Topic locked

Re: Is Berlin the right place?

Postby Monique

SnookerFan wrote:
kostasmad wrote:Snookerfan it should have been a 1/100 occasion and you hit it. Tough luck indeed. Never in the past heard someone to complain about shoddiness in that airport.
It was awarded best airport in Europe last year I think. It is very clean with great services unlike shitty LGW.
Come on, you were probably too eager to go to Crete, get drunk and take your clothes out in public as every descent Brit... rofl


Hardly. I was going with my parents. Though, I was out every night in the tavernas. :D

I'm surprised it won best European Airport. At the time I wouldn't have given it a best Airport in Greece award. :roll: As I remember it, it was a dump. But this was something like 13 years ago, and viewed in the middle of the night when being informed all the flights were down.


13 years? Then you probably were in the old airport, not the Elefterios Venizelos new airport. Yes i was bit of a dump.

I've never seen a clean big city. All of the ones I visited - and I do travel a lot - have dirty areas. Even Munich ;)
I've been in Athens for periods of a week to 6 weeks, 4 or 5 times a year in the last 16 years or so and we have an appartement there. Big efforts have been made to better the city when it hosted the olympic games. The tram and metro are very clean. The historic center is largely car free and that's lovely. The level of pollution has significantly gone down.
Life in Athens is warn and convivial. But it's very cluttered and you have big differences between areas: you can't really compare middle-upper class Nea Smirni with, say shabby Kipseli, or at the other end of the scale the rich Kifissia. And the poorest Neos Kosmos is only a few yards away from the luxury Mariott Hotel... city in contrasts.

Re: Is Berlin the right place?

Postby kostasmad

Yes it was the previous airport...Dump indeed as Monique said...Nice to see you have an apartment there...Athens is much better city after the olympics of 2004. Same as Barcelona after the 2000 Olympics. However, Athens is not Thessaloniki and this is the city you should visit... :-)

Re: Is Berlin the right place?

Postby SnookerFan

kostasmad wrote:Yes it was the previous airport...Dump indeed as Monique said...Nice to see you have an apartment there...Athens is much better city after the olympics of 2004. Same as Barcelona after the 2000 Olympics. However, Athens is not Thessaloniki and this is the city you should visit... :-)


See, I went in 1998. That might explain it. I couldn't see one redeeming feature of the place, short stay though it was. Certainly explain why you'd rate the airport. It was only about as big as my bedroom, and not quite as nice. <laugh>

Re: Is Berlin the right place?

Postby Tubberlad

Is there confirmation that there will be no dividers between the tables for this one?

Re: Is Berlin the right place?

Postby Wildey

Tubberlad wrote:Is there confirmation that there will be no dividers between the tables for this one?

NO ive looked at website but no confirmation on that <ok>

Re: Is Berlin the right place?

Postby The Captain

Eirebilly wrote:I may be the only one here but i am not sure that this event should be held in Berlin. I would much have prefered it be held in a place like Dortmond which is reasonably central and not too far for fans from Holland and Belgium to also make the drive to watch the snooker. Part of the Bruge sucess was due to large amounts of Dutch fans also making the drive down for the day/s.


There are rumours going round that some guy invented planes to travel long distances!! And I heard of some metal thing with wheels on tracks, I think they call it trains!! Can you believe that??

Please, don´t compare Dortmund with Berlin. Berlin is the capital and the venue made an good impression on me last time I was there.

If the tournament was held in the west, fans from eastern countries like Poland or the Czech Republic would have to travel far. Now that it´s held in the east fans from the west have to travel far. If you see it like that you can´t please everybody. Maybe it should be held on the moon so everyone from everywhere in the world has the same distance to travel!

Re: Is Berlin the right place?

Postby SnookerFan

The Captain wrote:
Eirebilly wrote:I may be the only one here but i am not sure that this event should be held in Berlin. I would much have prefered it be held in a place like Dortmond which is reasonably central and not too far for fans from Holland and Belgium to also make the drive to watch the snooker. Part of the Bruge sucess was due to large amounts of Dutch fans also making the drive down for the day/s.


There are rumours going round that some guy invented planes to travel long distances!! And I heard of some metal thing with wheels on tracks, I think they call it trains!! Can you believe that??

Please, don´t compare Dortmund with Berlin. Berlin is the capital and the venue made an good impression on me last time I was there.

If the tournament was held in the west, fans from eastern countries like Poland or the Czech Republic would have to travel far. Now that it´s held in the east fans from the west have to travel far. If you see it like that you can´t please everybody. Maybe it should be held on the moon so everyone from everywhere in the world has the same distance to travel!


bucking hell. <laugh> This guy has made two posts... Shy are you?

Re: Is Berlin the right place?

Postby wheelsofsteel

The Captain wrote:
Eirebilly wrote:I may be the only one here but i am not sure that this event should be held in Berlin. I would much have prefered it be held in a place like Dortmond which is reasonably central and not too far for fans from Holland and Belgium to also make the drive to watch the snooker. Part of the Bruge sucess was due to large amounts of Dutch fans also making the drive down for the day/s.


If the tournament was held in the west, fans from eastern countries like Poland or the Czech Republic would have to travel far. Now that it´s held in the east fans from the west have to travel far. If you see it like that you can´t please everybody.


So Captain, Adolf Hitler actually had the long-term good of snooker in mind back in 1938/39 season?

Re: Is Berlin the right place?

Postby likelylad

there is an easyjet connection from Amsterdam to Berlin, travel time is around 1 hour. For dutch and Belgium fans there is enough snooker in England. I meet a lot of them in Sheffield and Telford, as well the masters in London. Reachable all in around 2 hours. Dutch and Belgium fans are served pretty well. So having it in Dortmund is no reason to. To hold it in Berlin serves the eastern part of Germany very well, where snooker is much more popular than the west of Germany around Dortmund.

Belgium fans should not moan at all! From Brussels you are in no time in London with all connections to whatever snooker event you want!

Re: Is Berlin the right place?

Postby wheelsofsteel

likelylad wrote:there is an easyjet connection from Amsterdam to Berlin, travel time is around 1 hour. For dutch and Belgium fans there is enough snooker in England. I meet a lot of them in Sheffield and Telford, as well the masters in London. Reachable all in around 2 hours. Dutch and Belgium fans are served pretty well. So having it in Dortmund is no reason to. To hold it in Berlin serves the eastern part of Germany very well, where snooker is much more popular than the west of Germany around Dortmund.

Belgium fans should not moan at all! From Brussels you are in no time in London with all connections to whatever snooker event you want!


So, if you don't have a passport you can't watch live snooker :huh:

Re: Is Berlin the right place?

Postby SnookerFan

wheelsofsteel wrote:
likelylad wrote:there is an easyjet connection from Amsterdam to Berlin, travel time is around 1 hour. For dutch and Belgium fans there is enough snooker in England. I meet a lot of them in Sheffield and Telford, as well the masters in London. Reachable all in around 2 hours. Dutch and Belgium fans are served pretty well. So having it in Dortmund is no reason to. To hold it in Berlin serves the eastern part of Germany very well, where snooker is much more popular than the west of Germany around Dortmund.

Belgium fans should not moan at all! From Brussels you are in no time in London with all connections to whatever snooker event you want!


So, if you don't have a passport you can't watch live snooker :huh:


That's Neil Robertson out then. <ok>

Re: Is Berlin the right place?

Postby The Captain

wheelsofsteel wrote:
likelylad wrote:there is an easyjet connection from Amsterdam to Berlin, travel time is around 1 hour. For dutch and Belgium fans there is enough snooker in England. I meet a lot of them in Sheffield and Telford, as well the masters in London. Reachable all in around 2 hours. Dutch and Belgium fans are served pretty well. So having it in Dortmund is no reason to. To hold it in Berlin serves the eastern part of Germany very well, where snooker is much more popular than the west of Germany around Dortmund.

Belgium fans should not moan at all! From Brussels you are in no time in London with all connections to whatever snooker event you want!


So, if you don't have a passport you can't watch live snooker :huh:


I also don´t have a passport per se, my ID-Card is just enough to travel around Europe. If you don´t have a passport, get one and go and watch live snooker. simple as that.

Re: Is Berlin the right place?

Postby wheelsofsteel

So Captain, Adolf Hitler actually had the long-term good of snooker in mind back in 1938/39 season?

The Captain wrote:I am not discussing anything war related on a Snooker forum.


And I'm not really interested in you being Judith Chalmers or Craig Doyle from the Travel Show.

Your message to Dutch and Belgian snooker fans is way off the mark, namely if you are not happy, travel.

What would you tell Irish snooker fans with more of a tradition and base in snooker than any European nation? What Ryanair to look out for?

While I agree with Barry Hearn and his vision on a number of things, Dublin would have been a brilliant location for the Shoot-Out.

Ireland is in the British Isles but is not British. It is European and has more of a right to be holding an 'overseas' event than anyone.

Re: Is Berlin the right place?

Postby Roland

Your read and my read are completely different then wheels because The Captain was making a case for Eastern Europeans being able to travel to Berlin easily and snooker is booming over there with Eurosport. We have quite a few hits on Snooker Island from the likes of Poland and the Czech Republic. I think Berlin is a fair enough place to hold a ranker under the German Masters flag. Let's see how many are in watching over the weekend before judging.

And if the Dutch and Belgians want to see snooker in large numbers then let's have another event in West Germany to cater for them.

Re: Is Berlin the right place?

Postby The Captain

let me just give you a quick overview of my last year´s travel to Sheffield (you may remember: at that time the ash cloud was forcing thousands of travellers to either re-schedule or cancel their trips)

I could decide wheather I

a) cancel the whole trip or
b) find other ways to get there:

1. go 9 hours by train to Amsterdam then
2. take the ferry for another 10 hours then
3. take the train to London and then
4. spend 4 hours in a bus to Sheffield.

Guess which decision I made. And now please don´t tell me my message to the dutch is off the mark. There is always a way if you really want to!

Re: Is Berlin the right place?

Postby SnookerFan

The Captain wrote:let me just give you a quick overview of my last year´s travel to Sheffield (you may remember: at that time the ash cloud was forcing thousands of travellers to either re-schedule or cancel their trips)

I could decide wheather I

a) cancel the whole trip or
b) find other ways to get there:

1. go 9 hours by train to Amsterdam then
2. take the ferry for another 10 hours then
3. take the train to London and then
4. spend 4 hours in a bus to Sheffield.

Guess which decision I made. And now please don´t tell me my message to the dutch is off the mark. There is always a way if you really want to!



Have you joined this forum just to whinge on this post? <laugh>

Re: Is Berlin the right place?

Postby likelylad

Your argument goes nowhere. From Amsterdam to Dortmund will take me the same time as going to Berlin. So its both travelling for snooker.

ps. get over your world cup defeat against Germany! I loved it btw!

wheelsofsteel wrote:So Captain, Adolf Hitler actually had the long-term good of snooker in mind back in 1938/39 season?

The Captain wrote:I am not discussing anything war related on a Snooker forum.


And I'm not really interested in you being Judith Chalmers or Craig Doyle from the Travel Show.

Your message to Dutch and Belgian snooker fans is way off the mark, namely if you are not happy, travel.

What would you tell Irish snooker fans with more of a tradition and base in snooker than any European nation? What Ryanair to look out for?

While I agree with Barry Hearn and his vision on a number of things, Dublin would have been a brilliant location for the Shoot-Out.

Ireland is in the British Isles but is not British. It is European and has more of a right to be holding an 'overseas' event than anyone.