European Vacation part 1

It took me 27 years, but I finally made my way to Europe! I know, most people don't really think visiting Germany in the winter is all that smart...with all of the snow on the ground and the bitter cold, I might agree..haha. I haven't had much of a chance to see anything yet. The venue and hotel are a little ways away from the city center. I plan to make it there as soon as we get a chance.

We started the adventure in Chicago on Thursday night. We had a straight flight to Copenhagen, then a long layover. The flight itself was really pretty easy compared to all of the trips to Asia that I made last year. Eight hours is a breeze! When we got to Copenhagen airport I was in shock. It was the nicest airport I have ever been in. I wasn't sure if I was in an airport or a luxury casino or a fancy shopping mall!See what I mean! That is only a small portion of the airport!

The other thing that I found fascinating was the prize drawing that we saw. For 50 euro you can get a raffle ticket to win a luxury car. By luxury car I mean ferrari, lamboghini, etc. The big advertising point that they used was that you could win the car tax free. Here is the ad and one of the cars.
With some bad weather our layover went from six hours to about nine hours. Not much fun but luckily, since this was no ordinary airport there was a quiet area. I couldn't believe it! You could pretty much lay down, take a nap, read book and just get away from everything.
After a nice nap and relaxation it was finally time to board the plane to Hannover. We didn't realize that we had to take a bus to the plane or that a major snow storm had started. Here is a view of the snow and a very shaky picture of Jason and I freezing while waiting to get on the plane.

We finally arrived in Hannover late Friday night. We got some rest and the guys started playing Saturday evening. The venue is really very nice. Lots of seating, nice lighting, good amount of practice tables, and quite a few spectators. Obviously, they are rooting very hard for the two home teams.
It is a huge area with about thirty different buildings. I was told that the 2000 Worlds Fair was held here in Hannover and the tournament is being held in one of those buildings. There is really a lot of cool architecture but I haven't had a chance to check much of it out. This is the structure right outside of the venue.
So, if you didn't know, there is a pool tournament going on! Everyone knows that my boyfriend is Canadian so I am here rooting on both the Canadians and the Americans. The Canadians had a pretty tough draw, Germany II. They had a great chance but ended up losing 4-2. They came back with a strong win against Austria in the first round losers bracket. The format of the event is two 8-ball doubles matches, race to 6, two singles 9-ball matches race to 8, and if needed, two 10-ball singles matches race to 7. Canada was down 3-1 going into the 10-ball matches. Jason and Erik both came through with wins to force a play-off. Here is where it gets really exciting. If the score is tied 3-3, it goes to a shootout. The shootout is a race to 6. Four players on the team are chosen to shoot a modified spot shot. The object ball is placed along the first diamond from the end rail, in the middle and the cue ball is placed on the opposite spot. Here is a picture to make it a little more clear.. As you can see, it isn't a very easy shot! Canada made it look a little bit easy though. They made six out of nine shots for the win 6-3. They play Israel today at 1pm. Here are a couple action shots from the matches with Germany and Austria.


The USA is having an easier time. They are playing really well and are undefeated. They have won matches against France and Morocco so far and are in the final sixteen redraw. Here are a couple pictures of them in action...


Some of the other teams looking good are Sweden, Philippines, China, Germany I and the USA.

There is also a car and motorcycle show going on. The Harley Davidson show is along with the pool tournament. There are probably about fifty different bikes from different eras all on display. I will post pictures later. But now I am off to watch Canada move on in the tournament! I will be back later with updates and more pictures.