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.
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.
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.
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. 
