Welcome to my travel blog. I document my adventures in travel, experiences, and food. Hope you have a nice stay!
All in Football
This was an epic match. Two evenly matched teams, each in turn taking the ascendancy and arguably turning in a fair result at full time. But neither could one argue that Norway did not deserve their victory. The Australian keeper certainly had the busiest night. Knockout football is ruthless and it’s essential characteristic is to leave a battlefield replete with broken teams.
Our World Cup was now all but over. But as they say, hope dies last. We had to cross from the rational to the emotional domain to get out of this.
My only football excursion of my summer tour. Welcomed warmly into the heart of St Pauli, Hamburg. Great match-up between east and west when Dynamo Dresden came to play.
An account of my final trip to Signal Iduna Park to see the match BVB Dortmund vs Eintracht Frankfurt.
This is my account of a trip to Thüle to accompany the local fan club on its excursion to a special occasion: the home league of BVB's European Champions League quarter final match against AS Monaco. I was able to witness part of the organisation involved between the Football Club and its fan clubs, many from far away villages. A great evening was under way; a great sense of anticipation and excitement about the great night of European football ahead.
Then came the shocking news of a most sinister event.
Der Klassiker
I donned my supporter gear and caught the U-Bahn to the northern outskirts of München, to Allianz Stadium, home of Bayern Munich. Shortly after I settled into my seat, the seat to my left was occupied and a young man said to me “You’re from Australia aren’t you?”.
Long train trip from Dortmund to Nürnberg. Arrived mid afternoon and spent a little time walking around the old city.
At 6.30 pm I caught the S-Bahn to the Frankenstadion to catch the match between FC Nürnberg and FC St Pauli.
A visit to the mining city of Bochum. Tour of the Deutsches Bergbau German mining museum followed by a visit to the Ruhrstadion to stand on the terraces watching VFL Bochum v Kaiserslautern.
Well if this trip was about anything it was to go to the Westfalenstadion to see BVB Dortmund play. And so I finally made it here.
A place of special significance to Australian football fans – it is where Tim Cahill and John Aloisi scored Australia’s first World Cup finals goals in the historic victory over our great regional rivals, Japan in 2006.
Two cities with proud heritages as coal mining and steel manufacturing centres respectively. The rivalry is intense but there is also something of a camaraderie between the two sets of supporters – even if they are loath to admit it.
