Relaxing in Gibblestadt atm. had a great feed yesterday but only after travelling for ages to get it. We ventured to Ruhrglen (not the correct name, not even close) about 3 hours drive from here for a yearly school reunion of my uncle Peter's classmates and friends. They put on a fantastic spread of German foods which was great. I shoudln't have had any of the wine though (which was great) cause I was pretty dehydrated already and left with a decent headache when we eventually left at about midnight.
Caught most of the first half of England v Portugal at Peter's brothers house - he seemed a very disgruntled German, and then most of the second half at the party (I missed Rooney's stamp!). I picked both fixtures correctly - woot! I bet VJ didn't put his money where his mouth was about France :P And it's too bad Mike has gone home, cause I have been waiting for England to fall down after their utterly lousy group games. Admittedly the Ecuador Round of 16 game made more sense after seeing England v Portugal, it seems Ecuador was a training run for that game, which was going well untill Rooney lost the plot. I wonder if he will return home to universal disgust like Beckham did in 98? Perhaps not, since I don't expect Sven would be as senseless as Keegan and blame Rooney solely for England's exit. Still, Rooney is an ugly and rather senseless fellow - barely a glimmer of the player that almost set Euro 2004 alight, and it might be a harder road for him to regain public sympathy without Beckham's star power.
France on the other hand was very impressive and seem suited against 'big' teams by out playing them with skill, and remaining structuraly solid and determined in defence. I think by this method they will overcome Portugal enroute to the final but be unable to cope with both the hostile German crowd, and the exuberant play of the Germans - who you might note are the least skilful team remaining in terms of players! That of course assumes Germany will get past the 11 Italians who will spend half the time on the ground. I didn't watch Italy defeat Ukraine but that can hardly be an indicator of form and Germany will be a very different proposition - likewise though, it would be unlikely that Germany will score many unless have yet another man sent off.
Alas the Germans aren't as passionate as I have come to expect from the Australians. The World Cup is less exciting by a long distance now that we are out :(
Not so much to do when there is no football! Went to kick a ball about with Theodore and his mates this afternoon at the local pitch which although unmown was pretty cool. A small beach volleyball court with net, a large football pitch, with shot net at one end, 2 fixed fullsize goals at either end and 2 light weight moveable 3/4 size aluminium goals with nets. I managed to clear the shot net alas with one wayward free kick.
While in Berlin on our non-football days we (Mike and I) visited the
Berlin Fan-Fest, the
Football Globe, the
Reichstag (German Parliament) and
Pele Station.
The
Berlin Fan-Fest was quite huge - but being a non-match day, largely empty. It can hold over a million it appears! As was the case the day we left for Germany v Argentina.
The
Football Globe was something I had heard about preiously and quite keen to visit Berlin for. Fortunately it was free the day we visited as despite being incredibly imaginative, was not very entertaining. In side was a small merchandise kiosk (of course!) and the main room held various interactive displays broadcast on the roof- however the content was limited. A movie projetion IMAX style would have been infinetely more entertaining, alas.
The
Reichstag was annoying to enter. One of the lifts was initially out of order it seemed, so there was both a wait to get in as you waited in line, then went through security, then waited for the lift! And when you left, waiting for the lift down, and then would you believe, a second lift down to the side exit. The rooftop was nice for the archetecture and views, but nothing else. I couldn't see into the Parliament room below as I was led to believe, possibly because it wasn't a sitting day.
Pele Station was a cool exhibit. It was located in a large area inside the Potzdamer Platz train station which was curious to begin with. The visit Rio kiosk inside was expected but not the
marketing stall of the company that handles Pele's image which greeted us next and I feared it would be a huge marketing exercise (which it was, but not in a bad way in the end...). Then there was a small video of Pele gaining glory in his first World Cup (Sweden) before we really got in the mood... with
Football in the Dark! In a small, indoor football sized room iluminated only by ultraviolet flourecent lights along the sidelines, ceiling and goalposts, you could play football wearing fluoro vests and with an inflated, internally lit, colour changing ball! It was just me and mike taking shots, till 2 others joined us. Would have been way cool with a few more people (we went late at night and were virtually the only ones there) but also an injury risk, as you could see the ball, other player's chests, but not violently swinging legs! The exhibit also had a cool projected game of
Pele Pong Fussball and would show a different Pele goal each time someone scored. Also there were numerous short (3 mins) films about different things Pele had done, and several cool Pele items including many trophies featuring his unique Replica of the Jules Rimet Trophy (predecessor of the world cup), and his 3 world cup winner medals! There was also a massive wide
Virtual Pitch and Stadium projection which was supposed to show Pele playing against Pele! But it was switched off or something. After such an awesomeness onslaught to the senses, I was forced to spend many a Euro in the Pele store at the exit!
That was about it for Berlin. We visited a few other things here and there. The
Olympic Stadium where the final will be, except that we couldn't get in! A broadcasting arena in Potzdamer place which would have been cool to attend on a match day. Other than that, we went shopping, and among the various football paraphenalia me and mike are bringing back to all you lot, I scored a
half-price Australia shirt and a
half-price Netherlands shirt! Which I promplty made expensive by adding text and numbers too! Still I was a happy chappy. The Adidas store was cool but crowded, and discountless. The Nikestore called
NikeTown was aesthetically very sexy (you can do a lot more when you don't limit yourself to black and white) and I picked up some cool bits and pieces in addition to lettering for my Niederlander strip (v.Persie!)
Next. Will probably spend just another day here with the relos. It's quite nice so it will be a shame to leave. My cousins are both very friendly as are their parents but Football calls. So off to Munich for Deutschland's next encounter in the Semis and to see the remaining cousins Kevin and Sabrina.
Pirates was way cool! Fantastic sequel, completely unlike Legend of Zorro (omg), but very similar to Empire Strikes Back!
