But hey, we would almost forget that there are still two days missing from these rapports so without further delay:here is day 5 gentlemen or, as the few remaining Subsim members would call it: bonus day 1.
The day started like any other with a nice breakfast but had a bit of a sad ring to it: today we would say goodbye to a large group of new friends we made over the past few days. And I don't mean to get all emotional here but when you've had as much as fun as we had, you always want it to go on. At least a few days more. Sadly though, people had to get ready to catch their ride home one way or another. They say that all good things must come to an end but sometimes you just wished they didn't.
The ones that remained, however, had little difficulty choosing the destination for today: we would go and visit the Danish Naval Museum. And even while not being present himself, John's well done preparations and the various print-outs he left us made it child's play to find the museum. Thanks again m8!
Probably because we got there so efficiently the museum was still closed so we strolled around a little bit and visited a market square where we had a look around. When it was nearing the opening time of the museum we walked back there and got in.
Apparently it was a special day because the guy behind the counter told me that the tickets I bought for the group were also valid for the Arsenal, which was a couple of blocks further down the road. Nice surprise, and that settled the rest of our plans for the afternoon. Buying the museum tickets for everyone in one go was part one of my plan for supporting Peter's projects some more. Everyone paid me back with loose coins so that was easily settled.
The ground floor the museum housed a nice collection of canons which got especially Mike's full attention. He just loved looking at the big guns that were present there and I have to admit, there were a couple of impressive looking ones in there.
That first and second floor of the Naval Museum had, among other stuff, some of the most amazing scale models of galleons (the car-nut in me keeps typing 'gallons', most irritating!) and steamboats I've ever seen in my life. Someone clearly must have had a lot of free time on his hands in order to build these ships, they just looked amazing. The combination of all those ropes, masts and sails on these ships was most impressive. Just imagine seeing one being built on full scale in real life. Half a forest in wood went into each of these and the amount of ornaments and other markings were making them a floating work of art.
While walking through the museum and ascending it's floors, you were guided passed the various era's and we could clearly see the ships and their technologies evolving through time. The first floor covered roughly from 1510 to the beginning of the 1800's and on the second floor history went on with the 1820's until 1920's. The difference in the way ships were built and fitted over even a period of just a few hundred years was astonishing so you can imagine what technological advances the whole 400 year period brings to the table. Amazing stuff, and well worth the visit.
When we were done at the Naval Museum we went over to the Arsenal and that just place has to own the biggest collection of guns and canons I've ever seen in my life. Upon entering the room or hall we were greeted by a V2 rocket hanging from the ceiling and 'some smaller stuff to the right' but when you glanced left there were canons on display, almost as far as you could see. Bas and I realized that we had to warn Mike but we were just to late preparing him for this entry and a loud 'What the ... !!' filled the room. He looked like a kid in a toy store, smiling from ear to ear. We all strolled around and gazed over the huge collection of canons, anti-air and Gatling guns, it was just so much to take in. It was huge!
But then we went upstairs ...
For those of you that weren't there; the best description I can give of what we were exposed to on the first floor, is to picture that scene in the movie The Matrix were Neo explains that he needs guns, lots of guns ... Now Neo may have had a lot of guns but, as it turned out, there is always someone with more. The Danish for example.
They had glass showcase after glass showcase after glass showcase filled with just about every single handgun, machinegun and rifle you can think of, ranging from the stone age (okay, maybe a little after that) up until the modern era. We just didn't know where to start looking. Mike and I kind of teamed up and walked around, talking about the various guns we saw while trying to figure out how some worked. It was a blast and the guy who came to tell us that the arsenal would close up came in way too soon. I could have spend another half a day in there without getting bored. Mihai managed to buy a last minute souvenir and we went on our way.
Even though we hadn't nearly been walking around as much then when John or Lars were leading us around, we still worked up a pretty good appetite so we declared diner time and looked for a pizza place. No one heard me complaining about it, pizza is always a good choice for me no matter where I am. So pizza it was and after that we all went back to the hotel where we found Dan again. Unfortunately, that was where the day ended for us and we had to say goodbye to our friends from Ubisoft.
Bas and I emptied our pockets for coins at the counter from the Cabin, loaded up the remaining luggage in the car and then went on our way ourselves. But we were not heading home just then, no sir. For us, the 2009 Subsim meet wasn't going to end that day. Our final chapter of the meet was set to be at an undisclosed location in Germany.