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.