hello all from krefeld, germany where we have been spending the first 2 rest days of the tournament, less than 5 hours before the germany v. argentina game (quarterfinal). the first few days of the trip were crazy, driving across much of the southern half of germany for football matches in various cities. the first game we went to was in the brand-new allianz arena in munich, where cote d’ivoire scored 3 straight goals in pouring rain to come back from a 2 goal defecit against serbia and montenegro, including a penalty kick blasted in the back of the net to the sound of thunder booming in the lightning-covered sky above. we were about 10 seats from the serbian fans and it was intense, especially when they jumped out to an early lead and lit flares in the stands.
the next day we went on to nuremburg for the usa v. ghana game – i’m sure you all know of the 2-1 outcome in ghana’s favor. it was amazing to see the us team play in the frankenstadion, and had the penalty kick not been called, we may have been active in dortmund versus brazil (likely not much longer than that). after the game, we took it to fan fest and dominated some other fans at a game of futsal played in a small cage. that night we spent in a very sketch campsite or “fan camp,” which, contrary to what a kid from eugene that we met said, was not tight.
another day, another football match. this time we drove west to kaiserslautern, which was a small town with the huge presence of fritz-walter stadion overlooking the city. the match featured spain versus saudi arabia, and was a hard-fought 1-0 result. the comraderie between the fans was impressive, and the atmosphere of the spain supporters was very positive. the saudi royal family and some saudi celebrities were also balling out in a caravan of S500’s after the game.
after 3 days of covering nearly a thousand kilometers (in our surprisingly roomy 4-door opel corsa), we pushed on to maastricht, a city positioned strategically between germany, france, belgium, and holland so that it’s a great meeting place for western europe, and has become our favorite place to kick back and relax between games. we were in holland for the disappointing dutch loss to portugal, and then drove back to dortmund to catch the brazil v. ghana game, and see what the brazil fans were like… too bad we didn’t get to play any futsal here.
that brings us to the present, awaiting another round of quarterfinal matches, beginning today. we will be travelling to hamburg tomorrow to check out the stadiums and fan-fest up there, as well as just taking in the sights of germany’s largest port city. from there we will hopefully drive through leipzig to view the zentralstadion, on our way to prague for a few nights, before returning to berlin for the finals, where likely more than half a million fans will watch the game in a closed 1-mile stretch of june 17th straße. i will have many great photos when i return to the states that will eventually make their way onto the site & photo map. until then, i bid you farewell
Check out this photo, taken at Mt. Bachelor yesterday after a freezing rain storm hammered the northwest side of the mountain. This is the lift house at the top of Northwest Express lift! It’s not uncommon to see ice-covered chairs over there but this is ridiculous. It kind of reminds me of Superman’s fortress of solitude. Sounds like it will be a few days before they can crack the ice off the house and the towers to get this thing moving again (apparently Outback is the same story). Between the economy and the wacky weather, the ski resorts (at least here in the NW) must be having a tough season.
