Kingston is a great city just a couple hours east of Toronto and curling fans have traveled far and wide to watch the event. As a bonus the city is providing free public transit for Brier ticket holders (almost everyone says thank you to the bus driver when they exit a bus). The Leon's Centre is downtown and within blocks of the arena are restaurants and tourist attractions that will keep you busy when the teams are off the ice. We walked around the downtown core with the beautiful stone buildings, many from the mid to late 1800s, tourist attractions like the train engine and the Kingston sign along with the waterfront trail. Banners, posters and stickers were everywhere welcoming curling fans to town and everyone was really friendly and helpful.
Right across the street from the centre is the massive bar and entertainment hub called the Brier Patch. The temporary party central has games and adult beverages and if you are lucky you can see some famous curlers.
Some fans pose with the Saskatchewan team in the Brier Patch
Team photo at the close of the opening ceremonies
The 16 teams play in two pools of 8 for 7 games. The top 4 teams from each pool will advance to play another 4 games. Then the overall top 4 teams will move on and the bottom two teams will play Saturday with the winner advancing to the semifinal. Saturday night the top two teams will play with the winner advancing to the final and the loser to the semifinal. The semifinal is Sunday afternoon and the final Sunday evening.
If you know curling then these games can be exciting, full of challenging shots that only elite curlers can do on purpose.
See more photos after the jump.
Colourful fan
Slider the mascot
Sometimes you have to measure the rocks to find the winner
See more photos after the jump.
This way to awesome was the sign that brought us into Martello Alley
Kingston is home to the Royal Military College, Fort Henry and a lot of old military installations
A band rocks the Patch after the curling ends for the day. It opens at 11am each day
Turnout to the tournament was high and all were welcomed by the people and merchants of Kingston
Hurry Hard
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