Seasonfinale: 22-24 May 2009

Friday 22nd May: London-Bochum

When we booked a trip to Cologne on the final day of the season, it looked like it would be a do or die clash that would determine whether Vfl Bochum survived. By the time we set out (to the 3am alarm call, naturally), the game at the Mungersdorferstadion was the one Bundesliga game with nothing riding on it. Thus we could chill out and enjoy the weekend, stress free.

After the night bus to St.Pancras, we headed off over the channel.

Brussels is a city that features prominently on these trips, though rather than just a baguette in Panos and head off , we decided to take a side trip to see the Belgian National Stadium in Heysel, now renamed the Roi Badouin Stadium.

This took us on the Brussels Metro, a.k.a. Europe's largest art gallery. Each station had been turned into a work of art, something that really brightened up our journey.

Twenty minutes later, we arrived in Heysel.

First impressions of the stadium were rather underwhelming. Indeed far more interesting were the nearby Atomium...

...and this rather cool slide:

Nonetheless, the stadium did boast some excellent floodlights and better still for us an open gate. So naturally we wandered in.

The diminutive nature of the stadium, it turned out, was due to it being built into the hill, and so actually it was quite impressive.

Prior to this trip, Danny Last, founder of the European Football Weekends website and facebook group of the same name, had sent me some large badges. The idea is to (i) photograph them in as many stadiums as possible and (ii) find a celebrity to have their picture taken with them. The first was easy:

The second was less so. As the stadium was empty, I had to settle for John Henniker. In my defence this groundhopper extraodinare is known to every club secretary in the Dog and Duck League, where he gets his daily football fix.

Back outside, we found a memorial to the Heysel Stadium Tragedy of 1985, when 39 people lost their lives during a match between Liverpool and Juventus.

Back at the Gare du Midi, we stocked up for the long journey on to Bochum. Desparados, beer with Tequila, looked intriguing, so I tried one. Suffice to say the name is appropriate. Only buy it if you are desparate.

Desparado John had not had time to buy any lunch, so he eat mine instead.

On the way out of Brussels, we caught a brief glimpse again of the Atomium, alas not of Heysel, which perhaps gives an impression of their relative statures.

The onward journey was largely unexciting, flat fields and motorways dominating the landscape before Liege came into view.

Olly got on with reading the Financial Times...

... before delivering a speech to the empty chair opposite.

We changed trains in the quintessentially Belgian town of Welkenraedt, home of a big hole and some graffiti.

Through Aachen and into Germany, we caught some kip before arrival in Bochum.

Unusually for one of these trips, we were not going to a game that evening as there was a distinct lack of good games to see. Instead we found the hotel and watched some telly.

A European Football Weekend without football? No chance - look what we found:

And we all know how that particular story ended...

Refreshed we went out for some dinner, before meeting up with everyone again in Brinkhoff's.

Back at the hotel, more fun and frolicks.

Saturday 23rd May: 1.FC Koln v Vfl Bochum

The next day, we headed off for the weekend's only meaningless game in the 1. Bundesliga. After an uneventful journey by train and tram, we arrived at the Mungersdorferstadion in Cologne.

The visitors standing allocation sold out very quickly, so rather than being in here:

...we were up there.

Nonetheless, with its very steep rake, the view from the seating deck was excellent.

There was also a good view from the top:

The locals dressed for the occasion.

The Sudkurve put on an impressive display before the game, in one of the finest TIFO displays I have ever seen.

The display in the Gasteblock was rather less impressive.

The game itself featured a rare scene, Bochum taking the lead, Diego Klimowicz heading home a corner. Order was restored six minutes later when Anthar Yahia put through his own net and that was how it stayed until half time.

After the break, interest turned to what was happening in the stands. The Sudkurve displayed a range of banners, like this one:

Meanwhile, both sets of fans held up these arrows - only later would we find out what they were for.

After more huffing and puffing on the pitchthe game ended up 1-1, so naturally lots of people walked on the pitch, stood in a line and let off balloons.

Outside, we found the abandoned arrows with the protest messages against stadium bans, heavy handed policing and fan repression. Interesting when from an English perspective it is the comparatively much higher levels of fan freedom that entices us back to Germany, time and time again. All things are relative, perhaps.

Back in town, we took a look inside the Cathedral. The Kolner Dom is a remarkable construction, both in its size and grandeur.

A short while later, we found a Mexican restuarant for some dinner. Sitting outside, naturally with the Dom as the backdrop, we were amused as a number of beer bikes rode past; a bizarre combination of a bike and a pub.

The Rhine was rather impressive too:

We were not staying in Cologne that night, however. Our game the next day was in Kiel, in the far north of Germany, which would have meant a very early start. So instead we took the sleeper train, bound for Copenhagen. Actually, it wasn't only bound for Copenhagen, but had different compartments going to Berlin, Prague, Warsaw, Minsk and Moscow. So if you end up getting drunk and sitting in the wrong carriage, you might have an early morning wake up call from the Belarussian border police.

Our cabin was full with a Swedish girl sandwiched between me and John, something that made him so happy he cracked open the cherry beer.

By the time he had finished the Swedish girl had fallen asleep and so he had to settle for Olly instead.

Outside there were some strange sights, like this green dragon...

and some strange blood like substance on the carriage. Wierd.

After spooking ourselves out, we retired to sleep.

One thing the night train didn't provide us with, was a lie in. So with a 5am alarm call I got everyone up... only to discover soon after that I needn't have bothered, as the train was 45 minutes late.

Still, it gave us the opportunity to see this wonderful sunrise...

...and this remarkable viaduct.

We were travelling through Schleswig-Holstein, Germany's most northerly region. It is famous for it's cows, of which we saw plenty.

Some wind farms too:

Eventually we arrived in the town of Flensburg. Flensburg is the most northerly town Germany, the last before Denmark. Appropriately, it was twinned with Carlisle, the last town before Scotland.

Back on the road, we took the short side trip to Kiel, all of us falling asleep along the way.

On arrival at Kiel Hbf, we found it infested with not one but two McDonald's. The first did not meet John's quality control (it didn't serve breakfast) so we hung about for the second to open -only to discover it didn't either. John went for the Fish-o-Fillet (type of fish, indeterminet) while we settled for Coffee's.

Once outside, we found a fine old town. Kiel lies at the end of the Kielerfjord, a small inlet from the Ostsee. It is home to major shipping routes to Gothenburg and Oslo, and the Scandinavian influence was there for all to see. A little apperitif, we felt, as we would be visiting these two cities in just a few weeks time.

The Harbour also hosted a number of smaller vessels.

After seeing the ships, we sat down in the sun and had a beer.

Of course, we hadn't travelled through the night to look at cows and ships. Rather, our destination was the Holsteinstadion for the Regionaliganord clash between Holstein Kiel and Vfc Plauen. On arrival, we were greeted by a row of police vans. For a lower league game between two distant sides, it was rather excessive.

This was my ticket. Evidently, I had tired the others out, becuase they opted to sit in the main stand instead.

Inside, there was the rare sight of German terraces, without fences. Hopefully other clubs will follow.

Sadly, the Fangnetz was still in place to obstruct our view, although this did make a good target for the paper aeroplanes.

Not all made it:

Holstein Kiel are known as Die Storche and so had a silly mascot along with someone dressed as a water bottle.

In addition to the Ultras, Kiel had the Youthtras. Indeed the fansector had a very young feel about it.

The vorsangerpodest was occupied not by the capo, but this kid who led the flagwaving:

There were some decent flags in the terrace too:

I stood behind the youthtras section,where the atmosphere was good but the view rather less so. Such are the trade offs in life.

Those Gegengerade made some noise too:

The away supporters:

As well as the paper aeorplanes and stickers, there were the usual staples of stickers and acrobats.

And the less common sight of a war memorial.

With Kiel top and Plauen near the bottom and the visitors having their goalkeeper sent off early on, it promised to be a very one sided game. And so it proved, the home side piling on the pressure for virtually the entire game. Yet through a combination of stout defending and woeful finishing, Plauen held on for a 0-0 draw, much to everyone's disappointment. Still, it had been a very enjoyable day. Good town, good stadium, good beer, good atmosphere, good choreo, I recommend Kiel.

After the game, we headed back to the station and after a bite to eat proceeded on to Lubeck. A journey of nice scenery, sleep and strange liqour.

First impressions of Lubeck were very good, it certainly seemed a historic old place.

We settled down for dinner by the river, while news filtered through from England that Newcastle had been relegated.

After dinner, we looked at some more of the town.

John found a Vfb Lubeck poster:

And this... seemingly Woolies isn't quite dead yet.

Indeed we were in Europa, but this trip was coming to close. A short hop took us, for the second time in ten days, to Lubeck airport.

After thinking of plenty of reasons why we might wish to pay more, we joined the plane back home. On reflection, it was a pity that the numbers were not higher, but nonetheless it had been one of the most enjoyable trips yet.