Scandinavia - 20-24 June 2009

Seasonfinale: 22-24 May 2009

Friday 22nd May: London-Bochum

When we booked a trip to Cologne on the final day of the season, it looked like it would be a do or die clash that would determine whether Vfl Bochum survived. By the time we set out (to the 3am alarm call, naturally), the game at the Mungersdorferstadion was the one Bundesliga game with nothing riding on it. Thus we could chill out and enjoy the weekend, stress free.

After the night bus to St.Pancras, we headed off over the channel.

Brussels is a city that features prominently on these trips, though rather than just a baguette in Panos and head off , we decided to take a side trip to see the Belgian National Stadium in Heysel, now renamed the Roi Badouin Stadium.

This took us on the Brussels Metro, a.k.a. Europe's largest art gallery. Each station had been turned into a work of art, something that really brightened up our journey.

Twenty minutes later, we arrived in Heysel.

First impressions of the stadium were rather underwhelming. Indeed far more interesting were the nearby Atomium...

...and this rather cool slide:

Nonetheless, the stadium did boast some excellent floodlights and better still for us an open gate. So naturally we wandered in.

The diminutive nature of the stadium, it turned out, was due to it being built into the hill, and so actually it was quite impressive.

Prior to this trip, Danny Last, founder of the European Football Weekends website and facebook group of the same name, had sent me some large badges. The idea is to (i) photograph them in as many stadiums as possible and (ii) find a celebrity to have their picture taken with them. The first was easy:

The second was less so. As the stadium was empty, I had to settle for John Henniker. In my defence this groundhopper extraodinare is known to every club secretary in the Dog and Duck League, where he gets his daily football fix.

Back outside, we found a memorial to the Heysel Stadium Tragedy of 1985, when 39 people lost their lives during a match between Liverpool and Juventus.

Back at the Gare du Midi, we stocked up for the long journey on to Bochum. Desparados, beer with Tequila, looked intriguing, so I tried one. Suffice to say the name is appropriate. Only buy it if you are desparate.

Desparado John had not had time to buy any lunch, so he eat mine instead.

On the way out of Brussels, we caught a brief glimpse again of the Atomium, alas not of Heysel, which perhaps gives an impression of their relative statures.

The onward journey was largely unexciting, flat fields and motorways dominating the landscape before Liege came into view.

Olly got on with reading the Financial Times...

... before delivering a speech to the empty chair opposite.

We changed trains in the quintessentially Belgian town of Welkenraedt, home of a big hole and some graffiti.

Through Aachen and into Germany, we caught some kip before arrival in Bochum.

Unusually for one of these trips, we were not going to a game that evening as there was a distinct lack of good games to see. Instead we found the hotel and watched some telly.

A European Football Weekend without football? No chance - look what we found:

And we all know how that particular story ended...

Refreshed we went out for some dinner, before meeting up with everyone again in Brinkhoff's.

Back at the hotel, more fun and frolicks.

Saturday 23rd May: 1.FC Koln v Vfl Bochum

The next day, we headed off for the weekend's only meaningless game in the 1. Bundesliga. After an uneventful journey by train and tram, we arrived at the Mungersdorferstadion in Cologne.

The visitors standing allocation sold out very quickly, so rather than being in here:

...we were up there.

Nonetheless, with its very steep rake, the view from the seating deck was excellent.

There was also a good view from the top:

The locals dressed for the occasion.

The Sudkurve put on an impressive display before the game, in one of the finest TIFO displays I have ever seen.

The display in the Gasteblock was rather less impressive.

The game itself featured a rare scene, Bochum taking the lead, Diego Klimowicz heading home a corner. Order was restored six minutes later when Anthar Yahia put through his own net and that was how it stayed until half time.

After the break, interest turned to what was happening in the stands. The Sudkurve displayed a range of banners, like this one:

Meanwhile, both sets of fans held up these arrows - only later would we find out what they were for.

After more huffing and puffing on the pitchthe game ended up 1-1, so naturally lots of people walked on the pitch, stood in a line and let off balloons.

Outside, we found the abandoned arrows with the protest messages against stadium bans, heavy handed policing and fan repression. Interesting when from an English perspective it is the comparatively much higher levels of fan freedom that entices us back to Germany, time and time again. All things are relative, perhaps.

Back in town, we took a look inside the Cathedral. The Kolner Dom is a remarkable construction, both in its size and grandeur.

A short while later, we found a Mexican restuarant for some dinner. Sitting outside, naturally with the Dom as the backdrop, we were amused as a number of beer bikes rode past; a bizarre combination of a bike and a pub.

The Rhine was rather impressive too:

We were not staying in Cologne that night, however. Our game the next day was in Kiel, in the far north of Germany, which would have meant a very early start. So instead we took the sleeper train, bound for Copenhagen. Actually, it wasn't only bound for Copenhagen, but had different compartments going to Berlin, Prague, Warsaw, Minsk and Moscow. So if you end up getting drunk and sitting in the wrong carriage, you might have an early morning wake up call from the Belarussian border police.

Our cabin was full with a Swedish girl sandwiched between me and John, something that made him so happy he cracked open the cherry beer.

By the time he had finished the Swedish girl had fallen asleep and so he had to settle for Olly instead.

Outside there were some strange sights, like this green dragon...

and some strange blood like substance on the carriage. Wierd.

After spooking ourselves out, we retired to sleep.

One thing the night train didn't provide us with, was a lie in. So with a 5am alarm call I got everyone up... only to discover soon after that I needn't have bothered, as the train was 45 minutes late.

Still, it gave us the opportunity to see this wonderful sunrise...

...and this remarkable viaduct.

We were travelling through Schleswig-Holstein, Germany's most northerly region. It is famous for it's cows, of which we saw plenty.

Some wind farms too:

Eventually we arrived in the town of Flensburg. Flensburg is the most northerly town Germany, the last before Denmark. Appropriately, it was twinned with Carlisle, the last town before Scotland.

Back on the road, we took the short side trip to Kiel, all of us falling asleep along the way.

On arrival at Kiel Hbf, we found it infested with not one but two McDonald's. The first did not meet John's quality control (it didn't serve breakfast) so we hung about for the second to open -only to discover it didn't either. John went for the Fish-o-Fillet (type of fish, indeterminet) while we settled for Coffee's.

Once outside, we found a fine old town. Kiel lies at the end of the Kielerfjord, a small inlet from the Ostsee. It is home to major shipping routes to Gothenburg and Oslo, and the Scandinavian influence was there for all to see. A little apperitif, we felt, as we would be visiting these two cities in just a few weeks time.

The Harbour also hosted a number of smaller vessels.

After seeing the ships, we sat down in the sun and had a beer.

Of course, we hadn't travelled through the night to look at cows and ships. Rather, our destination was the Holsteinstadion for the Regionaliganord clash between Holstein Kiel and Vfc Plauen. On arrival, we were greeted by a row of police vans. For a lower league game between two distant sides, it was rather excessive.

This was my ticket. Evidently, I had tired the others out, becuase they opted to sit in the main stand instead.

Inside, there was the rare sight of German terraces, without fences. Hopefully other clubs will follow.

Sadly, the Fangnetz was still in place to obstruct our view, although this did make a good target for the paper aeroplanes.

Not all made it:

Holstein Kiel are known as Die Storche and so had a silly mascot along with someone dressed as a water bottle.

In addition to the Ultras, Kiel had the Youthtras. Indeed the fansector had a very young feel about it.

The vorsangerpodest was occupied not by the capo, but this kid who led the flagwaving:

There were some decent flags in the terrace too:

I stood behind the youthtras section,where the atmosphere was good but the view rather less so. Such are the trade offs in life.

Those Gegengerade made some noise too:

The away supporters:

As well as the paper aeorplanes and stickers, there were the usual staples of stickers and acrobats.

And the less common sight of a war memorial.

With Kiel top and Plauen near the bottom and the visitors having their goalkeeper sent off early on, it promised to be a very one sided game. And so it proved, the home side piling on the pressure for virtually the entire game. Yet through a combination of stout defending and woeful finishing, Plauen held on for a 0-0 draw, much to everyone's disappointment. Still, it had been a very enjoyable day. Good town, good stadium, good beer, good atmosphere, good choreo, I recommend Kiel.

After the game, we headed back to the station and after a bite to eat proceeded on to Lubeck. A journey of nice scenery, sleep and strange liqour.

First impressions of Lubeck were very good, it certainly seemed a historic old place.

We settled down for dinner by the river, while news filtered through from England that Newcastle had been relegated.

After dinner, we looked at some more of the town.

John found a Vfb Lubeck poster:

And this... seemingly Woolies isn't quite dead yet.

Indeed we were in Europa, but this trip was coming to close. A short hop took us, for the second time in ten days, to Lubeck airport.

After thinking of plenty of reasons why we might wish to pay more, we joined the plane back home. On reflection, it was a pity that the numbers were not higher, but nonetheless it had been one of the most enjoyable trips yet.

Relegation battle, part 1, 12-14 May 2009

Tuesday 12th May: Alemannia Aachen v 1.FC Kaiserslautern

With the domestic season over, the lure of Englsiche Woche was too great to resist. The prospect of a whole week in Germany, taking in Berlin, Hamburg and the Bochum's final home game against Eintracht Frankfurt, was too good to miss.

Back in February, thirteen had journed over to see the Derbysieg. Numbers were down a bit this time, reduced seemingly by twelve. Eventually Game-a-Day and Pete managed to get a bit of time off so we cobbled together a shortened trip and a first, in midweek.

Thus it was a familiar story of the early alarm call...

for the night bus into town with John...

and the first train of the day to Brussels.

Given a certain repitition of our trips, the same routes, the same hotels and the same grounds, I sometimes wonder whether different trips will just merge into one another. Yet there are always new things to see.

After having an interesting discussion about the bog and making sure we didn't get off where there wasn't a platform (strangely we didn't get the chance) we alighted in Brussels, right by the bar.

After the usual baguette in Panos we noticed something disturbing. The vending machine had gone.

After recovering from the shock, normality was resumed as we stocked up on Cherry Beer and took the same old train to Eupen. We were joined on our way by Andrew of the European Football Weekends Facebook group. Andrew was also heading the Tivoli, before it closed.

Changing in the never ending construction site of Welkenraedt, we found that in addition to the usual display of drills and loose cables, a burning torch. That isn't something you see everyday.

Arriving in Aachen, we headed straight for Konig City for some lunch. It was here that I made the easy linguistic mistake of getting sausages and salad muddled up, but once that had been resolved we wiled away a pleasant afternoon. Outside, however, the rain was pouring down, and we started to wonder if we were going to get drenched at the football.

Thankfully things dried up and after making our way to the ground we parted company with Andrew, whose ticket was at the opposite end to ours.

As the second to last game at Tivoli Alt, black and yelloow balloons were handed out. 22,222 of them.

Many were released into the night sky:

Along with the balloons, there were the usual display of block flags...

TIFO's...

and some drums were out as well. Sadly our view was restricted by some of the most pointless fences ever constructed in a football ground. The fence in front of the drummer, for example, served no further purpose than to prevent an crowd invasion of the disabled sector. I trust German fencing companies are not suffering from the recession.

Kick-off for this midweek clash was 5.30pm. We thought this was very early, indeed if a midweek game in England kicked off at such a time the ground would be empty, with everyone still at work.

The game itself, which promised a gladitorial 6th v 5th battle, failed to live up to expectations. FCK offered little and Aachen were good value for their 1-0 victory.

After the game, we decided to take a look at the new stadium. When we arrived, we found people streaming in, so decided to join them. Two grounds in ten minutes was good going, even for John.

This will be the new home end:

And here is the rest of the ground. On the one hand, the stands are steep and are close to the pitch, but on the other hand it is hard to get too excited about another plastic bowl.

Tivoli Alt vom Tivoli Neu.

Satisfied at ticking off a ground before it even opened, John got himself a McDonald's and we took the train to Bochum.

On arrival, we met up with Philip and Alex, who had got our tickets for the games in Hamburg & Cologne. Philip left us but Alex came for a beer in Brinkhoff's. He told us about a rather eccentric Bochum season ticket holder who also supported - and held season tickets at - Bayern Munich & Vfb Lubeck. Holding season tickets for three different clubs is remarkable enough, let alone when those clubs are such a distance apart.

Finally, having been up for nearly twenty hours, we returned to the hotel for a well earned rest.

Wednesday 13th May: Hamburger SV v Vfl Bochum

With a hectic schedule the day before, this was altogether more relaxed. After a very tasty breakfast we wandered upto to Ruhrstadion. As ever, the games were marketed well.

:o(

While John bought himself another (!) shirt in the club shop, I took a closer look at the stadium art. Ruhrstadion is one of the most decorated stadiums around, with a interesting selection of fanclub stickers:

Campaign stickers supporting various causes:

And some nice murals on the wall behind the Ostkurve.

The ground was open so we could have walked in. Better though, to leave the club to their preparations for the weekend's game - which basically meant getting the beers in.

Happy hour!

We couldn't stay for happy hour, because we had the a train to catch. It's final destination, Kiel, was where we would be heading in just a week and a half's time.

Our journey to Hamburg was aboard the ICE, which was very plush.

We found ourselves a cabin and settled down for the three hour journey with our stock of Fiege, Jagermeister and Ritter Sport, leaving us to while away a very pleasant three hour journey.

John bought himself a BiFi.

What Jagermeister does to you

After such frolicks, we wend our way into Hamburg. Hamburg is a port city, something that is all to evident on the approach.

On arrival at Hamburg Hbf, we crossed the road to our hotel.

Look who we found there:

Having gotten the kiss of life, we debated why our room, with space for four, needed a six seater sofa.

But wanting to get our money's worth, Pete tried out all the seats.

With the attractions of our hotel room exhausted, we got ourselves some dinner. With our game starting at 8pm, and the 2nd league matches at 5.30, we warmed up with some pre-match footy on the telly.

And for dinner, with a nice glass of Krombacher came...

Lettuce Pizza! This is not Margerita pizza with a side salad that I had scooped on top, it was a lettuce pizza. A more bizarre concept it would be hard to imagine.

The City of Hamburg and the football stadium serving Hamburger SV, are some way apart. So after a lengthy metro ride we had an even more lengthy walk, we finally arrived at the Nordparkstadion.

After rigorous security checks, both at the entry to the ground and our block, we took up our place on the away terrace.

The atmosphere was pumped up by a band on the Knaack Krane, while a jumbo jet flew around the ground. So just the usual then.

As elsewhere, when European nights come about, HSV are obliged to provide everyone with a seat to not sit on. Usually these seats are bolted on and then removed immediately after, but Hamburg have devised an altogether more innovative system. Every second row is metalled, and houses a seat that is literally folded away underneath it.

Indeed some of the seats could be seen through the gaps.

The game itself was a disappointment. With Hamburg chasing a Champions League place and Bochum scrapping against the drop, the 3-1 win for the home side was perhaps not a surprise.

After the game we headed back to the hotel, stopping in at the Reeperbahn en route.

Thursday 14th May: Hamburg to Home

The following morning we made another early start, as we had a flight back from Lubeck to catch. There was some concern after the ticket machine refused to sell us a ticket to Lubeck, instead printing out timetables we didn't need. Alas we did the best we could and bought a ticket of sorts, before settling down for the 45 minute ride.

By Ryanair standards, Hamburg airport was pretty good. Off the train at Lubeck...

over the bridge and there it was.

Strangely there were no military bunkers around, just a big tent covered with Ryanair adverts, it seemingly being the only airline flying here. After an 8-3 victory against John on the Babyfoot table, we flew home.

A few hours later we were back, refreshed from a great trip. Excited still more that the next one was only eight days away.

Derbysieg! 13-15 Feb 2009

Friday 13th February - RW Oberhausen v St.Pauli

Nearly six months after our previous trip, we headed back to Germany. Then, our main attraction was the Schalke v Bochum clash, this time it was the return fixture. Over the intervening months, our group had grown to thirteen, including four from Leicester. After all the planning, a late snowfall threatened to ruin our weekend. The night before depature, nearly all of the flights in and out of Stansted were be cancelled, causing us no end of worry.



But after a broken night sleep, staring out of the window at regular intervals, we awoke to find that the snow had melted. After picking up Olly in Barnet, I drove on to Stansted where we met up with Graham, on his first Euro trip. If Pete had been with us, we would doubtless have sunk a couple in the airport pub, as it was we settled for breakfast, amusing ourselves that someone had reserved a table. In Wetherspoon's. Well, it was Valentine's weekend.

While the snow had melted around Barnet, there was still plenty at the airport. Thankfully it didn't affect the flight.

Ryanair, cheap flights, even cheaper snacks.

After landing at Weeze, we made our way to Cologne, where we would meet the Leicester four, who had travlled on the train via Brussels.

It was here that we had lunch and sampled our first beers of the trip. In Cologne, this means Kolsch and Dom. As the saying goes, Kolsch and Dom are to Cologne, as Romeo is to Juliet.

After a while, it was back on the train as we headed north to Oberhausen to meet up with the others, who had come an assortment of ways. Most impressive was John G, who had been forced to take a taxi from City to Heathrow after his flight had been cancelled, but did at least arrive in Dusseldorf (Dusseldorf) rather than Dusseldorf (Field near Holland) as we had done.

The Niederrheinstadion was our first destination of the weekend. The surrounds suggested it would be a typical Bundesliga 2 ground (ie rickety and decrepit). Still, the Pauli fans were friendly enough.

This was not the most modern of arenas! We stood in the open air, got snowed on. There was a huge running track seperating us from the pitch and the toliets (accesible via a muddy embankment) were full of stickers.

Pauli fans:

The police (as ever far more than necesarry):

With Pauli pushing for promotion, and RWO struggling at the wrong end of the table, it was something of a surprise when the home side apparently raced into a three goal lead within the first twenty minutes. I say apparently because I completely missed the first two goals. My excuse is that they were at the other end and I hadn't bought my telescope.

Pauli pulled one back in the second half, but couldn't find an equaliser, givign a final score of 3-2.

Still, it had been fun, and we went away with the tune of Whoah, Oh, Oh, RWO spinning in our heads.

Game over, we headed back to Bochum, changing again at Duisburg to pick up our bags. Duisburg Hbf had a strange array of displays from the customary model train set to some fishing rods.

Back in Bochum, we checked into the hotel, after which most of us headed out for one or two quiet drinks in Brinkhoff's. Pete (who had just arrived having spent the day in the office) & the Leicester crew stayed rather longer; the promised 3am 'early night' never quite materialising.

Saturday 14th February - Vfl Bochum v FC Schalke 04

Derbyday! And a hangover. Damn. Never mind, after a hearty breakfast in the hotel it was over the road with the best cure of them all, beer.

Asleep

Awake

Since my last trip, my badge collection had grown. Many thanks to Danny Last, Brighton fan and creator of http://www.europeanfootballweekends.blogspot.com/ and the facebook group of the same name. From the success of the group it seems that there are many others with a similar interest in European football tours.

Next autumn, we're all off to Tilburg! For now though, it was pride of the Pott that was at stake.

As ever, we made our way to the Bierkutscher for a few pre-match drinks.

Ready to go, it was up to the stadium:

The atmosphere and the game were both absolutely brilliant. Despite an early strike for the visitors, Bochum kept pressing and forced twelve corners in the first half without reply. Bochum piled on the pressure and just before the break Mimoun Azaouagh belted in the equaliser. 1-1 at half time.

Since last season, the hard beer cups have been replaced by flimsier plastic ones and a good job. The number that went flying, mine among them, as Christoph Dabrowski poked in the winner minutes after the break, was insane.

Schalke hit the post in the last minute but it ended 2-1. The old tunes came out, the Ostkurve doing the Humba and the South Stand lighting candles.

Our first win for Vfl, and what a time to do it.

The aftermath:

Back in the Bierkutscher, now totally surrounded by the Polezei, it was time to party.

Before long the B3Eck beckoned and in Brinkhoff's the party continued. Tief in Westhooooorrrnn...

Whatever else might be better in Germany (ie. most things), curries are not one of them. This was not the wisest of choices for a post match meal, though at least there was some change from Cobra and Kingfisher.

Back at Brinkhoff's, we met Christoph, who had driven up from Luxembourg just for the evening. Shame his brother wasn't quite so attentive.

I have observed that when Pete goes to Germany, he occasionally has a beer or two.

He did not disappoint, and soon enough was slobbering all over Hayley:

Much to John's envy:

So as not to feel left out, John got a kiss too.

But Hayley was clearly preferred:

Soon enough everyone was too drunk to care.

Sunday 15th February - Vfl Osnabruck v 1.FSV Mainz 05

The morning after the night before. Impressively, everyone managed to make it up for the Sunday morning train to Osnabruck. Everyone, that is, except for Potter, who it seemed had come off a little worse for wear and was sleeping it off in the hotel. The hangover cure of choice today was Haribo.

Still lots of snow about.

As ever in Germany, there are two ways to travel. John Lewis and Graham had paid a premium for the inter-city train, while the rest of us contented ourselves with a the voyage of discovery that is the Schones Wochenende. This time, it gave us forty minutes in Munster that I went off to explore with Tom.

Here Tom bought himself a Magnum...

and others some more spirits:

In Osnabruck, we made the short walk to the ground, minus John & Graham, their inter-city train having been delayed. The irony.

The delay gave us time to collect the tickets and sample the delights around the ground.

The Piepenbrockstadion had been described to me as old skool, but I didn't see it. It looked very modern to me, closed in on four sides and looking like it had the potential for a great atmosphere.

Unfortunately, our tickets were not in the curva but in the opposite end, next to the Mainz fans.

As we had arrived late, all the good places had gone and so we were left with a view that was frankly abysmal.

One reasonable spot, but we couldn't stand here.

It is said that German football is great value, and Euro 12 to see a game in the second division is pretty good. In practice, we only really saw half the game, if you want to see the whole thing you buy a seat for twice the price.

The game itself was not the best, after an early strike Osnabruck fell apart and Mainz ended up winning 3-1.

Back at the Hauptbahnhof, it was time to go our separate ways as the trip drew to a close.

Leaving the others behind, Olly and Graham joined me on the bus back to Munster-Osnabruck airport.

Air Berlin then flew us home, in it must be said rather more style than Ryanair. The flight may have been £30 more, but we did get a free sandwich. What a way to round off a trip.

Derby Weekend: 28 Aug - 1 Sept

Thursday 28th August: London

The first trip of the 2008-09 season was to take us to three new grounds, with the Ruhr Debry at Schalke sandwiched between second division games at Duisburg and Ahlen.

Mindful of the mistakes we had made last time, and with another scorching weekend predicted, I remembered to pack the suncream. My search for a portable bottle opener proved less succesful though, all I could find were Homer Simpson's legs. I packed them anyway.



With a 6.00 train the next day, we forsook the early start and the night bus and booked ourselves into a Travellodge near St.Pancras station. The rooms were tidy enough even if the view wasn't that great.

We headed down to Wetherspoon's, where it was curry night and marvelled at the global selection of beers from Turkey, Spain and err, Newcastle.

Friday 29th August: MSV Duisburg v Augsburg

Staying in the hotel meant gave us the luxury of a lie in until 4.30. Once we were up, we checked in and checked out where we were going:

Duisburg:

Schalke:

Ahlen:
And where we were not:

Chester: Eurostar took us in it's usual efficient manner onto Brussels, where we made a connection and headed onwards to Liege.

The short stopoff in Liege gave us our first continental beer of the weekend.

Onwards to Aachen, we decided to head to Konig City. No matter how many times I had been to Aachen, I still managed to get us lost, so we ended up somewhere other than KC drinking something other than Konig Pilsner. Though it didn't matter, the locally brewed Zwickelbier was fantastic.

Soon it was back on the train, via Monchengladbach, and onto Duisburg. Here we met the rest of the group, who had flown over to Germany.

After a couple of beers in the station pub, we made the short tram ride to the MSV Arena. With surprising ease, we found the ticket office and picked up our tickets for the game.

The MSV Arena is typical of the new stadiums springing up across the country. A two tiered bowl, the fankurve is split in two with a seating deck above, a design that isn't my favourite. That said, we had tickets for the standing sector and with a pint of Konig's in hand I quite liked it really.

As is common with a lot of grounds, the fankurve was nearly full while the rest of the ground was nearly empty.

Relatively few had made the long trip from Bavaria.

The Fankurve:

Best not to stand behind him!

Duisburg dominated the game and ran out worthy winners by two goals to nil. We did the Humba and then headed off.

Onwards to Bochum, we checked into the Acora hotel, with a nice comfy room as usual.

Saturday 30th August: Schalke v Bochum

The big one. We were off to the derby in the Arena AufSchalke.

First though, we wandered up to the club shop at the Ruhrstadion. On the way we passed what looked distinctly like the home of the Teletubbies.

The reality was rather less exciting.

A block of flats near the Ruhrstadion.

We bought ourselves rather tidy shirts then headed back to Brinkhoff's by BO Hbf.

There are several pubs in Bochum called Brinhoff's. We were to visit the main one on the 3-Eck later, but this one was pretty decent too.

We bought ourselves some more beer and headed on the tram to Gelsenkirchen.

After about 3/4 hr we arrived at the stadium.

The search on the way in was more thorough than usual, Hayley having a bottle of water taken off her which seemed a bit unnecessarry.

The Auf Schakle has been described by some as the best ground in Europe, so I was keen to see it for myself. It was certainly impressive, not dissimilar in design to the Waldstadion, with a big screen hanging from the roof. We had seats in the upper tier, so had a good view of proceedings.

Schalke fans:

Bochum fans:

Half time:

I would like to be able to say Schalke were lucky, in truth they hit woodwork three times and so the damage could have been much worse. Bochum were pretty toothless up front and even with just the single goal deficit never looked like getting anything out of the game.

After the match, we caught a special bus back to Bochum. It was a bit rammed so Tom and I had to sit on the floor.

Evetually, the police caught up with us.

Back in Bochum, we caught a nap in the hotel and chilled out on our own special balcony.

Before too long though, we headed back into town for some food...

...and then some more food:

Deedo wasn't to be outdone!

After a brief civilised interlude of eating off a plate, we headed on to Brinkhoff's on the Drei Eck.

We saw these fireworks on the way:

If Bochum is one of the nicest towns in Germany, Brinkhoff's on the Bermuda is one of it's best pubs. We always have a great time in here and this was no exception.

Sunday 31st August: Rot Weiss Ahlen v TSV 1860 Muenchen

After a good nights sleep, and another hearty breakfast in the Acora, we met up again at Bochum Hauptbahnhof for our final game of the weekend. This took us on the short trip east to see Ahlen, recently been promoted to the second division, take on the mighty 1860.

Ahlen is around thirty minutes from Bochum, but instead we caught the S-Bahn to Dortmund to enable Pete and co. to drop their bags in the station lockers.

To save a Euro, they went for the small locker. As if this was going to fit:

Hayley tried...

Pete tried...

...but in the end they gave up and went for the big locker, while John eat some more.

Back on the train Tom went first class and Matt second.

Ahlen was a rather sleepy place, quite sedate on a Sunday morning. A short walk took us to the diminutive Wersestadion, home of Rot-Weiss.

This time we got tickets on the gate.

I must admit I really liked the Wersestadion. There was a chilled out air about the place, with benches and beer tents all around. The ground itself was mostly terraced, with seating along one side.

We stood on the covered side terrace, as much to escape the sun as anything else. The vocal sector though was behind the goal in the Tribuna Unida and they gave their team good support throughout.

After a quiet first half the game picked up. At 1-1, scored it in the last minute, much to everyone's delight.

With a great victory behind them, the Ahlen supporters cycled home, while we took the train back to Bochum.

At Dortmund, Pete, Matt, John and Hayley went their separate ways, returning to Luton on the plane.

Back at the hotel, we chilled out a little more and threw sweets at each other.

A brief wander into town and the Drei Eck again, but this time we were tired so soon returned.

Monday 1st September: Bochum-Brussels-London

Monday and it was time to go home. Still tired from the previous days excesses, we caught a packed commuter train from Bochum to Cologne, changing onto an ICE. It was so comfortable that I slept most of the way back to Brussels.

Rather than go straight on to London, we had eight hours in Brussels. Before hitting the bars, we checked out the flea market in Marolles. This was full of all sort of junk, like old CD's, broken lampshades, moth eaten carpets and a dead dog.

We left without buying anything, and wandered upto the Gare de Central station.

In all my times in Brussels, I had never used its metro. We took it out to Anderlecht, for a visit to Belgium's most famous club.

After getting hopelessly lost, we finally managed to locate the Constance Vanden Stock stadium. It isn't, if truth be told, the most impressive of stadiums. Nonetheless, we managed to find the corporate entrance, with it's door wide ajar, and ended up wandering all the way into the directors box.

After having a good look round, we headed back to the centre of Brussels for a mini pub crawl.

First up was A la Becasse, one of the most famous bars in Brussels as it serves authentic gueze. Gueze is a sort of cross between beer and wine, being the former but tasting more like the latter. It wasn't our favourite.

Around the corner, we found this place. A nice pub, dark and dank.

Enough of the experimenting, we headed back across the Grand Place to our usual place for a Kwak.

Soon enough though, our time was up. Past Brussels' most famous sight, the Mannekin Pis (I still can't work out why) we made it to the Gare du Midi and stocked up on the local beer.



Before long, we were back on the train home. It had been one of the most enjoyable trips yet and a great start to the season. Three new grounds for us, all offering something different. We could have stayed at home and gone to the Welsh borders instead, where Barnet lost 5-1 at Chester. I think we made the right choice.

Europe's largest terrace: 2-5 May 2008

FRIDAY MAY 2ND: BORUSSIA DORTMUND V 1.FC NURNBERG

The fifth, and final overseas trip of the 2007-08 season promised to be the best of the lot. Our trio of games included a visit to one of Europe's largest grounds, a Westphalia derby and another visit to the Tivoli.

Different places maybe, but there was the usual early alarm call. Just in case one clock broke I set three.

Most of our group had chosen to fly over, but Olly and myself went by Eurostar. I'd booked the first train from London, which meant catching the night bus into town.

St.Pancras terminal had been upgraded since we were last here, with the introduction of big screens with Google Earth on. We had a look at where we we heading:

Dortmund (the Westfalenstadion is in the top left corner):

Bielefeld, pretty nondescript:

Aachen:

For good measure we found the Underhill Stadium too!

Soon enough our we were ready to go.

A couple of hours later we hit Brussels. The graffiti on the trains was quite artistic. Talking of art, someone had just left a painting on the platform.



But we hadn't come to admire the art. We stocked up on the usual range of fruity beers for the journey ahead.

At Welkenraedt, we had a half hour wait so we found a bar near the station, before heading onto Germany.






This was my fourth time staying in Bochum, and once again I stayed in a different place. Again, the hotel was very good. Here we met up with Pete, Carpy, John & (for the first time) Hayley.

After a quick shower it was back to the Hauptbahnhof. Alex joined us for the short trip to Dortmund for our first game. Carpy & Pete got some beer while John & Hayley went to Mr Clou.

Soon enough, we arrived in Dortmund. We got there in good time so had a bit of a look around.

We hadn't as such got tickets for this game. After major amounts of effort, involving special deliveries which didn't deliver, I arranged to meet a fan rep by the entrance. We asked around and waited, and waited...

As time ticked on and we were sent from pillar to post as the realisation dawned that we might not get in. Finally, at 8.15, we managed to track down the tickets and took our places in the ground.

I am not sure if the Sudtribune, Dortmund, is one of the seven wonders of the world, but if it isn't then the others must be pretty special. With room for 24,454 people, it is the largest standing tribune in the world.





Before the game, the pitch was covered with people waving big flags.










The half-time 'entertainment' was a bit surreal.

The 3,000 or so Nurberg supporters were some of the most vocal I have seen in Germany, with both excellent voice and variety in their singing. With the team in the bottom three, they really needed a result but despite dominating the game had to settle for a 0-0 draw.

A trip to Dortmund is certainly an amazing experience. Despite both teams being in the bottom half of the table and the game being televised, more than 70,000 people turned up. There can't be many clubs where so many people would turn up to watch such a poor team.

SATURDAY MAY 3RD: ARMINIA BIELEFELD v VFL BOCHUM

Saturday was derby day. The posters around town advertised the clash with Schalke, but we were headed to Ostwestphalia to see if Bochum could strike a dagger into Bielefeld's survival hopes.

The trip from Bochum to Bielefeld is one that takes you from the industrial heart of Germany to the rural hinterlands. On our way to the station, we passed this mine.

There, we met up with the Bochum crew and stocked up with a few beers for the journey ahead.

It had been designated crazy bottles day. You can't get much crazier than Beer and Cola.

Or so you would think. Anyone for washing up liquid? Actually it wasn't, but the replacement was just as nasty.

Look at John's face.

Arrival at Bielefeld Hbf.

The local police provided us with an escort to the stadium. It was all a bit pointless really but they like to show their might.

On the approach to the ground, it was easy to see why it is nicknamed 'The Farm'.

This time we didn't have to wait 1.5 hours for our tickets, but still needed to walk all the way around the stadium to pick them up.

The Almstadion has undergone something of a transformation recently, with the building of a new double decker stand. Almost as an afterthought, a small visitor terrace had been tacked alongside. It can be be seen here on the left side.

The stadium had plenty of character:

The Azzurro made their mark

Views from the stadium:

Krombacher, makers of probably the best beer advert in the world, are the club sponsors of Arminia Bielefeld. Rather disappointingly though, this had been designated a no beer game so it wasn't possible to tell if die Perle der Natur was the best tasting. So I had to make to with Fanta.

The mascot

There was good support both from Bielefeld:

And Bochum:

Sektion Polizei

Some cheer was provided when Schalke went behind.

Alas, Bochum played poorly and went down 2-0, a result that helped propel Arminia to safety on the last day.

And so we headed back to the station, this time without the march. We stopped by en route and bought some bottles for 35cents.

The train back was a special one for the football so once we got moving we were back in Bochum fairly swiftly.

Back in Bochum, we found some light entertainment in town before heading back to the hotel for dinner.

We are obviously getting more civilised having progressed beyond Mr Clou to eating with a knife and fork.

SUNDAY MAY 4TH: AACHEN v AUGSBURG

One of the disadvantages, it seems, of taking the Eurostar is the need to always track back to Brussels. And so it was that as the flyers headed south to Offenbach, myself and Olly went to Aachen, which was on the way. The train took the usual and now familiar route past Cologne, with its giant Catherdral.

Every trip to Aachen inevitably ends up in the sun at Konig City. This one was no different.

Despite having been to Aachen several times, I still managed to get us lost. Never mind, we saw the amazing folding scuplute which this time was open.

And so to the Tivoli for my final game of the season against Augsburg. This time there were no ticket worries so we took our places on the Wurselener Wall. It was hot. Very.

Aachen ran out 3-0 winners, whilst at the same time Offenbach crashed 1-7 at home to Borussia Monchengladbach. Without a roof on the terrace, we got ever more sunburnt making this one of the most uncomfortable games I've ever been to.

It was with some relief then that we headed back to the station and caught the train onto Brussels, via Liege.

At Liege, we found some more fruity beer and soon enough were back in the Belgian capital.

In Brussels, we had the usual indulgences of waffles and beer, before heading back to the hotel, where Olly managed to pull down the shower rail.

Monday 5th May 2008 - Brussels to London

As usual, it was an early morning start as we walked down to the Gare du Midi. We didn't pass any tramps on the way, which is quite unusual for Brussels. Soon enough, we were back in London for the end of not only the trip, but the season.

This said, the after effects of the sunburn lived on for days.

English Fan Culture: April 19th 2008

Here are a few photos from the Accrington - Barnet game on 19th April 2008. Accrington have one of the few 'Ultra' groups in the UK and the Stanley Ultras make good efforts to bring noise and colour to the Crown Ground. We decided to try and put on a choreo show and here are our respective efforts.

STANLEY ULTRAS








BARNET FANS