A more sobering experience

Okay, if you are only interested in eurokang chasing aussie gold, stop reading now ... the aussie gold dream has ended.

Alright, to those of you still with me, you may be aware that I am fairly interested in history, especially the history of World War 1 and World War 2. I am not sure which particular aspect of their mistory makes these wars from the last century stand out in particular; whether it is the absolute honesty of humanity exposed at such a time, or if it is simply that it is easier to understand than, for instance, the history of a particular idea or something else as esoteric. Anyway.

Summary of the last paragraph for those who got lost in my ramblings: I like World War I and World War II history.

So, at the end of the last episode, I was in Strasbourg, ready to go off adventuring on my own. I have had it in mind for some time to try and visit some of the historical sites associated with the wars in Europe. Since I was so close to them from Strasbourg, and I didn't have to drag anyone else through it, it seemed that this was as good a time as any!

Off I went on the train the next morning up to Belgium. After changing a few times, I hopped on a bus at Libramont and headed off to a tiny village in the middle of nowhere called Bastogne. Bastoge was the centre point for the biggest German counter attack of the Western War in Europe, otherwise known as the Battle of the Bulge. If you have watched the mini series Band of Brothers, this battle is featured in episodes 6 and 7. Bastogne itself was not much to look at, there was a tank in the middle of the town square, and that was about it. I happened to start talking to a few American history buffs (one of whom is a Captain in the American 4th armoured (although he is in infantry) and served in Afghanistan and Iraq, just out of interest!) who were happy to drop me out near the town of Foy the next day.

So off I headed and explored the area around Bastogne. The woods shown below are known as Bois Jacques, and are the site where Easy Company (101st Division, 506th PIR) (the ones from Band of Brothers!) were stationed.


The woods are filled with the fox holes the guys actually used which can still be seen.

The shot below is from in one of the fox holes, just for a bit of perspective!
From there I wandered over to overlook the town of Foy which Easy Company attacked and captured later.

Pretty crazy stuff. Just a bunch of tiny towns in the middle of nowhere, absolutely nothing to look at, and yet 75000 allies, and about the same amount of Germans lost their lives here.

From Bastogne, I thought I would keep exploring the Ardennes area (south east corner of Belgium), and decided to head off to another town called La Roche where there was supposed to be mountain biking and kyaking. A lady at the information service told me that I could get a bus out there, but I had to change buses at a place called Houffalize, but she didn't have the timetable for the second bus. Off I headed into the blue yonder. Upon arriving at Houffalize at about 2pm ( a beautiful little town in a river valley), I asked around in my poor french for when the next bus was going to La Roche. After much investigating, it turned out the next bus for La Roche was tomorrow! So much for that idea. I had been noticing mountain biking posters around, so decided to hang around Houffalize instead.

So, got a room, hired a bike, and off I went. There were a few tracks around the area, I tried to pick one that would be okay. I had about 3 hours until the shop closed, so I picked the second easiest track ... a 27km "medium" grade through the surrounding area. Well, I must admit, I thought 27km should be pretty easy ... I ride 50km on a road bike. I however forgot to factor in the whole mountain biking thing! 27km is a long way, especially in about 30 degree heat with time pressure! After a couple of wrong turns (missing signs), one involving a descent down (and walk up) a hill about as big as Sydney road, I was really thinking I wasn't going to make it back though. In the end, it was all good and I made it back. A fantastic way to see the local area. The track going through some woods:

The few from the track:
The next day I tried to head back out of there. I decided to try and get to a little town called Gouvy which was only 15km away. No one seemed to know what time this bus left either. After waiting for about an hour for the bus, one came along the other way. I rushed over and asked the driver when he would be back ... 4 hours later was not the answer I was looking for! So, I jumped on, and went all the way back through Bastogne to Libramont. All good in the end.

From there, up to do a bit of R&R (and beer drinking) at Brugge, also known as Venice of the North and the chocolate capital of Belgium (the world?). Watched a few good games of soccer as well, very relaxing.
Next, down to a town called Ypres which was the site of a number of World War I battles (actually, there was a battle there for just about the entire war ... 3 years and the front moved less than 5kms for about 2 of them). This was trench warfare at its worst, a lot of Aussies fought and died here as well. Below is a photo of a reconstructed trench system near Hill 62. Amazing stuff. There is one section where about 200 000 men lost their lives in an 8 month period (near Paschendaele)
Very interesting, although very disturbing. Today, I jumped on a TGV to Paris, and found to my horror that the rest of the world had arrived before me! I mean, I know summer is supposed to be packed, but a Tuesday and every hostel is full?? Expensive hotel ... ouch.

From here, I am heading up to the D-Day beaches and then on to Dinard and London where I catch up with a bunch of people!

An end and a beginning

Ouch. Don't think there is any other word to describe it. You all know. The whole of Australia watched it. Anyway, that is for later.

Germany vs. Sweden was a fantastic game for the first half an hour, then it was pretty much over. 2 goals and a red card were more than enough to put Sweden out of contention. Unfortunately, I missed the first 20 minutes of the second half.


Most of the world cup has been pretty well organised, not Sydney standards, but pretty good. Munich however was a bit of a shambles. I mean, whoever thought to put all the trains going to the Stadium on the same platform as all the trains going to the FanFest was not thinking too well. There were ridiculous crowds trying to get on the trains at the platform. It ended up taking an hour to get on a train in pretty horrendous conditions - 30 degrees, jammed packed.


The other thing about the world cup games is that they won't let you take any drinks into the stadium ... apparently they can be used as weapons. Okay, fine, makes sense. That is, until you sit in the full sun at 35 degrees for an hour and a half watching the warm up and the first half of a soccer game. Generally then, you are going to need a drink. This sucks if there is nowhere to get water (even the toilets) except by buying it. This is even more of a joke when the places selling drinks are horribly organised, and it takes 25 minutes to buy 2 drinks.

On the way back from the stadium, we went to a famous beer garden in Munich near the Englischt Garten - amazing place, must have fitted close to 2 thousand people, all on tables drinking Mass (1 litre) of beer.


The next day, I went to Heidelburg while Bruce went to Kaiserlautern to get some tickets. Had a great time in Heidelburg, went out with some guys I met in the hostel (which was a fair way from the centre of town). It got close to the time of the last bus back to the hostel, so we walked to the place we had been set down by the bus. I pointed out that this meant we were going to be going the wrong way, but to no avail - the other guys reckoned the town was small, and it was simpler than trying to find another stop. So we get on the bus, and then travel a long long way out of Heidelburg. One hour later, we are going past our stop in the other direction. It is now 1 o'clock. I go and talk to the driver, and find out the bus is terminating, and isn't even going as far as our stop! Ah, the fun of travelling! Ended up catching a taxi, and getting home at 1:30 in the morning.

Kaiserlautern was very cool, there was a massive presence aussie presence everywhere. It was absolutely packed.


Ah, back to the game.

It had all been going so well as well. I mean, we had Italy under a lot of pressure. They were looking fatigued, and had been camped in their own goal area for the entire second half, ever since the some what dubious sending off of an Italian player for taking down Bresciano shortly after half time. I mean, we had some chances, some good chances, but not nearly as meany as we should have. The Australian support outnumbered the Italians considerably (since just about everyone in a white shirt (German) in the stadium, was supporting Australia). The feeling was almost resigned amongst the Italians. We were wearing them down, they knew it. We still had 2 subs to make, they had made all theirs a long time ago. Then that fateful moment. Stunned silence took over most of the ground, except for the Italian corner who were screaming. I could not see very well from where I was (we were a long way up) ... it looked like a penalty to me. Totti stepped up, and finished clinically. That was it. All this way, and it was over in 3 seconds to a penalty. Everyone walked out of the ground in silence. Even the Italians weren't making much noise (at least the ones who had left the stadium).

So Australia's world cup was over. It was a glorious run. Not quite Aussie gold, but we did very well, and I think everyone is proud of how we performed and played. It was definitely an amazing experience.

We have left Germany. Last night we headed to Strasbourg, just over the French border. Beautiful town, set on an island in the middle of a river. I read Angels and Demons lately (by Dan Brown, same guy as the Da Vinci code), so got symbollogy a bit in my head. I was pretty stunned then on going into the main cathedral in Strasbourg to see the Astronomical clock there decorated with Greek gods, and the Astrological symbols (Saggitarius etc.) Can anyone explain to me how they would let that kind of stuff in a church? Completely puzzling to me, but very Da Vinci Code esque ...



Today I am pushing on, leaving Bruce and heading up to Belgium. I think it will be great, but I still need a few more days to get over that final experience.!

Tickets!

The unthinkable has happened. Australia has qualified for the next round of the world cup, Italy vs. Australia in Kaiserslautern. The atmosphere here is amazing, all the neutrals want Australia to win, and you in fact can barely buy any Australian gear at all. Bruce and I have arrived, and what is more we have got tickets ...

Football

Football is a simple game. A ball vaguely round in shape, made with whatever is handy (originally), 2 sets of goals at either end of a rectangular pitch, and you aren't allowed to use your hands. That is about it. Not like all these other games with pages and pages of rule books and 9 umpires (NFL anyone?). So what is that makes everyone go completely soccer CRAZY?

At the end of last weeks episode, we were in Rothenberg orb de Tauber, heading for Frankfurt. We took our time getting to Frankfurt, staying in a beautiful old town called Miltenberg on the way, where I enjoyed my tastiest meal of the trip so far.



After that, it was on to Frankfurt to watch Germany vs. Ecuador on the big screen, and then Argentina vs. Netherlands the next day live. The germany game was amazing, the place was absolutely buzzing. Thousands of fans out and about every where. Every goal cheered as though the world was ending. As for Frankfurt itself, well, the allies obliterated about 80% of the city at the end of world war II in two big bombing raids, and you can tell. It is virtually all new buildings, and lacks the feel of many other German cities.

So, the next day we woke up, ready to head to Argentina vs. Netherlands. We went down to the local market area near the Hauptbanhoff (main train station) where we had been eating a lot (great food!). I must admit, I wasn't feeling that excited about todays game ... both teams were on 6 points in the group, and didn't have a lot to play for. What is more, there were rumours that they were only going to play second string teams. It was then we noticed all the ticket sellers around. I was curious. I wonder how much these tickets are actually worth? I went up and talked to a couple of guys ... 400, 500 euros for tickets originally priced at 100 euros. I went back to Bruce to get his thoughts ... in the meantime some Canadian guy had offered him 1000 euros each for our tickets ... that is about $1700 AUD, all for a game I wasn't sure I even thought would be any good. The rest is history ... the game was a 0-0 shocker which we watched in O'Reillys pub.

From there, we drove down to Stuttgart. This was it. The big one. Australia vs. Croatia. We only needed a draw, but I had seen stranger things with Australian football before (Iran or Uruguay anyone?), and Croatia were sure to fight hard. They had played very well against Brazil as well. We got out to the ground early in time to take in the Mercedes museum before hand, on the recommendation of AJT's parents who absolutely loved it. Brilliant, well worth seeing. If you ever go to Stuttgart make sure you go see it. Layed out as a historical timeline of Mercedes, winding down from the top of a building down ramps all the way to the bottom, with a great audio guide and some very nice cars.



Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, after the Mercedes museum which we had shared with thousands of Aussies and Croatians (everyone in their colours), we had a quick bite to eat at a restaurant and headed in to the stadium at about 8pm (kickoff was at 9pm). Immediately on entering the ground, a buzz of adrenalin went through me .. it was a long time before kick off, but already there were massive patches of yellow, and red and white. You could feel the anticipation in the air. As kickoff approached, it became obvious we were near the Croatian end of the stadium, in a small pocket of aussies. The noise was ridiculous. Amazing. The teams came out for their warmups to huge cheers. Slowly the time to kickoff approached. By this time, it was so loud you could barely hear yourself think. The main Croatian war cry was pretty crazy as well, don't know if any of you have heard it, but it sounds fearsome. Found out later it means "Fight, Fight, Fight for your country".





9pm came, and the game started. Oops, shaky start, don't give away possession like that, free kick? What? GOAL. Oh no. Croatians going nuts. Australians sitting stunned. Was this what it was going to be like? All this way, we only need a draw, and we are behind in the 2nd minute? Slowly Australia fought their way back into the game, and when we scored the penalty, the turn around was amazing. Aussies going nuts. I am just about hoarse and it isn't even half time yet. The Croatians silent. The second half starts, a repeat of the first. Croatians score again. No one can belief Kalac let that goal through, most people saying that he will be lucky to ever go back to Australia ...



Amazing pressure by the Australians now, dominating possession, the Aussies surging them on with constant cheering, the Croatians cheering every tackle, wolf-whistling every refeering decision. Then finally, we score again! GOAL! Go Kewell! Ah, this is more than I can take! Can we hold off? We have about 6 strikers playing, and not very many defenders... A red card for Croatia! Yes! The red and white corner goes absolutely silent. We can do this ... another red card, this time for Emerton .. what were you thinking Emers, no need for that?! Finally, we score again! YES! No, what is going on? FULL TIME! WE DRAW! WE ARE THROUGH! WOOHOO! Unbelievable emotion. Aussies jumping around everywhere, the other end of the stand with the yellow swathe going absolutely crazy. On comes AC/DC, then Men at work - Down Under, and we are all singing at the top of our lungs, crazy. No one wants to leave. The croatians somehow vanish without us really noticing. A German girl wearing green and gold asks me "What is going on? Why are you all so excited?" She leaves before I have a chance to explain ... I mean, how can I explain?

After that, I went out into the city, wandered through it. Scenes of celebrations everywhere, lots of Croatians out as well as Australians, all in very good spirits. An aussie accent comes from a girl wearing a Croatian shirt and scarf ... "Well done, you played well, congratulations on going through". Me: "Nice accent, are you really Croatian?" Turns out she was born in Sydney, lived in Australia all her life, Dad is Croatian. That is enough. Oh well, maybe her kids will come around!

Finally made it to bed about 3, after walking home from the train station (our hotel was the middle of nowhere).

Ah, I am exhausted just thinking about it all.



Next day, we got in the car and headed to Munich where we were going to watch Germany vs. Sweden round of 16. All good, fanging along the Autobahn at about 150, gee these roads are good, suddenly the traffic comes to a halt, and isn't moving. Finally crawl off the autobahn about an hour later at a town, try to work out how to detour around it. Apparently there was a 3 car accident, and a couple of people burned to death. Grim reality check, and so much for the amazing roads. Finally we make it around, then get hopelessly lost on the way into Munich ... it is pretty hard when your map only covers "Central Munich". We finally got to the hotel around 6 hours after we had started on a 2 hour trip. Ouch.

Well, that is about it. We are in Munich now, getting ready for the next game (Germany vs. Sweden), which promises to be awesome. However, I don't think anything can ever live up to that game vs. Croatia. Most amazing sporting event I have ever seen.

Now I am thinking it is on to Kaiserlautern to try and get a ticket for the game vs. Italy. I mean, I am over here, why not?

GO AUSTRALIA!

The First Game

Okay, firstly thank you to all the people who volunteered to fly over and give me foot massages, but no, it isn't necessary, I have taken the situation well in hand regarding my shoes, and purchased a pair of Salomon hiking boots .. super comfey, so that is all good.

Where were we last time? Been a few days between updates due to lack of internet facilities or motivation!

Thats right, Nuremberg, and the upcoming game between England and Trinidad and Tobago. Nuremberg was crazy, there were so many English fans around, thousands of them everywhere. It had a real party atmosphere. The town square was decked out with lots of big screens, and there were people everywhere. We went out for a few beers, ready for the game the next day.

We mucked around for a while in the morning, then got ready to head out to the game around 2pm (the game was at 6). Bruce wanted to catch the tram to the game in order to see more, so we headed out to the ground jam packed into a tram with hundreds of other fans. We got into some area called FanFest near the ground where there was a big screen. Watched the game before, all good.

It got to 5pm, and no one was heading into the ground, nothing was happening, although there were thousands of people where we were? What was going on? We started asking around, and it turned out that there was another ground a few kms away (similar to the whole SCG SFS thing). Turned out we were at the wrong ground! So began a mad dash to the other ground, which was way off in the distance. Luckily, we made it with some time to spare, but gee, you think there would have been some better signposting or something??

As for the game itself, it was unbelievable. The atmosphere was unlike anything I have ever experienced before. Lets just say the enlisgh were a lot happier once they had scored a few goals, and that they were writing off the team before that.


Anyway, I had written all this stuff and managed to lose it, due to blogger being in German and me not speaking German, so now you get the abbreviated second version.

From there, we went on to an old town called Rothenberg, which I went to once when I was younger, but don't really remember. We stayed in a fantastic guest house. I went for a hike yesterday around town, which was supposed to only be 11km long, but somehow I ended up walking about 15km after getting lost (the instructions were in German! common theme happening here...) It went through some beautiful forest, and then up along the hill tops. Even managed to get some Bairdy style crop photos!

We also watched the Croatia vs. Japan game, and Australia vs. Brazil. I thought we were pretty unlucky, but am looking forward to Australia Croatia. From here it is on to Frankfurt to watch Argentina vs. Netherlands.

GO AUSTRALIA!

Czech Repulica

Okay, here we go, another update and there is so much to write about!

The train trip to Cesky Krumlov went very smoothly, although there were a few anxious moments trying to work out where I was supposed to change trains when leaving Austria.

I got into town at about 6pm at night after meeting some lovely Canadian ladies on the final train. This is after having a big meal and beer for about 5 bucks while waiting to change trains at Cesky Budojovice.

It is a beautiful old medieval town, and the countryside surrounding it is exquisite. Just did the usual, walked around, looked at the town, had beers with the canadians I had met earlier.

Here are a few snaps:

Okay, random survey, how old do I look? Just out of curiosity (after someones guess), would you believe the majority of people put me at 22?? Anyway ...

The second day in Cesky Krumlov, I met an aussie girl who was travelling by herself as well. We decided to head out of town and climb a nearby mountain. (As I have always said, if you are out of things to do, time to climb a mountain and find out what is on the other side!).

Well, I thought it was the usual 3-4 kms, but turned out to be 10km one way, and pretty steep. Lets say by the top of the hill, I was ready to look for another way home, and look what we found!



Yep, thats right, a cable car! Going completely the wrong direction, but that is fine. We took the cable car down to another village on the other side, where we walked for a few more kms to the local train station. (Man, it is tough not being able to speak a word of the language!) After signing to a few people about trains, we were beginning to think the guy at the top of the mountain had given us a bum steer. Eventually, we found it, stopped for lunch (the next train was in 90 minutes) then made it back to Cesky Krumlov.

On the way back from the station, I decided to take a quick snap of one of the locals in his army outfit, just to prove to you all that about half the rural Czech people seem to wear army gear. I am not kidding, kids, adults the lot all are wearing camo ... anyone want to take a guess why? Either a lot of left over soviet gear or there are some unhappy campers round Cesky Krumlov!

Anyway, now if I could pick anyone it would have to be gp, followed by sb, followed by me, but unfortunately gp and sb weren't with me so I was the one who DROPPED MY CAMERA! It banged in spectactular style, and would no longer work. So much for the image rich blog ... camera screwed big time.

So, now it was time to plan the big trip next day up to Prague in time to see the Australian game .. should be fine, leave by about 9:30, and I should make it in lots of time. Checked with the hostel reservation, yep trains leave every hour. Sweet. Time for bed.

Next morning, walk the 4 kms up to the train station to find the train timetable ... trains leave at 4:30?!, 5:30, 6:30, 7:30, 8:30, 12:30, ... WHAT! So much for the every hour ... every hour including 4:30 in the morning, but then nothing until 12:30! So to cut a long story short, I ended up getting Evan to send me lots of updates during the game, and then managed to pull in to see the final one minute of the game to see Aloisi put the game away! GO AUSTRALIA! AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE! A few people in the random bar I had run to looked around at the crazy aussie shouting at a tv screen ...

Prague has been fun, but not a spot on Cesky Krumlov. Too many people. Oh yeah, and my feet hurt. You know how they say, make sure you have a comfortable pair of shoes before you go travelling? Yep, good advice. Both my pairs kill me. I am now in thongs.

Oh, but watching Czech play USA on a massive screen in the old town square with 10 000 screaming Czechs was pretty good!

Another aside:

There are 2 rules to follow as an engineer:

1. If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it.
2. If it is broke, hit it.
   

Woohoo, mucked around with my camera today and managed to brute force push the lens back in! And it WORKS! FIXED! And they reckon I am not an engineer ...

So, one final shot from Prague:

Hope people reading are having as much fun as I am!

Tonight I will watch the Brazil Croatia game so I have all the tips on how we are going to go ... How good do those aussie vs. croatia tickets look now?!

Tomorrow is on to Nuremberg where the reinforcements arrive in the form of a super-pumped up Bruce! How good is this!

The adventure begins

So far I have enjoyed Vienna for 2 days, including walking around Stephenplatz, Schonnenbrunn (the Hopzburg summer palace), and starting watching the World Cup (well done Ecuador and Germany). The hostel I stayed in has been fantastic (cleaner than boys house?) and the people super friendly. The highlight has to be however the amazing schnitzel. I love Austria!


Tomorrow the plan is to kick on to Chezky Krumlov in the Czech republic. This was originally going to involve a train leaving at 7am, but I am now going for the far more civilized 1pm train. Watching all this soccer is certainly taking its toll!

Anyone, the posts will get longer as well, taking me a while to get all this technology stuff worked out! Oh, and to give you some perspective, the beer in the schnitzel picture is 500ml!