Hey....It's not what you think...!!!

Here is an example of the extra close security checks that we have to undergo to get into a World Cup match... Fortunately, he did not find anything worth confiscating....

Catching up...

Phew, it's been a hectic week here in Germany, with the 3 of us rushing around to a whole bunch of games and some very late nights.

We were in Hannover for the Mexico vs Angola, where it seemed that the whole of Mexico had turned up for the day. The streets of Hannover were thronging with literally 1000's of their green-jerseyed supporters, a heap of sombreros and even a Mariachi band. Funnily enough, we had lunch in a sort of Spanish/Mexican type bar, which was almost totally taken over by the Mexicans, the Angolans were very few and far between. Fiona did some shopping while Yates and I found the worlds smokiest bar to watch the Argentinians thrash Serbia-Montenegro 6-nil, and we even found time to visit a great local market hall for a pleasant glass of vino...!

On the way to the stadium for the 9 O'clock kick-off, it was a sea of green shirts, with some crazy Mexican fans offering huge sums of money (500 euro's/US$600/NZ$1,000) for our tickets, but we were not selling. The game itself was enjoyable to watch the Mexican shout how they were going to win the match easily only to see that staunch and brave Angolans hold on for a nil-nil draw. Although it was not a classic match it was great to see the Angolans get a well-deserved point, and also have a slim chance of even making it through to the next round if they could beat Iran by a few goals.

As this was a late match a long way from Frankfurt, we had booked some seats on a night train back home that was due to leave around midnight, and we rushed from the stadium to make it on time. Guess what...? Yup... the train was delayed... The normally so reliable German railway (DB) seemed to have some problems that night and we waited on a chilly platform for an extra two an a half hours. When the train arrived I found it quite comfortable and managed to grab some sleep during the 4-hour journey, but Yates and Fiona were not so lucky, so we were all looking a bit worse-for-wear when we trudged up the hill from the station and finally got o our apartment at 6:30am...

Once again we had another match later that day, but fortunately, it was in Frankfurt, and as it was only a short trip from our apartments which meant that we could at least get 5-6 hours sleep. Yates's American friend Jarl was due to show up later that day to join us for the Portugal v Iran game so we would be up earlier. Yates woke us with a phone call to let me know he had managed to score a ticket for the USA vs Italy game that evening, and that he and Jarl would be travelling to the stadium immediately after the Frankfurt game. Fiona and I decided to steal an extra hour or so of sleep and arranged to meet Yates & Jarl at the stadium. Portugal won quite easily 2-nil, and as Jarl and Yates rushed off to catch another train to the USA game, (this would be Yates's 3rd game in 26 hours...!), Fiona and I just chilled out at the stadium, had a drink or two and watched the crowds leave. When it was nice and quiet we headed back to our apartment, had a light bite for supper and sat down to watch the USA vs Italy game in the comfort our couch. It was an eventful game which finished 1-1, ( the USA deserved to win I think), with 3 red-card sending off, but at least it would give the USA a chance to qualify for the 2nd round if they could beat Ghana.

It had been a very busy couple of days, and we were looking forward to a few days off before our next long trip to Leipzig to see Angola try and beat Iran.

Message from Fiona

Well, I have been press-ganged by Steve into writing a contribution to his blog. Much easier said than done, believe me. His suggested subject was “Traveling around Germany with Two Fat Men” but I’m far too polite to talk about burping, farting and stinky feet in my blog so that one may have to wait.

I have really enjoyed the trip so far and some of the highlights for me have been:
- Taking a couple of lessons at the home of Tribal Belly Dance, Fat Chance Belly Dance in San Francisco.
- Buying lots of goodies at FCBD!
- Camel riding at the Gateway to the Sahara – being one of many doing the same thing at the same time doesn’t necessarily diminish the pleasure of it – it just gives you a taste to want to go back and do more.
- Driving up into the Atlas Mountains to an oasis – the geography and topography were amazing – up there with the Sahara as a place to go back to.
- My first World Cup match – Portugal v Angola – the atmosphere was only matched by my enthusiasm, our team (Angola) lost but it was still a great game.
- Dr Hauschka & WMF – two of my favourite things and they both come from Germany!
- Germany – the World Cup, the people, the beer, the fried potatoes!
- Being persuaded by three young children (Andy, Emily and Katy) to accompany them on a giant Ferris Wheel at the Frankfurt Fan Fest – all the other responsible adults being too scared!
- The pleasure of meeting Steve & Yates friends in California and Germany – we have been extended such generous hospitality and I would just like to say, as we do in NZ, “Thanks Heaps!”

The only lowlights (not many I’m pleased to say) for me are:
- The amount of rubbish (mainly plastic bags and bottles) strewn everywhere in Tunisia – they don’t realise how they are spoiling a natural resource – they (along with NZ and others) should follow Germany’s example by having a deposit on all plastic/glass bottles, it seems to work very well here.
- Smoking! I couldn’t believe it when we got off the plane in Frankfurt and people were smoking in the terminal! There seems a real hypocrisy in a sign saying “No Smoking” but having ashtrays for the smokers convenience placed everywhere. We don’t realise how lucky we are in NZ. Phew, I feel much better getting that one off my chest!

I’m nearly done and in my style, I have managed to bullet point my way through it, certainly can’t compete with Steve’s creative writing so I hope this does instead. This is, as I say, just the highlights of a great trip – bring on the next four weeks!

Bye everyone, love Fi

Size Isn't Everything - Part 2

Just another small beer... We are now looking for an even larger beer glass...

The mission continues....!!

Flying the flag...

We have been proudly flying the NZ flag at every game we have been to so far, and even though it usually gets confused w2ith the Australian flag, we are glad of any attention it gets. We are almost like some sort of unofficial NZ diplomatic mission to the World Cup, and I love telling the people we meet that New Zealand will qualify for South Africa in 2010 and take on the world... Hey, you never know...!

We have yet to see another New Zealand Flag at any of the matches or stadiums we have been to so far, so the chances are that if you catch a glimpse of the red stars of the Southern Cross, it could be us.

So look out for us at Iran vs Angola match this week, (Go Angola……!!!!)

The Road Trip - Part 2 & 3 (Sweat & Defeat)

After a monumentally late night, we were up and running for yet another train, (Yates had to rush back to the apartment because he forgot his train ticket… doh..!), to take us to Gelsenkirchen and the USA vs Czech game by 11:00am the next morning. Fortunately, we had determined that there was little of cultural and artistic interest in Gelsenkirchen to waste time seeing, which allowed us to grab an extra few hours of sleep, so after the 3-hour train ride we headed straight out to the stadium.

Now I am not sure if everyone else in the world is aware of this..., but it has been dammed hot here in Germany just lately. When we were in Tunisia there were reports of cold temperatures in Germany and even snow in some places so we were expecting be wrapping up warm, but after just 3 days here the weather changed and it been as hot as a glass-blowers arse ever since. Gelsenkirchen stadium is an engineering marvel with the centrepiece being its retractable roof that can be closed if it is raining. Fortunately, on this stinking hot day, the roof was open, but inside the stadium, it was still a whopping 32 degrees and just sitting there meant I was sweating like a rapist. Even the beer had no effect today as I am sure it was seeping through the pores of my skin soon after it entered my system, any liquid was simply being used to stop us over-heating.

The game kicked off and the USA went behind early in the first half which set the tone for the whole game. Rarely have I seen a more one-sided and disappointing match as this one, and by half-time it was clear what the result was going to be, so I took one for the team and went to queue in the beer line…. For anyone that has been skiing in Europe will know, the idea of orderly queuing to the average European is something they have no concept of… Add to this the South American and African nations who have little to queue for let alone actually do it, queuing in the half-time beer line is more akin to a rugby scrum. I honestly believe that in the 20 minutes I spent in that queue, not only did I lose more bodily fluids than were going to be replenished by the beer itself, I also saw more physical effort, crafty manoeuvring and sneaky moves that I had seen during the first 45 minutes of the football match…!

Clutching my precious cargo of 4 beers I returned to my seats only to find that the sun had dipped below the rim of the stadium's open roof to be shining directly on where we were sitting. If it was 32 degrees before it must have been pushing 40 degrees at the beginning of the second half, and to add insult to injury, you could hardly see the pitch for the glare, (not that there was much to see…!) So there we are at a dour and uninspiring game, being superheated in the direct rays of the sun, sweating ourselves inside out, and watching the Czech team cruise to an easy 3-nil victory.

Looking back on it I think that the stadium was somehow cursed for us as our fortunes immediately changed as soon as we left, as we despite there being 52,000 people trying to get back to the centre of town, we managed to bag a taxi of all things for an air-conditioned and quick ride back to the station. Although our train journey back to Frankfurt was long and involved a change, we were also lucky to nab some good seats on both trains, ahead of hundreds of other fans that littered every corner and passageway of the trains. Apart from Yates crying into his Coke Light and meeting an American guy who was studying ‘chemical entomology’ and wanted to tell us, and the rest of the carriage about it, it was a good trip…

For us, it was an early night getting home at 1:00am, and the cool sheets of the apartment beds were a welcome respite for the night. We had to be up reasonably early the next day for the third and final part of our road trip, which fortunately was actually a 3:00pm game in Frankfurt itself. We figured that this would be an easier bit of travelling and that we could at least catch up on our sleep a little.

It was another scorching hot day as it turned out and travelling on the S-Bahn to the Frankfurt Stadium to see the Togo vs South Korea game was like catching a ride in a mobile sauna. I swear that it did not matter how much beer Yates and I drunk we would never be able to keep pace without sweat glands… The stadium was busy but we got to our seats easily and looked forward to a match that on paper promised little in terms of world-class football. We were seated near a large contingent of South Koreans who are absolutely fanatical about their national side. This brought memories of 4 years previously when Yates and I attended the World Cup 2002 in Korea, and after only a few minutes we were chanting along to ‘Kay-Ha-Ming-Go’, (or something similar, at one point we did change the words to ‘Where’s my Dingo’).

Sometimes when you expect very little of a game it comes along and bites you on the bum and provides you with an unexpected little cracker. Although South Korea had most of the early possession, Togo broke the deadlock with a stunning goal against the run of play. I swear I could hear some of the South Korean female fans in tears when the ball hit the back of the net, there was definitely some desperate screaming going on. Normal service was resumed when a Togolese player was rightly sent off for a last-ditch foul against a resurgent Korea, and YS Park, who plays for Manchester United, scored from the free kick which tied the game up at 1-1. The game was won in a comfortable manner when the substitute Ahn came on at halftime and scored a deserved winner. Phew… what a good match, it’s so much more fun when the team you want to win actually do…, almost made me forget about the heat…!!

With the game over by 5:50pm and no rushing back to the train station required, we all sat down on the steps of the Stadium drinking a few beers and watching the fans of both teams and the local German mingle and have fun. All these things you may have seen on TV about how much of a party it is here in Germany, with fans from all over the world joining together to create a fantastic atmosphere, are completely true. We were given an impromptu lesson in Korean chanting, people were taking our photo with the New Zealand flag, (when they were not confusing it with the Australian one), and we were generally having a really chilled and relaxing post-game experience. We sat there for an hour or so and when we finally left the stadium there were no crowds and no pushing and shoving for a tram or bus… That’s the way to do it…

Yates and I had a little buzz going so we dropped Fiona off at the local tram stop, (she was tired), and we went to Sam’s to watch the Brazil game. We rolled back to the apartments somewhat drunk at around midnight, looking forward to a comfortable nights rest and break of a couple of days before our next match in Hannover, (Mexico vs Angola)….

"You Fat Bast*rd, Who's Eaten All the Pies"

Rumours about overeating and drinking in Germany are all false..... Honestly

The Road Trip - Part 1 (Beer, Chocolate, and a Late Night)

Well, we are now nearly 1 week into the World cup and we have just finished our first road-trip to see 3 back-to-back live matches.... On Sunday we packed our backpacks early and headed off to the main train station in Frankfurt for the 2-hour train ride to Cologne, to see our beloved Angola take on those crafty Portuguese.

Even though the game was not until late in the evening we decided to take an opportunity to see some of Cologne during the day and then make our way to the stadium with a couple of hours to spare. As the train station in Cologne happens to be right next to the famous cathedral, we agreed that we should take a look around it as it really is a fantastic building. We had arrived early and there was a Sunday service going on so we could not just wander through the place at our leisure, so I persuaded Fiona & Yates that a climb up one of the towers would be a good thing to do first. With 509 steps I knew it was going to be a tough climb, but add to that the stifling heat and the several hundred other people having the same idea, it became a gruelling, lung-busting, heart-pounding, strength-sapping, muscle tiring, death march of an assent. We all suffered to similar degrees and I wish I could say that the effort was worth it, but it was such painful experience that even the stunning view over the city and the Rhine was somewhat diminished.... Worth doing, but only just.

After enough exercise to last for the whole month, we repaired to a local restaurant to replenish our stocks, take on more liquids, (mainly in beer format), and have a hearty meal to keep us going. After a little walk around the city centre and along the Rhine, we had another little pit stop for more beer, before deciding that a visit to the Chocolate Museum would be a good idea. As I had eaten enough pizza at lunchtime to feed about 4 people, God only knows why I thought adding some chocolate in there was going to make me feel any better, but hey, when in Cologne...!! Actually, the Chocolate Museum was very enlightening, I have been eating the stuff for almost 45 years and only on this visit did I understand the full process of how it was made. Not only were there some good exhibits, more than one chocolate fountain, (yes, a fountain that spewed fourth liquid choc), a fully functional production line, but there was a good supply of samples to taste, (mmmm, truffles..!!). As if this was not enough, I needed to try out the exotic hot chocolate drink in the cafe as well... Suffice to say that I was pushing maximum density by the time we headed to the Stadium.

The trip to the stadium was pretty easy, the Germans know how to make their public transport system work, even with 50,000 people all heading to the same place. We had about 3 hours until game time so we took our time to soak up the atmosphere before heading for the entry. In the build-up for this trip and our many methods for getting tickets, which included using other peoples names, slightly modified details, and swapped tickets, we had been a bit worried about the security measures for the games. This game's tickets were in our names so we were quite safe, but we wanted to see if the security checks at the gates were as drastic as the organising committee had suggested they would be. We need not have worried, the first level of security was just a visual check of the ticket and body and back-pack search, (quite a thorough search too..!), which is followed the second level check by a machine scan of the ticket which then opens a gate. I went through first with no problems and then watched the little security monitor when Yates and Fiona went through to see if it brought up any significant details, which it did not. This is good because when we use our other tickets in other peoples names there should be no problems. We were in....

We sat in the grounds of the stadium in the shade and drank some more beer and generally relaxed while time counted down towards kick-off. Looking around there was definitely more Portuguese fans than true Angolan fans, but it looked like all the impartial Germans were also going to support Angola and they had decked themselves out appropriately. I have been very impressed with the Germans spirit and enjoyment of the games, they seem a long way from the dour stereotype they are sometimes portrayed as. Finally, we decided to head into the stadium itself and take our seats, and I always get a little buzz of excitement when I first see the pitch and the crowd, and this was no exception. Even though we were almost completely surrounded by local German fans who were there to support Angola, we were only a few rows down from a large contingent of colourful Angolan fans who were singing and cheering and pounding out a relentless rhythm on their drums. As Kick-off approached the excitement grew almost in line with the loudness of the cheering of both the Portuguese and the Angolan fans.

The game started unfortunately there was an early goal for the Portuguese who seemed to catch the Angolans sleeping at this early stage. The Portuguese definitely took the upper hand but as the game progressed the Angolans started to get to grips with the conditions and made several attempts on goal. After half-time, the crowd really got behind the Angolan team and the chanting of "Ann-gool-laa" drowned out the Portuguese support for a while. With 10 mins to go the Angolans seemed to lift their game and the intensity of the game increased. All three of us were shouting for Angola to score and leaping out of ur seat anytime they made an attempt on goal. For a while I thought they might just break through against the lackluster Portuguese, but alas this was not going to be one of those World Cup fairy-tales that we always hope for, and the Portuguese went away almost undeserving 1-0 winners on the night.

We were fizzing with excitement as we left the stadium and managed to get a seat on a packed tram leaving for the main train station, which took forever to get there. We arrived there just before midnight having missed a train by about 10 mins, and we were now going to have to wait almost 2 hours for the next one. Cologne station was alive with people and as most of the shops were still open, we obviously decided to sit in a bar for those 2 hours and make short trips around the station for food. When the train arrived we were lucky enough to bag a whole compartment for just us, where we made ourselves as comfortable as anyone can on a night train and tired to catch few winks of sleep before we hit Frankfurt at 4:00am...

At Frankfurt we tumbled out of the train and staggered sleepily to the taxi rank where there was a waiting car, who with astonishing speed whisked us back to our apartment in less than 7 minutes. As the taxi roared away we could hear the birdsong and see the first light of dawn cracking in the distance…. Time for some sleep, as we has a similar road-trip to Gelsenkirchen planned for later that day…

It’s hard being a World Cup Football fan sometimes….

Eng-ger-land, Eng-ger-land,Eng-ger-land....

After the massive beer binge of the opening day, both Yates and I were taking things much easier going forward. With a table reserved at 2:00pm at Sam's we stopped off for a spot of lunch at the local Chinese, (all-you-can-eat buffet to line our stomachs, just in case), then made the short walk to our now local watering hole. Luckily we had made the reservation as the place was stuffed with England fans packed into the rafters, singing, drinking and generally having a great time.

As an Englishman and England fan, I could not stop myself singing along with the old football songs, and chanting 'Eng-Ger-Land, Eng-Ger-Land, Eng-Ger-Land', at any given opportunity. There were some very fat sweaty hard-beer drinking fans in the bar, with some varying degrees of sunburn, but everyone was in a great mood with not a hint of trouble. As game time approached the volume of singing increased and the anticipation was almost palpable.

Four minutes in and Beckhams free-kick comes off the hapless Paraguayan defender, and the place erupts with almost the entire bar jumping, shouting, punching-the-air in celebration. Unfortunately, the game had peaked at that point and the next 86 minutes were not quite as exciting as I am sure everyone would have hoped, but a win is a win and England were off to a great start. The singing and chanting in the bar went on for at least the next hour, and we even nearly got Yates singing along to 'Erikson's Barmy Army' at one point. The bar settled down for the Sweden vs Trinidad & Tobago game which was by far a more intense and exciting game, ending in a great result for T&T, (and England too). We had been in the bar now for almost 7 hours, been drinking an endless stream of beer, so we decided that it might be a good idea to watch the third game of the day back at the apartment, which we did...

We are now at the end of a 3 live match road-trip, with journeys to Cologne and Gelsenkirchen, and a game in Frankfurt today. I'll write up my blog about screaming for the Angolans and our disappointment with the USA tomorrow, as we are out the door to the Togo vs South Korea game right now...

Let the Games Begin....

The first day of the tournament is over and all that remains is the hangover.... Boy, did we tie a big one on yesterday....

To see the first game we decided to go down to the Fan Fest site and watch it on the big screen. Suitably dressed in our individual national colours we headed down to the river for our first beer of the day and some good wholesome German sausage and potatoes. With England's first game being played here, Frankfurt has been invaded by 40-50 thousand England fans you could not move without tripping over small groups of happy fans. So far all the England fans we have met, and we have met quite a few, have been in a very good mood, it looks like everyone is here to have a good time and enjoy the atmosphere. We moved along the river stopping at the 'Soccer Pirates' chill-out zone, one of my favourite bars, where we sat out on bamboo deck chairs and enjoyed the hot sunshine and some good music.

We had read that the seating at the outdoor screen would not open until 90 minutes before the match kicked off, but when we crossed the river with still a couple of hours to go, we could see a huge queue and people already flooding into the stands. Trying to sneak around the back of the seating area backfired on us as they were not letting people in from that end, but we did find our way to the East viewing area and bagged a reasonably central spot with a good view of the screen. Here we tied our New Zealand flag to a tree and proceeded to attract an assortment of interesting people with it, including quite a few Germans that had been to NZ and even a couple of Australians too. It is amazing how many people would stop to talk to a bunch of drunken blokes and girl waving a flag, it was such a great buzz.

The viewing area filled right up and by kick-off, it was standing room only. The atmosphere was electric as the game started, the Germans were really up for this opening game, and everyone was cheering, waving a flag or blowing a whistle. I think I spent most of the first half of the game either standing in line for a beer or fighting my way to the bathroom, I missed all the goals and only knew what the score was when I returned to Yates and Fiona. I did manage to see the whole of the second half and cheered along with the thousands of ecstatic German fans at their teams 4-2 victory.

When the game finished we headed across the river in the general direction of Rittegasse Street where in the street celebrations I managed to loose Fiona and Yates....?? Luckily in my drunken state I went in to autopilot mode and somehow managed to find my way to 'Sams Bar', where I caught up with my missing friends, who had bagged a great table with a good view of a large plasma. The intention was to watch the Equador v Poland game, but somehow between talking with a never ending stream of England fans and drinking far too much, (starting with beer, then Vodka, Rum & Coke (yuck..!) and somehow finding our way to Tequilla shots), I seemed to miss most of the action. In fact at this point everything becomes a bit of a blur and I still don't remember getting back to the apartment, luckily Fiona took care of me.

So this morning I am sitting here withe the remains of a hangover, watching the TV for the highlights of yesterdays games. On today's agenda is another trip back to Sams to watch the England games, but I think I will be taking it a bit easier on the beer so that I can actually watch the game...!!

World Cup Excitement Grows...

We have now been here in Frankfurt for 5 days and things are hotting up and getting ready for the start of the World Cup competition this coming Friday. Everywhere in town are shops with window displays with a World Cup theme, it's a full-time job just keeping Yates from buying every piece of memorabilia available.

We have worked out how to get around the city and have purchased our WM Rail Passes to allow us to travel to games in other cities. As you can see we now have our tickets for the games and are on the lookout for more if we can find them. It would appear that we are amongst the lucky ones to actually have any tickets at all, there seems to be a lot of people with none at all.
We have found a great bar with a dozen big plasma screens where we will base ourselves for those game we wish to watch on TV. Not only has this bar, (called 'Sam's Bar'), got the TV's, the main guy behind the bar speaks good English and will reserve us a good table for the games, and one of the waitresses is from the USA..! The food looks good as well and it's only a short walk from our apartments, who could ask for more...??

In addition to Sam's Bar, we have the option to go to the main Fan Fest area where there is a huge floating TV screen moored in the middle of the Main river...!! Set up on each bank are terraces of seating which is free on match days. We are planning to go and watch the opening game between Germany and Costa Rica at this unique Fan Fest arena, and soak up as much of the atmosphere as possible... Go Costa Rica...!!
Just 2 days to go....

Size isn't everything...??

Here's a table for the whole of NZ Telecom...

Tunisa and onward to Germany

At last, a normal US English keyboard, now I can communicate with the outside world again...

Tunisia was fantastic, (keyboard excepted), and Fiona and I had a really good time. I was expecting that the 6 days we were spending in Tunisia would just be a chance to catch up on some rest and relaxation, but we managed to cram in a whole lot of stuff into that time.

Later in the week Fiona suggested that we take a 2-day tour to the Sahara Desert as we would probably not get a better opportunity to do so anytime soon, so we paid our money and at 5:30am on Thursday morning we boarded a coach for our adventure. Our first stop was at the historic roman amphitheatre at El Jem where we had a whirlwind tour of the ancient site, which is in surprisingly good condition. Next, after lunch, we headed further south to the land of the Berber people, who live in homes built into the ground, (as made famous in 'Star Wars'), and had a look around a real live family home in the rocks. After another short drive, we went for a camel ride in Douze, the gateway to the Sahara, complete with headscarves and Arabic dress. This was a highlight of the tour as the desert scenery was very spectacular during our 1-hour circuit amongst the dunes, ruins and palm trees. The sand was amazingly fine and I am still finding it in all sorts of places...!

That night we stayed in a 5-star luxury hotel in the Town of Touzer in the far southwestern corner of Tunisia, which again was a very spectacular place set amid a desert oasis. Although we only spent a single evening there it is definitely somewhere I would like to return to at some point, the architecture was very distinctive and the scenery very pleasing. Next morning started at 4:30am (!!!) and we were off on a 4-wheel drive trip into the desert landscape by 5:30am, just in time to watch the sunrise. First stop was a desert canyon and hot spring which was stunning, and then a slightly impressive waterfall, which seemed sadly lacking in water, not really surprising as we were in the desert. After that we had a horse carriage ride through the heart of the Touzer oasis which was informative and quite relaxing, (apart from the equine smell..!). With a few stops for lunch and bathroom breaks, and a stop off at the 4th holiest city in Islam, (Kairouan) to look at the mosque, we headed back to our hotel in the North of Tunisia. If anyone ever gets the chance to visit Tunisia and do this sort of excursion, I thoroughly recommend it, Tunisia is a country of many contrasts, both culturally and geographically, and our 2-day tour gave us a good taste of the country.

Like our 'horror' transfer from San Francisco via Frankfurt to Tunisia, our return flight was at the ungodly hour of 3:30am. Having only finished our Saharan tour at 5:00pm that afternoon, and having been up at 4:30am that morning, it was going to be another arduous trip to get back to Frankfurt. Fortunately it was a little less eventful than the outward leg, and we arrived at Frankfurt airport having been travelling for 26 hours in total.

It was good to see the happy smiling face of our good friend Yates waiting for us at the airport, and after a swift and painless transfer from the airport to our apartments, we crashed for a good 3-4 hours to try and catch up with our sleep. The apartments are awesome... We have a separate kitchen and living area, a TV with 30 odd channels, (including BBC World so that we can catch up on world events in English), and a small but creatively laid out bathroom. We also have the most comfortable bed since leaving home and it's good to know that we will be staying here for another 4 weeks.

Later that afternoon we located the local supermarket, brought the most essential of provisions, (beer, pretzels and other lesser items), and then decided to head towards the river in central Frankfurt which is only about 25 mins walk from our apartments. There we found the specially laid on World Cup 2006 'Fan Fest' Area which stretched along both sides of the rive for quite a distance and includes a giant floating TV screen which will be showing most of the games. There is also a whole strip of bars and cafes set right up on the riverbank offering food from around the world, along with small cultural activities and displays. Even though this was the first evening that the place had been open to the public, the buzz and excitement of being somewhere special was beginning to build. Yates and I worked out the complicated beer glass methodology, that allows you to roam freely around the whole Fan Fest area whilst openly drinking beer and then being able to reuse that glass at other bars along the way... How very civilized... We also indulged in our first German Sausage experience which was very tasty. Thank god that most of the Germans speak good English, and as none of us speaks any German, buying stuff would be very difficult...!!

Yesterday, Yates contacted his friend Eric who lives in the suburbs of Frankfurt in Bad Homberg who invited us over for a 'Grill Party', or BBQ. This gave us a chance to test out our understanding of the Frankfurt rail system and ticket buying process which we did very sucessfully. On our way out to Eric's we stopped off in the centre of town for a look around and a spot of Lunch. We also got the chance to go to the top of the Main Tower, which offers commanding views across the whole city for 200m above the ground. We arrived Eric & Heathers home and was introduced to all the many family members, including their 4 kids and various friends. It was great to spend some time relaxing in the garden with a beer or 3, chatting about football, New Zealand and travel with some great people. When the meat was ready we had a stunning and sumptuous meal at the table and again enjoying the great company, good wine and interesting conversation. Eric & Heather, and their family are lovely people and I truely hope we get to meet up with them again.

At around 9:45pm we headed back to Frankfurt with the intention of watching a special World Cup themed light show that was to be projected onto the skyscrapers of downtown. The crush of people trying to get to the south bank, which offered the best vantage point, was amazing, it must have taken us 25 minutes to cross a 100m bridge..!! When the show finally started it was spectacular to see the buildings lit up, but the content was actually quite disappointing, (2 out of 10...), maybe because we could not see everything or because it was all in German, or it seemed to go on and on and on...!!! All in all it was interesting, but maybe I have been spoilt in the past with light shows and this one did not live up to expectations.

Today is Monday here in Germany and also happens to be a public holiday, so we are having a lazy day around the apartments, catching up on washing and other chores. Later we will head into town to find the ticket service centre to see if it's open and whether we can score some more tickets... Only 5 days now until the first game kicks off, and like ourselves, the whole of Germany seems to be getting excited. We have a large New Zealand flag with us that we will take with us to all the games, so if you spot a NZ flag in the crowd it will most likely be us...!!