World Cup 2006 v Ecuador (Stuttgart) 25.6.2006

Stuttgart v Ecuador 25.6.2006

..........so it was back to Germany on Sunday for the Last 16 match against Ecuador. On Saturday I was at a mates wedding in Salisbury. The wedding was a 1pm kick off, followed be free beer/wine until about 7pm and then it was a pay bar. I was there until 9pm, before heading up to Heathrow. I arrived just after midnight, why did I have so much beer? I had to keep walking round terminal 1, I know if I had fallen asleep I would have missed the flight. Luckily the Costa coffee shop is open 24 hours, so a large coffee helped keep me going. Dave a Villa lad I know from other trips turned up about 4am, and gradually more and more arrived for the 4.30am check in. We had our boarding cards by 5am and then had to wait for the passport control to open. Flight options had managed to put on 5 planes for this game, good going at short notice (2 from Heathrow, I from Stanstead and 2 from Manchester). The passport control finally opened, all of us going to Germany were subject to a hooligan check by one Policeman on his computer. his neanderthal mate was loving the power said that he had the say when the plane could leave (due to take off at 6.30am) and that the checks would take as long as it took. The machine was playing up and it was taking about 4 minutes to send/receive info on people. The man doing the actual checks decided enough was enough and resorted to random checks, so we were able to board our plane as scheduled! We landed in Stuttgart at 9.30am, had a chat to the English Police Spotters as we queued up at the German passport control. They said the trouble had all been handbags and the local Police had a policy of prevention by detention, so wrong place at the wrong time and you call be locked up for 48hours as per German law. They had been delighted with the fans behaviour so far, and they were off to watch the Italy v Australia Last 16 match, the first game they had been allowed to go to! We caught the train to the ticket exchange place, we queued up for about 45 minutes and boy was it hot. Precious tickets now in our possession and it was time to find a bar! We found one in a back street and at 2.40 Euros for a large beer (and air conditioning) it was a paradise. Soon our mates from Middlesborough, Doncaster and Leeds all stumbled across the same place. So it was time for a few cold beers, a mixed grill to keep me going for the delay and ermmmm a few more cold beers. It was now about 3.30pm so time to wander to the ground. It was about a 25 minute walk and the heat was extreme. We passed one of those temperate/time displays and it was reading 34C.By the time we queued up to get in it was about 4.15. Bumped into fellow Brighton fan Andy Stonstreet who was sitting in the row behind and Andy Shall who was sitting about 10 seats along from me. Great ground, but the heat drained a lot of the atmosphere away. I wont go into the game as i expect people saw it on TV, but the goal was weird. Beckham hit the free kick, it sailed over the wall, it was down the other end so nobody was sure what was happening, then Beckham put his arms in the air and wheeled away to celebrate, everyone was standing bemused for a few seconds followed by wild celebrations. At the final whistle it was party time, the players came round and applauded and they looked exhausted. So it was time to wander back to the subway and catch a train back to the airport for our 9.30pm flight back home. Bumped into West Ham Tony and Hornchuch Kev at the airport and we celebrated the win. Looking out the window and it was one hell of a storm going on. They closed the airport for about 45 minutes as was raining too hard for the ground crew to work in, but we finally got on our plane about 9.30 to face a delay of about another hour as we had to allow planes to land as they had been held away from Stuttgart to avoid the thunderstorms, the sheet and fork lightening was spectacular! Finally got back to heathrow about 11.45 English time, to find the underground shut, but luckily a coach got me back to Gatwick (£18 ouch). Luckily Liz was at Take That at Milton Keynes and I waited at Gatwick for about 45 minutes and Liz made a slight detour on the way home and picked me up! Anyway, Liz and I are back out to Germany (via Brussels) on Friday morning. Managed to book a hotel in Essen (very close to Gelsenkirchen) on the Saturday night (153 Euros - ouch again!), and back home Sunday, so next installment should be Monday 3rd July! All we need now, apart from a win of course is a ticket for Liz - anyone got a spare???? (Liz only had tickets for the Last 16 and 1/4 finals if we played in the larger venues which need us to lose the group! We are Ok from semi final onwards as both have vouchers for those - lets hope we need to use them!!)

Come on England Come on England

Two pictures taken from my mobile phone

World Cup 2006 v T&T (Nuremberg) 15.6.2006

Nuremberg v T&T 15.6.2006
....so on to match 2 of the tournament for Liz and I . Missed out one important detail in the Frankfurt report and that was bumping into Frank Lampard Senior, had a chat with him, top bloke! So Nuremberg in a day this time. It was a 7.45am flight this time, so a 5.15 start was much better than the last one. We took off on time, landed at about 10.30am local time and where soon wandering down to our coaches to take us to the ground. It was already very very hot, so the air conditioned coach was very welcome. We where dropped off by the coach park and just after midday we where in the busy city centre. Nuremberg is a beautiful city, we took a stroll round, stopped for some food and refreshment and met up with one of the BBC journalists covering the tournament


http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/worldcup/2006/06/making_his_mark.html

The main square was heaving with football fans, loads of good natured singing and partying, the T&T fans adding a carnival atmosphere. Next we headed up to the old castle, then back down to find a bar slightly away from the square for some extra cold drinks, it was now up to 32C, and very humid. We watched the world go by, the Police numbers where high, but they were out of your face with vans/cars parked away from the bars. We saw quite a few English Police, who were much more high profile and they were talking to groups of lads, but it was all amicable and i think for once people thought the fans are being treated fairly. Soon it was time to head to the ground, we caught the packed mainline train to the stadium, another Brighton lad (Michael from Worthing), was sitting in the next group of seats, strange how you keep bumping into people despite the large crowds! We had to walk past the buildings/platforms built by the Nazis for the Nuremberg rallies.

http://www.museen.nuernberg.de/english/english/reichsparteitag_e/index_reichsparteitag_e.html

They now form part of a museum as the Germans want to preserve the history, but showing the horrors of what was planned/stirred up by the Nazis. We walked past these sites and then it was into the stadium and into the England sections. The ground is very strange, 8 sided, 2 main stands down each side and 3 stands at each end. There were quite a few empty seats around us, and talking to others after, that appeared to be the case all round, why??? I wont talk about the match, but WE WON, so that's enough for me. The poor 82 minutes were soon forgotten as we scored 2 good late goals.

After the game we wandered back to our coaches, sat round with some nice cold drinks, before heading off at 9.30 to the airport. We saw Andy S (fellow listee), Nigel B who works for BA, 2 lads from the A21 supporters, so plenty of fellow Albion fans about. So the last 16 could be any combination of matches, I hope we win the group and play Ecuador in Stuttgart,so that probably means Germany in Munich!

COME ON ENGLAND

Mark R

Below are some pictures taken on my mobile phone

World Cup 2006 v Paraguay (Frankfurt) 10.6.2006

Frankfurt v Paraguay 10.6.2006

To save holiday for possibly the later stages, Euro qualifiers and other holidays, Liz and I ventured to Frankfurt on a day trip. Friday was a bad day as Liz got stuck on the M25 after a lorry overturned, caught fire and set light to one of the road gantries, hence a trip from near Swindon to home took 7 1/2 hours, so I was home before her, so our plans were already being snookered! Watched the end of the Germany game, I watched Poland surrender to Ecuador and then it was time for bed and a couple of hours sleep as we needed to be at Gatwick for 2.30am. 2am Saturday morning and the alarm clock wakes us up from our slumbers. In auto pilot mode and Liz drives us to the airport, we park up, walk to the terminal and check in. Bump into Ian Green the Albion club shop manager (and old school friend!). At 4am it was time to board the plane, soon the plane was full, we took off, I fell asleep tobe woken up by a flight announcement to fall asleep to be woken up for breakfast, to fall asleep and to be woken up by landing!!! It was about 6.30am, so a reasonably early arrival into Frankfurt. They have a special world cup terminal, so loads of people to check passports and within a few minutes were out the other end to the coaches waiting to take us to the ground. The plan was for us to be dropped at the stadium, get a tram into town, but of course this wasn't going to happen. The coaches (4) turned up at the ground, to be turned away, so they drove us into the city centre and dropped us by the main station at about 7.30am. The coaches would be back at the station at 9.30pm to take us back to the airport, so we had plenty of time after the game as well, which was good news.

Liz and I ventured for a large cup of coffee to wake us up. We then headed to the fans village set up on the banks of the river Main, there were plenty of bars, a big wheel and various official merchandise stalls, all very well organised. We strolled down the river in the blistering heat (this was still early morning so new the players were in for a tough time), we stopped at the big screens, in the middle of the river Main, with lots of stands erected on the river banks, great great idea as most ticketless fans opted for this rather than line the pockets of the touts. We went into the big main square for a quick drink, and watch the usual kicking the ball round the square larking about. We decided on a river boat trip, so sitting on deck taking in the rays, with nice ice cold beer and frankfurter and chips. By now it was about 11.30 and at about 12.20 our boat went past the big screen. There were some Polish lads and a few other England fans on the boat, so we stood up and applauded the 20,000+ England fans already seated by the screens, they in turn stood up on mass and gave us a few renditions of Engerland Engerland Engerland. Great stuff, it was a real party atmosphere. The local beer was very tasty, I think all we drank was brewed in Frankfurt.

At 1.15pm we decided it was time to head to the ground. We tried to phone/text people to meet up but my messages kept failing as network busy, which was a shame. We walked back the train station, caught a free tram (free to all with match tickets) and it was a very slow and hot trip taking about half an hour. By the time we walked to the stadium from the tram stop, queued to get in, queued to get a cold drink, it was 2.30pm so time to find our seats. We were in block 37H, which was about 2/3rds of the way back in the upper tier behind the goal. There was a Hastings Albion flag as we walked in, but we didn't see anyone we knew. The atmosphere was cracking, we guessed at around 25,000 England in the ground, compared to 5,000 from Paraguay in the far corner from us. The heat was fairly oppressive, but that was forgotten as we sung the National anthem, stood quietly for the Paraguay upbeat anthem, then celebrated as England went 1 up in 3 minutes. I expect most saw the game, but couldn't appreciate the heat. It was scrappy, but who cares, we won the opening match, when did we last do that?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
......The Game...............The Game..........The Game........
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------








------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
......The Game...............The Game..........The Game........
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After the game we bumped into quite a few people we know. We gave it 45 minutes before heading back to the tram and into town. We headed back to the river bank for an hours sitting in the shade recovering time. It was then back up to the City for a meal, every bar/restaurant was heaving with mainly sun burnt, celebrating England fans. Various places had set up table football games, and the welcome couldn't have been more friendly. I think the Police estimated 65,000 England fans had descended on Frankfurt and it was all a big big party. We sat in the shade, eating and drinking before returning to the station for our 9.30pm departure to the airport. We watched the Argentina match on TV, fell asleep on the floor, got woken up to go through to the lounge, to face a delay of about an hour as they didn't have enough ground staff to be allowed to take us to the plane. We had parked at 2.37 in the short term car park and we paid to get out at 2.20 so just avoided a second days charge of £19.50. So a great, long day out, same again on Thursday for Trinidad and Tobago!

Mark R

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
......The Flags...............The Flags..........The Flags........
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
......The Flags...............The Flags..........The Flags........
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A colourful stadium in Frankfurt!


Pictures from 3lionsontour.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
......Picture from my mobile phone...............
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------