we land. But, that's just me, I guess.
We then turn our attention to the games themselves, as the Wild post a brief video showing the inside of Helsinki's Hartwall Areena, the site for the two NHL regular-season games between the Wild and the Carolina Hurricanes. Hartwall is large by European standards, but in the NHL, this arena would stand some expansion. Especially if the team was actually GOOD.
We also hear that Pierre-Marc Bouchard is healing well from his concussion, and is skating in open scrimmages in and around his native Montreal. That is another good sign for a team which, quite frankly, could have used a few down the stretch last season. Also, as summer drags on, the good news continues as the Wild have their developmental camp at the 'X', one which hopefully will bear fruit, in the form of young, hungry NHL-quality players. And soon, as the roster turnover continues, and the mistakes of the former regime are, one by one, politely shown the door.
We call our travel advisor about the game in Tampere. We are, indeed, hoping that the trip from Helsinki to Tampere (115 miles, or the distance from the 'X' to Willmar, Minnesota) will be by 220 KPH (135 MPH) 'Pendolino' tilt train, especially since the arena where Ilves Tampere plays is less than 2 KM (1.2 miles) from the train station. No suck luck; the trip is billed as a motor coach excursion.
"Oh, well," I kind of resignfully tell him. "Yeah, we'll do it anyway."
So, it will be off to Tampere we go on that Monday, Oct. 4, leaving around 2 PM Finnish time (6:00 AM at home) for a 7:00 PM Finnish time start (again, 11:00 AM in Minnesota). The trip is billed to return to the hotel at about 12:30 AM, so it will make for a long, long day. That will be a real jet-lag day for the rest of the group, who will have just landed the night before, after their all-air journeys from Minneapolis-St. Paul.
(Here's hoping everyone isn't too grouchy...)
Now we begin looking almost daily at exchange rates between the US dollar and the Euro, as we will need spending money while we're there, and there is no point giving the banks any more than we need to, in order to get this done. The Yo-Yo nature of currency exchange shows that it's up one week, and down the next. "We have to get this right," I tell my wife, "or otherwise we could be paying upwards of $100 more than we need to, for the same amount of money."
"That's your department, dear," she replied.
(to be continued)
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Finland IV: Therese, Therese
(In this fourth installment of my blog series leading up to NHL Premiere 2010, featuring the Minnesota Wild in Helsinki, Finland, we look at language problems and a Swedish railway employee patiently willing to help me out.)
While all the credit card mess (from Part III of this series) was being cleaned up, I proceeded to reserve the rest of my rail-and-sail trip from London to Finland . The easiest part was the next part; now that I had the overnight rail (from Cologne to Copenhagen) e-ticketed, I proceeded to work on the Viking Line ferry from Stockholm to Mikko Koivu's hometown of Turku, Finland.
Turku is one of Finland's oldest cities, being also one of its' major ports: people have been living here for over 700 years. The fifth largest city in Finland (pop. 176,401), 3 million people pass thru Turku annually, en route for the Âland islands or all the way across the Baltic Sea to Stockholm. Turku is also where the 225,282-ton Royal Caribbean Lines mega-liner Oasis of the Seas was built, as well. Needless to say, this city has a LOT of history behind it, being Finland's first capital (the capital was moved to Helsinki in the 1800's, by the Russians).
Since the general sales agent for Viking Line ferries in North America is located in south Minneapolis, a couple of local phone calls (and two e-mails across town) was all it took to secure berths, buffets and passage, again all at a significant discount over standard rates by booking early. There was also a more practical side, as well; the Stockholm-Turku ferry of rival Silja Line was completely booked out as a charter for the night of October 2nd, so we HAD to book early, in order to make this all work correctly. Otherwise, we would have been marooned in Stockholm, with no way to continue on until the next day, at least.
So, with the train to Copenhagen ticketed, the ferry to Finland reserved, I then turned to the Swedish Railways website in order to reserve space on their X2000 high-speed tilt train from Copenhagen to Stockholm. The reserving of the train was easy enough; Swedish Railways (Statens Jarnvagar, or SJ) has online booking and ticketing, like most everyone else does; the big difference is, although you can book space 90 days in advance, SJ does not allow ticketing until 60 days prior to departure (reason being that SJ does do some business with Finland in the far north, and the Finns do nothing with their trains more than 60 days out).
When I received my reservation confirmation, it wasn't what I had hoped. I had hoped that, like most other European railways, the SJ computer would put me again in a 1 + 1 'Club Duo' situation, with two seats facing each other with a table between us, and nobody next to us (we don't speak Swedish, either, except if 'Ya, sure, you betcha' counts), like on Thalys between Paris and Cologne.
It didn't. We were placed at a table for four, which means if we talked at all, our seatmates would probably not understand anything we were saying. Not exactly the best way to spend the afternoon crossing Sweden, dont'cha know. We were very uncomfortable with the results.
Needless to say, damage control was in order. Immediate e-mails were dispatched to Stockholm, wondering if this oversight could be corrected? We had purchased deeply-discounted non-refundable, non-exchangeable tickets, which meant our tickets would be invalid for any other Swedish train but the specific one we had booked. But changing seats on the same train, same date, so that two people could sit together on a fall Saturday afternoon? They'd have to go for it. 'I gotta try', I thought.
This is where the language barriers come into play. I don't speak Swedish. My wife? No, not a word. SJ does have English-speaking customer services staff, but their command of English, while very good for a non-mother-tongue, is difficult when you are trying to talk in terms both sides would understand. And, while an absolute God-send, Google Translate can only go so far. So now, with a frustrating, 5:19 ride (from Copenhagen to Stockholm) ahead of me, now what do I do?
Enter Therese.
Therese is a very kind, understanding lady on the English-language desk at SJ's Customer Services department in Stockholm. She also understood that we would be better off by ourselves, in a 'Club Duo' situation, rather than have a multi-cultural nightmare occur on the pride of the Swedish long-haul railway fleet. She rebooked the reservation, in order to get us the 1 + 1 seating we desired, and then came back later and e-mailed me our tickets, after the 60th day prior to departure had passed, just before she went happily on vacation.
Therese was very happy to explain that we would now have seats in a 1 + 1 situation, that the changes had been made so that the train conductor wouldn't 'go postal' the second that he/she saw the tickets (the old space was released for re-sale, after the new space was booked) and that all would be well on the train from Copenhagen to Stockholm.
Having settled the Swedish railway segment, all there was to do was wait for the Finnish Railways 'Boat Train' to open for reservation. Again, the e-ticket route was the way to go, as we will have less than one hour from the time the ferry is scheduled to dock at Turku Harbor (or Satama, in Finnish) until the Boat Train leaves 110 yards (100 meters) away, and the Turku Satama railway station has no automated ticket machines on site.
So now, we are all set. Every segment has been booked, paid for, and ticketed. We are finally ready to depart on the Grand Adventure, until...
(to be continued)
While all the credit card mess (from Part III of this series) was being cleaned up, I proceeded to reserve the rest of my rail-and-sail trip from London to Finland . The easiest part was the next part; now that I had the overnight rail (from Cologne to Copenhagen) e-ticketed, I proceeded to work on the Viking Line ferry from Stockholm to Mikko Koivu's hometown of Turku, Finland.
Turku is one of Finland's oldest cities, being also one of its' major ports: people have been living here for over 700 years. The fifth largest city in Finland (pop. 176,401), 3 million people pass thru Turku annually, en route for the Âland islands or all the way across the Baltic Sea to Stockholm. Turku is also where the 225,282-ton Royal Caribbean Lines mega-liner Oasis of the Seas was built, as well. Needless to say, this city has a LOT of history behind it, being Finland's first capital (the capital was moved to Helsinki in the 1800's, by the Russians).
Since the general sales agent for Viking Line ferries in North America is located in south Minneapolis, a couple of local phone calls (and two e-mails across town) was all it took to secure berths, buffets and passage, again all at a significant discount over standard rates by booking early. There was also a more practical side, as well; the Stockholm-Turku ferry of rival Silja Line was completely booked out as a charter for the night of October 2nd, so we HAD to book early, in order to make this all work correctly. Otherwise, we would have been marooned in Stockholm, with no way to continue on until the next day, at least.
So, with the train to Copenhagen ticketed, the ferry to Finland reserved, I then turned to the Swedish Railways website in order to reserve space on their X2000 high-speed tilt train from Copenhagen to Stockholm. The reserving of the train was easy enough; Swedish Railways (Statens Jarnvagar, or SJ) has online booking and ticketing, like most everyone else does; the big difference is, although you can book space 90 days in advance, SJ does not allow ticketing until 60 days prior to departure (reason being that SJ does do some business with Finland in the far north, and the Finns do nothing with their trains more than 60 days out).
When I received my reservation confirmation, it wasn't what I had hoped. I had hoped that, like most other European railways, the SJ computer would put me again in a 1 + 1 'Club Duo' situation, with two seats facing each other with a table between us, and nobody next to us (we don't speak Swedish, either, except if 'Ya, sure, you betcha' counts), like on Thalys between Paris and Cologne.
It didn't. We were placed at a table for four, which means if we talked at all, our seatmates would probably not understand anything we were saying. Not exactly the best way to spend the afternoon crossing Sweden, dont'cha know. We were very uncomfortable with the results.
Needless to say, damage control was in order. Immediate e-mails were dispatched to Stockholm, wondering if this oversight could be corrected? We had purchased deeply-discounted non-refundable, non-exchangeable tickets, which meant our tickets would be invalid for any other Swedish train but the specific one we had booked. But changing seats on the same train, same date, so that two people could sit together on a fall Saturday afternoon? They'd have to go for it. 'I gotta try', I thought.
This is where the language barriers come into play. I don't speak Swedish. My wife? No, not a word. SJ does have English-speaking customer services staff, but their command of English, while very good for a non-mother-tongue, is difficult when you are trying to talk in terms both sides would understand. And, while an absolute God-send, Google Translate can only go so far. So now, with a frustrating, 5:19 ride (from Copenhagen to Stockholm) ahead of me, now what do I do?
Enter Therese.
Therese is a very kind, understanding lady on the English-language desk at SJ's Customer Services department in Stockholm. She also understood that we would be better off by ourselves, in a 'Club Duo' situation, rather than have a multi-cultural nightmare occur on the pride of the Swedish long-haul railway fleet. She rebooked the reservation, in order to get us the 1 + 1 seating we desired, and then came back later and e-mailed me our tickets, after the 60th day prior to departure had passed, just before she went happily on vacation.
Therese was very happy to explain that we would now have seats in a 1 + 1 situation, that the changes had been made so that the train conductor wouldn't 'go postal' the second that he/she saw the tickets (the old space was released for re-sale, after the new space was booked) and that all would be well on the train from Copenhagen to Stockholm.
Having settled the Swedish railway segment, all there was to do was wait for the Finnish Railways 'Boat Train' to open for reservation. Again, the e-ticket route was the way to go, as we will have less than one hour from the time the ferry is scheduled to dock at Turku Harbor (or Satama, in Finnish) until the Boat Train leaves 110 yards (100 meters) away, and the Turku Satama railway station has no automated ticket machines on site.
So now, we are all set. Every segment has been booked, paid for, and ticketed. We are finally ready to depart on the Grand Adventure, until...
(to be continued)
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Finland III: The Bankers step in and say, 'No!'
(In this third installment of my blog series leading up to NHL Premiere 2010, featuring the Minnesota Wild in Helsinki, Finland, we look at some of the obstacles preparing for a trip like this can mean, especially when you do it yourself, and how to avoid them.)
It is the morning of July 1st. The 'Free-Agent Frenzy' is gearing up on TSN, and I am bound and determined to not only sit thru that, but get most all of this trip booked before I sit down and watch the rest of the NHL get better, while the Minnesota Wild just sit there, like they always have, never content enough in free agency to do anything early in the first day. (Not that they don't ever do anything day 1; it's just that they never get it done 'til early evening, or later.)
It's 8:30 AM. I start with the easiest segment, the one which has been on sale for 30 days already, the Eurostar train from London St. Pancras (departing at 5:25 AM) to Paris Gare du Nord. Easy. Standard class booking (at 1/3rd of the cost of First Class) at a £39/seat rate. Easy. Get the seats I want, easy. Everything about Eurostar seems almost too easy. We'll see. But onwards...
Next, to book Thalys from Paris to Cologne. Since they are both members of Railteam (Europe's association of high-speed rail operators) they are bound by similar policies in booking, etc., so they, also, have had seats on sale for 30 days, and feature a very easy process to book. I can't resist a €69 each rate for first class so we book two seats ('Club duo') on a late afternoon departure.
While I was taking a break after those two were completed to get set up for the rest of the day, I get a very strange call from my credit card company. It went something like this:
Me: "Hello."
Other end: "Uh, sir, this is the fraud division of (credit card) and we would like to discuss your account with you."
Me: "What about?"
They: "Uh, we think there are some fraudulent charges on your account."
Me: "Like what?"
They: "Well, there's this one from Thalys..."
Me: "You mean the one I just made less than 30 minutes ago?"
They: "Yes, that one. We'd like to know the reason that charge was made."
Mind you, I am getting really annoyed at this point. Everything that I have planned might just go straight to hell at this point...or worse.
Me: "Maybe I'm travelling in Europe, or maybe it's none of your business."
They: "Sir, you don't understand..."
Me: "And, I don't have to, either. As long as the charge is legitimate, I sure as hell don't need YOU to tell me how to spend my money."
They: "So this charge is something you actually did?"
Me: "Yes, but I still don't know why it's any business of YOURS."
They: "This is the fraud division, sir. We're just trying to stop any fraudulent charges on your account."
Me: "Believe me, this is a legitimate charge. I'm trying to plan a trip to Europe, but some credit card company calls me, and interrupts me, while I am trying to get this done, and keeps trying to stop me from using my card, for my own legitimate purposes."
(Think I'm irritated at this point, folks?)
They: "We're sorry to have bothered you, sir. Could we have your e-mail address?"
Me: "No, you already have it on file. You certainly don't need it again, unless you are going to SPAM me to death, which you're going to do, aren't you?"
They: "No, we just want it..."
Me: "...and it's already on the account. Good-bye."
(Hang up.)
I need to take a break and re-focus, so I sit down just in time to see TSN's Bob McKenzie working his BlackBerry for the first of many, many times that day. As I sat there, I became so irritated at the credit card company for what they did, that I was absolutely seething as the Wild were NOT involved in signing after signing. I took the rest of the afternoon off from trip planning (it was getting harder to do anyhow, as we were also having a new furnace installed that day) and watched, as some of the best players in hockey passed on being appreciated by myself and other Wild fans (and, some of the former Wild be signed away by other teams as well). It was getting to be a long, hot afternoon (we hadn't air conditioning for four days in mid-summer) but the new furnace was finally installed, tested, and deemed done. Finally, we could turn on the air conditioning and cool the house down, for the first time in days. Meanwhile, the Wild were busy signing the ex-Moorhead Spud, St. Cloud State Husky, and Carolina Hurricane, Matt Cullen, to a 3-year contract. The house was cooling down, and fortunately, so was I, after the 'credit card follies' of the morning.
The next train to book was a key train: Deutsche Bahn's 'CityNightLine' train from Cologne to Copenhagen, the third step of the process, en route to Helsinki. Again, another advance purchase, deeply discounted fare saves the Euros, as the two of us book into a deluxe bedroom for only €298 for this overnight segment. I'm feeling better about this trip as the day ends, the Cullen signing is announced, and I think all is right with the world. At least for now.
The next day, I find out while shopping that I need cash, so I go to my bank's ATM. My card will not work, no matter what I do. So, I think back and find that yet another card issuer has shut down my account, due to supposedly 'fraudulent activity' on my account. This time I am, to say the least, incensed. Another round of 'We think you have some fraudulent activity on your account' and this time, they want me to go to a 'banking store' (their phrase, not mine) and see a banker to verify my identity and that of my card! Unbelievably, I actually go thru this farce, only to be asked again 'why are you making these charges?' and the whole demeaning process is repeated, for a second time, with a different credit card company.
Moral of the story: Call your credit card company (or e-mail them), before you make ANY charges from overseas companies of ANY kind. Since most overseas charges don't fit their 'profile' (since, of course, it's not purchased in the USA), they will not hesitate to shut your card down, if you do not call them before the charges hit your account.
(to be continued)
It is the morning of July 1st. The 'Free-Agent Frenzy' is gearing up on TSN, and I am bound and determined to not only sit thru that, but get most all of this trip booked before I sit down and watch the rest of the NHL get better, while the Minnesota Wild just sit there, like they always have, never content enough in free agency to do anything early in the first day. (Not that they don't ever do anything day 1; it's just that they never get it done 'til early evening, or later.)
It's 8:30 AM. I start with the easiest segment, the one which has been on sale for 30 days already, the Eurostar train from London St. Pancras (departing at 5:25 AM) to Paris Gare du Nord. Easy. Standard class booking (at 1/3rd of the cost of First Class) at a £39/seat rate. Easy. Get the seats I want, easy. Everything about Eurostar seems almost too easy. We'll see. But onwards...
Next, to book Thalys from Paris to Cologne. Since they are both members of Railteam (Europe's association of high-speed rail operators) they are bound by similar policies in booking, etc., so they, also, have had seats on sale for 30 days, and feature a very easy process to book. I can't resist a €69 each rate for first class so we book two seats ('Club duo') on a late afternoon departure.
While I was taking a break after those two were completed to get set up for the rest of the day, I get a very strange call from my credit card company. It went something like this:
Me: "Hello."
Other end: "Uh, sir, this is the fraud division of (credit card) and we would like to discuss your account with you."
Me: "What about?"
They: "Uh, we think there are some fraudulent charges on your account."
Me: "Like what?"
They: "Well, there's this one from Thalys..."
Me: "You mean the one I just made less than 30 minutes ago?"
They: "Yes, that one. We'd like to know the reason that charge was made."
Mind you, I am getting really annoyed at this point. Everything that I have planned might just go straight to hell at this point...or worse.
Me: "Maybe I'm travelling in Europe, or maybe it's none of your business."
They: "Sir, you don't understand..."
Me: "And, I don't have to, either. As long as the charge is legitimate, I sure as hell don't need YOU to tell me how to spend my money."
They: "So this charge is something you actually did?"
Me: "Yes, but I still don't know why it's any business of YOURS."
They: "This is the fraud division, sir. We're just trying to stop any fraudulent charges on your account."
Me: "Believe me, this is a legitimate charge. I'm trying to plan a trip to Europe, but some credit card company calls me, and interrupts me, while I am trying to get this done, and keeps trying to stop me from using my card, for my own legitimate purposes."
(Think I'm irritated at this point, folks?)
They: "We're sorry to have bothered you, sir. Could we have your e-mail address?"
Me: "No, you already have it on file. You certainly don't need it again, unless you are going to SPAM me to death, which you're going to do, aren't you?"
They: "No, we just want it..."
Me: "...and it's already on the account. Good-bye."
(Hang up.)
I need to take a break and re-focus, so I sit down just in time to see TSN's Bob McKenzie working his BlackBerry for the first of many, many times that day. As I sat there, I became so irritated at the credit card company for what they did, that I was absolutely seething as the Wild were NOT involved in signing after signing. I took the rest of the afternoon off from trip planning (it was getting harder to do anyhow, as we were also having a new furnace installed that day) and watched, as some of the best players in hockey passed on being appreciated by myself and other Wild fans (and, some of the former Wild be signed away by other teams as well). It was getting to be a long, hot afternoon (we hadn't air conditioning for four days in mid-summer) but the new furnace was finally installed, tested, and deemed done. Finally, we could turn on the air conditioning and cool the house down, for the first time in days. Meanwhile, the Wild were busy signing the ex-Moorhead Spud, St. Cloud State Husky, and Carolina Hurricane, Matt Cullen, to a 3-year contract. The house was cooling down, and fortunately, so was I, after the 'credit card follies' of the morning.
The next train to book was a key train: Deutsche Bahn's 'CityNightLine' train from Cologne to Copenhagen, the third step of the process, en route to Helsinki. Again, another advance purchase, deeply discounted fare saves the Euros, as the two of us book into a deluxe bedroom for only €298 for this overnight segment. I'm feeling better about this trip as the day ends, the Cullen signing is announced, and I think all is right with the world. At least for now.
The next day, I find out while shopping that I need cash, so I go to my bank's ATM. My card will not work, no matter what I do. So, I think back and find that yet another card issuer has shut down my account, due to supposedly 'fraudulent activity' on my account. This time I am, to say the least, incensed. Another round of 'We think you have some fraudulent activity on your account' and this time, they want me to go to a 'banking store' (their phrase, not mine) and see a banker to verify my identity and that of my card! Unbelievably, I actually go thru this farce, only to be asked again 'why are you making these charges?' and the whole demeaning process is repeated, for a second time, with a different credit card company.
Moral of the story: Call your credit card company (or e-mail them), before you make ANY charges from overseas companies of ANY kind. Since most overseas charges don't fit their 'profile' (since, of course, it's not purchased in the USA), they will not hesitate to shut your card down, if you do not call them before the charges hit your account.
(to be continued)
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Finland II: Deals to be had
(In part two of this series leading up to NHL Premiere 2010, featuring the Minnesota Wild in Helsinki, we look at pricing, funding and planning the trip.)
Never is all as it seems when planning international travel. Ever. Large corporations will tell you that, small families from different countries will tell you that. Never, ever accept full price when dealing with transcontinental (or, in this case, intercontinental) travel. Timing is everything is cases like this.
And, thanks to some Greek pensioners, we caught some great timing. How so? Read on...
It is now mid-May, and my wife and I are hemming and hawing over whether or not we can go to Finland. We go back and forth, pointing out to each other the pros (we actually have something to go there FOR; there will be others, as it's a tour group) and the cons (individual travel where we would be stuck in a foreign country where no one knows the English language, etc.) of such an undertaking. My wife opined that it would be fun to see more than just Finland while we're over in Europe: point taken! She was right! It would be fun to enjoy more of Europe than you would see from a tour bus for six days.
Haven't you wanted a croissant, from where they were first made? A Danish from Denmark? Shepherd's Pie from Britain? A real Swedish meatball? Real German pilsner beer, fresh from the tap, not carried across the North Atlantic in some cargo hold? Borscht from next to the Borscht Belt (the real one, not the one in NY State)? All the sights, the sounds, the experiences... all out there, waiting for those who are willing to explore. And, at the end, some good ol' NHL hockey, to boot. You can't pass THAT up, I thought.
Then, thanks to the Greeks, the Euro drops precipitously, making an international flight to London (Heathrow) and home directly from Helsinki to Minneapolis/St. Paul under $1,000 each (taxes and fees included). Much better than the rates quoted to us previously (see Part I for that info.) I am almost cheering on the rioters in Athens on CNN, as the Euro keeps on sliding downward in relation to the U.S. dollar. I feel much better about this trip now, and more importantly, so does my wife. Now, at that moment, was the time to book!
Why London? Our decision was partially based on the fact, that our first night in Europe should be somewhere where we could actually get our feet under us after a 8 hour, 20 minute flight. Due to the late hour of departure from the USA (9:40 PM, Central Time) we would be tired going into the flight, and then the Trans-Atlantic ordeal, Her Majesty's Customs, and getting into the city itself will probably take care of any starch in our systems, once we get there.
So now, we are looking at the news every day, also working online sites for a cheap airfare to Europe somewhere, while reading how easy it is to book European travel online at websites such as the highly-recommended http://www.seat61.com/, who expounds the bravado of booking your own travel online, through six different reservation systems, while travelling through seven different countries, en route to Helsinki. Thru a number of websites, a plan is formulated: travel via train from London to Stockholm, via Paris, Cologne and Copenhagen; a ferry across the Baltic Sea to Mikko Koivu's hometown of Turku, Finland; and a Finnish Railways 'Boat Train' from Turku Satama (Harbor) to Helsinki. Total travel time, London to Helsinki, including all transfers: 51 1/2 hours. Not bad considering you are travelling almost the same distance (1946 miles, or 3139 kilometers) as Twin Cities to Vancouver, BC (via Amtrak).
And even in the train travel, we are finding early booking discounts of upwards of 50%, especially on the two overnight segments: the Deutsche Bahn CityNightLine train, which we will utilize as a 'hotel on wheels' from Cologne to Copenhagen, and the Viking Line ferry 'M/S Amorella', which will be our overnight accomodation on the second night from Stockholm to Turku. Now, can I book all this while the rates are still low in relation to the US Dollar?
That's where the funding comes in. In Part I, you may remember that I had mentioned the starting of a savings account. Yeah, that one. Here's where it starts coming in, the saving, the lack of decent road trips last season (which helped), the deal-searching, the pouring thru numerous timetables, websites, and some good old-fashioned calling, both near (to South Minneapolis) and far (to Stockholm). All in search of a good deal. And, they're out there, until...
(to be continued)
Never is all as it seems when planning international travel. Ever. Large corporations will tell you that, small families from different countries will tell you that. Never, ever accept full price when dealing with transcontinental (or, in this case, intercontinental) travel. Timing is everything is cases like this.
And, thanks to some Greek pensioners, we caught some great timing. How so? Read on...
It is now mid-May, and my wife and I are hemming and hawing over whether or not we can go to Finland. We go back and forth, pointing out to each other the pros (we actually have something to go there FOR; there will be others, as it's a tour group) and the cons (individual travel where we would be stuck in a foreign country where no one knows the English language, etc.) of such an undertaking. My wife opined that it would be fun to see more than just Finland while we're over in Europe: point taken! She was right! It would be fun to enjoy more of Europe than you would see from a tour bus for six days.
Haven't you wanted a croissant, from where they were first made? A Danish from Denmark? Shepherd's Pie from Britain? A real Swedish meatball? Real German pilsner beer, fresh from the tap, not carried across the North Atlantic in some cargo hold? Borscht from next to the Borscht Belt (the real one, not the one in NY State)? All the sights, the sounds, the experiences... all out there, waiting for those who are willing to explore. And, at the end, some good ol' NHL hockey, to boot. You can't pass THAT up, I thought.
Then, thanks to the Greeks, the Euro drops precipitously, making an international flight to London (Heathrow) and home directly from Helsinki to Minneapolis/St. Paul under $1,000 each (taxes and fees included). Much better than the rates quoted to us previously (see Part I for that info.) I am almost cheering on the rioters in Athens on CNN, as the Euro keeps on sliding downward in relation to the U.S. dollar. I feel much better about this trip now, and more importantly, so does my wife. Now, at that moment, was the time to book!
Why London? Our decision was partially based on the fact, that our first night in Europe should be somewhere where we could actually get our feet under us after a 8 hour, 20 minute flight. Due to the late hour of departure from the USA (9:40 PM, Central Time) we would be tired going into the flight, and then the Trans-Atlantic ordeal, Her Majesty's Customs, and getting into the city itself will probably take care of any starch in our systems, once we get there.
So now, we are looking at the news every day, also working online sites for a cheap airfare to Europe somewhere, while reading how easy it is to book European travel online at websites such as the highly-recommended http://www.seat61.com/, who expounds the bravado of booking your own travel online, through six different reservation systems, while travelling through seven different countries, en route to Helsinki. Thru a number of websites, a plan is formulated: travel via train from London to Stockholm, via Paris, Cologne and Copenhagen; a ferry across the Baltic Sea to Mikko Koivu's hometown of Turku, Finland; and a Finnish Railways 'Boat Train' from Turku Satama (Harbor) to Helsinki. Total travel time, London to Helsinki, including all transfers: 51 1/2 hours. Not bad considering you are travelling almost the same distance (1946 miles, or 3139 kilometers) as Twin Cities to Vancouver, BC (via Amtrak).
And even in the train travel, we are finding early booking discounts of upwards of 50%, especially on the two overnight segments: the Deutsche Bahn CityNightLine train, which we will utilize as a 'hotel on wheels' from Cologne to Copenhagen, and the Viking Line ferry 'M/S Amorella', which will be our overnight accomodation on the second night from Stockholm to Turku. Now, can I book all this while the rates are still low in relation to the US Dollar?
That's where the funding comes in. In Part I, you may remember that I had mentioned the starting of a savings account. Yeah, that one. Here's where it starts coming in, the saving, the lack of decent road trips last season (which helped), the deal-searching, the pouring thru numerous timetables, websites, and some good old-fashioned calling, both near (to South Minneapolis) and far (to Stockholm). All in search of a good deal. And, they're out there, until...
(to be continued)
Saturday, January 30, 2010
'Just a Great Hockey Game', but Wild still wind up as Shark bait
The San Jose Sharks got a real scare tonight. And no, it wasn't a mirage you watched (if you did, given the late hour) Saturday night. The Minnesota Wild were really playing that good.
But you cannot give up four power-play goals, a single-game Wild all-time record, and expect to win on the road in the NHL. And so it was tonight at HP Pavilion at San Jose, as the Wild lost to the Sharks, 5-2, in front of 175 Wild fans on the team's official 'Road Trip', and 17,387 Sharks faithful, as Josh Harding made his third consecutive start, and finished by having suffered his first loss in his last 4 games.
The Wild struck first as Owen Nolan tipped the puck off a Guillaume Latendresse shot by Evgeni Nabokov on the power play, then after Jason Demers whizzed one by a screen Harding to tie it at one-all, Cal Clutterbuck's point-blank redirect of Kyle Brodziak's pass in front of Nabokov found twine in the last minute of the first period.
Demers then took advantage of an errant clearing attempt by Kim Johnsson while the Wild were killing off a questionable penalty against Belanger, netting his second of the night thru another screen, 3:15 into the second period, tying the game at 2-2. Later in the second, Joe Pavelski took advantage of a Marek Zidlicky penalty, stepping around Brent Burns like Burns was a statute, and surprising Harding to put the Sharks in front 3-2 at the 16:57 mark.
Six seconds after Robbie Earl was whistled off for interference, Patrick Marleau tallied his first goal of the evening as his blast sizzled by Harding at 13:14 of the third period, for a 4-2 San Jose lead. Just over 3 minutes later, Marleau made sure the Wild had no comeback as he deflected a shot by Dany Heatley into the net for the 5-2 final score.
Next Game: at Dallas, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 7:00 PM, American Airlines Center. (TV: Versus, TSN2, in HD; viewing parties in Twin Cities area; details at Wild.com. XM Radio, Ch. 209)
-- WRT
But you cannot give up four power-play goals, a single-game Wild all-time record, and expect to win on the road in the NHL. And so it was tonight at HP Pavilion at San Jose, as the Wild lost to the Sharks, 5-2, in front of 175 Wild fans on the team's official 'Road Trip', and 17,387 Sharks faithful, as Josh Harding made his third consecutive start, and finished by having suffered his first loss in his last 4 games.
The Wild struck first as Owen Nolan tipped the puck off a Guillaume Latendresse shot by Evgeni Nabokov on the power play, then after Jason Demers whizzed one by a screen Harding to tie it at one-all, Cal Clutterbuck's point-blank redirect of Kyle Brodziak's pass in front of Nabokov found twine in the last minute of the first period.
Demers then took advantage of an errant clearing attempt by Kim Johnsson while the Wild were killing off a questionable penalty against Belanger, netting his second of the night thru another screen, 3:15 into the second period, tying the game at 2-2. Later in the second, Joe Pavelski took advantage of a Marek Zidlicky penalty, stepping around Brent Burns like Burns was a statute, and surprising Harding to put the Sharks in front 3-2 at the 16:57 mark.
Six seconds after Robbie Earl was whistled off for interference, Patrick Marleau tallied his first goal of the evening as his blast sizzled by Harding at 13:14 of the third period, for a 4-2 San Jose lead. Just over 3 minutes later, Marleau made sure the Wild had no comeback as he deflected a shot by Dany Heatley into the net for the 5-2 final score.
Next Game: at Dallas, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 7:00 PM, American Airlines Center. (TV: Versus, TSN2, in HD; viewing parties in Twin Cities area; details at Wild.com. XM Radio, Ch. 209)
-- WRT
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
NHL hits new low, restricts player-parent road trips
League says 'Thank Yous' by teams, players possibly violates salary cap
By Wild Road Tripper
In an opinion almost bordering on the absurd, the National Hockey League has deemed player-parent road trips, where the team pays for hotels, meals and brings Dad or Mom (or other relative, for those players whose parents are deceased) along on a road trip, may be a violation of the league-imposed salary cap. The league, thru Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, has deemed trips of more than two games (three days) length, possibly violates the salary cap, saying that it is a 'player benefit', (game tickets, hotel rooms, meals and city tours are paid for by the club), which could lead to salary-cap violations.
The opinion was published in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in Wednesday's editions, the day after the Minnesota Wild completed their second father-son road trip in three seasons.
Wild Road Tripper sez:
This is a classic reason why the NHL is penny-wise and pound-foolish. By the time your average NHL player makes it to the 'big club' level, their parents have logged somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-70,000 miles, having subjugated their professional careers, personal lives and the rest of their families (for those who don't have other kids in hockey), in order to meet the ever-growing demands of playing at the elite levels needed, in order to hone the skills necessary to compete at the top levels. They also have invested somewhere in the neighborhood of $100,000-200,000 in their child for hockey equipment, ice time, travel and medical expenses as well. This money provides the base which supports the system which feeds the NHL.
Bringing the parents along is actually great public relations. It shows that the players are not just automotons, that they have families just like we fans do. Families who have put up with a hell of a lot of B.S., in order to have their kids at the pro hockey level. Their sacrifice and their efforts to support their kids (even as adults) should be celebrated, especially when someone else (i.e., the NHL teams) are willing to pay for it. It may take different forms, especially in markets (Phoenix, Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose) where hockey and cold weather don't necessarily mix. To limit how each club can take the parents is absolutely ridiculous. Next thing we know, the NHL will arbitrarily limit where they can go (e.g., you may NOT take them to Toronto or Montreal, but you MAY take them to Nashville, Atlanta or Florida only, but never in December, January or February.)
Another great move by the master of 'great moves', NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. He can't even announce this himself; they drag out the hired hand, Bill Daly, in order to do it. Does the cowardice run that deep in the League offices?
I really wonder. So do player parents.
By Wild Road Tripper
In an opinion almost bordering on the absurd, the National Hockey League has deemed player-parent road trips, where the team pays for hotels, meals and brings Dad or Mom (or other relative, for those players whose parents are deceased) along on a road trip, may be a violation of the league-imposed salary cap. The league, thru Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, has deemed trips of more than two games (three days) length, possibly violates the salary cap, saying that it is a 'player benefit', (game tickets, hotel rooms, meals and city tours are paid for by the club), which could lead to salary-cap violations.
The opinion was published in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in Wednesday's editions, the day after the Minnesota Wild completed their second father-son road trip in three seasons.
Wild Road Tripper sez:
This is a classic reason why the NHL is penny-wise and pound-foolish. By the time your average NHL player makes it to the 'big club' level, their parents have logged somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-70,000 miles, having subjugated their professional careers, personal lives and the rest of their families (for those who don't have other kids in hockey), in order to meet the ever-growing demands of playing at the elite levels needed, in order to hone the skills necessary to compete at the top levels. They also have invested somewhere in the neighborhood of $100,000-200,000 in their child for hockey equipment, ice time, travel and medical expenses as well. This money provides the base which supports the system which feeds the NHL.
Bringing the parents along is actually great public relations. It shows that the players are not just automotons, that they have families just like we fans do. Families who have put up with a hell of a lot of B.S., in order to have their kids at the pro hockey level. Their sacrifice and their efforts to support their kids (even as adults) should be celebrated, especially when someone else (i.e., the NHL teams) are willing to pay for it. It may take different forms, especially in markets (Phoenix, Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose) where hockey and cold weather don't necessarily mix. To limit how each club can take the parents is absolutely ridiculous. Next thing we know, the NHL will arbitrarily limit where they can go (e.g., you may NOT take them to Toronto or Montreal, but you MAY take them to Nashville, Atlanta or Florida only, but never in December, January or February.)
Another great move by the master of 'great moves', NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. He can't even announce this himself; they drag out the hired hand, Bill Daly, in order to do it. Does the cowardice run that deep in the League offices?
I really wonder. So do player parents.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Feeling Guilty
Well, it happened again. I cancelled another road trip to Chicago. I will NOT be attending Tuesday night's Minnesota Wild - Chicago Blackhawks game.
For the second consecutive season, I cancelled a road trip to the United Center last night. There were a number of reasons for my dalliance and eventual annullment of this journey:
1. The weather is just too damn cold for transportation to operate reliably. My trips depend on transportation to depart and arrive within a reasonable limit of time. I am as impatient as the next guy when it comes to on-time performance. Severe cold (such as that which has been plaguing the Twin Cities area this past weekend) does not assist in keeping transportation on-time. On the contrary; planes run late, Amtrak does not run at all, buses are cold, drafty and with the post-hoilday rush, everything is over-crowded. When you have a system (which we in the USA do) which is stretched to the breaking point, something has to give.
2. The fact remains that you still have to book hotels, etc., in order to do this trip properly. I could not reasonably give the time needed to the proper planning of this trip. The hotels are having a heck of a time keeping beds filled; there are deals to be had, but the want has to be there. Which leads me to item No. 3...
3. My wife, who normally is my partner in these trips, simply didn't want to go. For that, I can't blame her. When I bought the tickets (in September) the Wild had a lot more promise than they show now. Granted, they had not played a meaningful game yet, so the promise of better things ahead was still there. Not so now. The Wild have been shown to be, at best, a middle-of-the-road playoff wanna-be that may or may not get into the post-season. And, should they still be eligible to play come April 13, they will be just so much cannon fodder for a Chicago, San Jose, Calgary, Los Angeles or whomever. And, should they not get to the post-season, their position will not be top 6; no, they will once again draft in the middle of the first round, where they will find another player for whom the Houston Aeros will be their immediate destination in pro hockey.
Hopefully, I won't be so irresolute when the next road opportunity presents itself. I will be, literally, 'Packed, ready to go'.
Stay warm, everyone.
For the second consecutive season, I cancelled a road trip to the United Center last night. There were a number of reasons for my dalliance and eventual annullment of this journey:
1. The weather is just too damn cold for transportation to operate reliably. My trips depend on transportation to depart and arrive within a reasonable limit of time. I am as impatient as the next guy when it comes to on-time performance. Severe cold (such as that which has been plaguing the Twin Cities area this past weekend) does not assist in keeping transportation on-time. On the contrary; planes run late, Amtrak does not run at all, buses are cold, drafty and with the post-hoilday rush, everything is over-crowded. When you have a system (which we in the USA do) which is stretched to the breaking point, something has to give.
2. The fact remains that you still have to book hotels, etc., in order to do this trip properly. I could not reasonably give the time needed to the proper planning of this trip. The hotels are having a heck of a time keeping beds filled; there are deals to be had, but the want has to be there. Which leads me to item No. 3...
3. My wife, who normally is my partner in these trips, simply didn't want to go. For that, I can't blame her. When I bought the tickets (in September) the Wild had a lot more promise than they show now. Granted, they had not played a meaningful game yet, so the promise of better things ahead was still there. Not so now. The Wild have been shown to be, at best, a middle-of-the-road playoff wanna-be that may or may not get into the post-season. And, should they still be eligible to play come April 13, they will be just so much cannon fodder for a Chicago, San Jose, Calgary, Los Angeles or whomever. And, should they not get to the post-season, their position will not be top 6; no, they will once again draft in the middle of the first round, where they will find another player for whom the Houston Aeros will be their immediate destination in pro hockey.
Hopefully, I won't be so irresolute when the next road opportunity presents itself. I will be, literally, 'Packed, ready to go'.
Stay warm, everyone.
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