Good Friday in Switzerland is very much a public holiday and everything shuts down - the occasional bar / restaurant opens and the trams still run - but as the following picture taken in early afternoon shows, the streets are pretty deserted!!
At the arena on Good Friday it was the tie breaker between New Zealand and Sweden at 1400. There were no tickets on sale as the box office was shut and so admission was free but it also meant that there was no catering at all in the arena and the kiosks and shops around were also shut.
This is a photo I took of the NZ team coming into the arena for the tie breaker and look at those crowds!!
The arena for the Championships was not actually an ice rink but, like the Kelvin Hall in 1985, the ice was laid on a normal floor as has become quite standard practice for a number of Championships in recent years.. Interestingly, for just the second time in recent history, the ice was laid on top of a mat of pipes which was rolled into place.
In addition extra seating was built at the end of the sheets and as this picture shows it was a massive construction which probably gave those at the top a nosebleed!!
The Swiss were of course cock-a-hoop over the success of Mirjam Ott and her team in Lethbridge at the World Women's and the team made a special appearance to sign autographs and to give their fans a chance to be photographed with them. Not sure who the chap in the middle is but the others are from left to right:
Carmen Kung (2nd), Janine Greiner (lead), Mirjam Ott (skip), Carmen Schaefer (3rd) and Alina Patz (alternate)
And finally a picture of another tram (or maybe 2) - the public transport system in Basel is wonderful and from outside our hotel it was possible to get to the arena in 20 minutes - out of the tram at the arena, up the stairs and you were in the building. Here is a picture of a brightly coloured tram - and closely followed by another one!!!
Thanks for the trams, John. Made my day!
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