The 2007 Open European Mahjong Championship
Copenhagen
Pre-tournament Sightseeing

Okay, so I like trains.

Part of the adventure of travel is adapting to wondrous plumbing fixtures. This one is from my little hotel room. Snap quiz - if you wanted to fill your water bottle with cold water, without getting yourself wet, how would you manipulate these controls? (I got myself wet.)

The first day's adventure (June 20) started at Copenhagen's Town Hall Square.

The east gate of Tivoli Gardens is right across the street from Town Hall.

While waiting for the tour bus, I saw this guy taking photos of architectural details of Town Hall. I asked him, "Architecture student?" He replied, "No, graphic designer in video games." Sheesh, I can't get away from work anywhere! Turns out he was taking photos for textures to use in his company's MMO ("massively multiplayer online" game).

First stop on the tour: Frederiksborg. Here are Joe and Josephine.

The fountain of Frederiksborg.

The inner workings of the Frederiksborg planetarium. Denmark was the home of the great astronomer Tycho Brahe.

Me with planetarium. Did I ever tell you I dig astronomy? Used to give planetarium lectures in college.

Yuri Tezuka pointed out that this painting looked just like me, so I got her to take this picture. Shoulda shaved. Shoulda took off my hat.

Our Lady of the Leaking Nipples.

The main courtyard of Frederiksborg.

Frederiksborg.

Frederiksborg.

Next stop on the tour: the Queen's summer palace at Fredensborg.

Then on to Kronborg.

The tour guide told us the Danes built Kronborg to guard the harbor against pirates... which was kind of silly, she said, given that the Danish were the biggest pirates around in the first place. See that land across the water over there? That's Sweden. 

Schoolkids visit Kronborg.

The big hall at Kronborg. Still looking for the ghost of Hamlet's father to show up...

A view from inside Kronborg. "To be or not to be."

Next morning (June 21), on the way to the Gammel Strand.

Gammel Strand, where the Copenhagen boat tour starts.

The very first meeting of the full U.S. mahjong team ("Mahjong USA"). Left to right: me (Tom Sloper), Andrew Feist, Benjamin Boas, Josephine Lee Moore.

Jean-Marc Cazarre and Martin Rep chatting on the boat tour.

My first view of the famous "Little Mermaid" statue (far left) was from the water. Lotta tourists over there!

Copenhagen's a pretty city.

The boat tour returns us to Gammel Strand.