11 JUN - Off again (Day 4)
Sorry to disappoint, this is not a comment on my mental state. As accurate as it may seem, this is just a reference to the rather hectic schedule we have been keeping so far.
Today, we drove to Dusseldorf and then onto Cologne for the Portugal v Angola.
On our way, we snapped this shot of heaven. At least heaven for some people, namely our sister Zacheus. That's not her real name. Everyone knows that Zacheus is a boy's name. Anyway, she REALLY likes IKEA. I figure she could meander around this store gawking at the merchandise completely oblivious her surroundings just as she did when she was 4 and we went to King's Island. We almost lost her 7 times.
Here is an interesting picture. We were crossing a valley and we were SURROUNDED by pine trees. That's all you saw. It was incredible.
I'm going to take this moment to refute a little of what Rocco said about "The First Incident". I didn't really use kid's gloves with the police. I just didn't have the vocabulary for what they wanted to know. They pulled me over because they didn't recognize the license plates that I had. They aren't typical rental plates. The cop with 1 star on his shoulders was nice until his boss (with 3 stars) probably told him to stop talking with me. It all ended up OK. They must have figured out that we weren't bank robbers especially since we probably could have afforded an attorney to travel with us. I just wish we had taken a picture of the incident.
We figured it would be easier to book a room in a city where there is not a match. Dusseldorf close enough to Cologne and Dortmund so we have settled there for a couple of days. Our hotel is the building with the dark balconies. We were across from a park which was PACKED with kids when we arrived. I've also included a picture of Rocco in his room. Again, I'm not kidding about the sizes of the rooms. The bathroom is on the left in the hall. For reference, this hotel was 87 euros a night or about $110/night.
Our timing today was a little off. We checked into the hotel and then drove to Cologne. We though we had plenty of time so we drove around a bit. We found this character meandering around downtown Cologne. Holy white suits, Elvis. He was quite the stylish dresser. We swore he was a pimp. At least, if I was a pimp, I would dress like this.
We got a lost a bit. Got found a bit. Thank God. We did get some nice shots of downtown Cologne.
We also found the Fan Plaza in Cologne. Isn't it amazing how many people will turn-out to watch the World Cup on a big screen downtown? I think it really adds to the game to watch with hundreds of other people even if you're favorite team isn't playing. To me, it is like watching a big move on opening night. You can just feel the excitement in the air.
We were getting a little peckish so we decided to find a restaurant. This took longer than expected and we had to rush dinner. We had pizza European fashion. The crust isn't quite as thick and pepperoni is salami. Our waitress was very beautiful though. I think Rocco was watching a different match on television.
We got to the pitch in time though. Here is a picture of me in walking (OK, posing) outside the parking lot in Cologne. They had the parking lot in this nice park. They had the cars on the sand lot football pitch. We had to walk about 1/2 mile to get to the field.
Rocco had traded some of our Czech tickets to an English lad for these Portugal tickets. While we waited outside the stadium for the trade, we saw this sports fan dressed in white jumpers with World Cup team flags. I thought it was really cool. I'm thinking of doing the same thing but with Beatles albums.
We finally made the trade and went into the stadium. Once we got past security, I struck a pose just for good measure. Actually, I was musing how I would answer the question "Are you really Sinead McDonald?" That was the name on my ticket. I do a pretty good Scottish accent but I only have half of the important anatomy to be a Sinead.
Here are some action shots of the players as they warmed up and played. I won't include many of these since you can see all of these you want (in better detail) on TV and in the news.
This guy was a little out of place. Holland fans wear orange. This was Portugal v Angola. I thought Europeans were better at geometry than me. I just really like his hat. We have seen a lot of this though. Fans from other countries enjoying a match but still supporting their country.
Here is a picture of the Portugal section. It is incredible to hear thousands of voices shouting in unison supporting their team. The only thing that hurts their rhythm is when they hear the chants from other fans across the stadium. The time delay in sound usually confuses everyone and the cheer dies. Still, the uniformity in color is impressive.
Here's another "I was there" shot. I'm going to try and do this for every game. Maybe you'll be able to tell where I am in the trip by how long my hair is. I wore my "European" outfit today. Bad idea. Typical European casual attire is blue jeans with nice shoes (I wore tenni's, much more comfortable) and a dark colored or blue shirt. I was very hot today but I didn't melt too badly.
Portugal won the match against Angola, 1 - 0. There was this one Angola player who tried to do a bicycle kick several times. It reminded me of this kids who slid into second on a walk just to get their uniform dirty. It definitely was fun to watch.
Rocco mentioned that we met a very nice Cologne resident at the match (in Cologne). Toward (thanks Dr. D!) the end of the match, almost the entire crowd was singing fight songs. It turns out that they weren't Portugal or Angola fight songs. The Cologne resident said that they were Cologne fight songs. That would be weird for me to go to a Fort Wayne hockey game to sing Huntington North fight songs. It takes all kinds.
Once we made it back to Dusseldorf, I was up until about 3AM paying bills. Just because I am on vacation doesn't mean that the bills disappear. Out of sight, out of mind just doesn't work no matter how much I petition my congressman. I did take some time though to do a practice run for my hair stying for tomorrow's US match. Here is a preview.
Fast and furious,
Knuckles
Today, we drove to Dusseldorf and then onto Cologne for the Portugal v Angola.
On our way, we snapped this shot of heaven. At least heaven for some people, namely our sister Zacheus. That's not her real name. Everyone knows that Zacheus is a boy's name. Anyway, she REALLY likes IKEA. I figure she could meander around this store gawking at the merchandise completely oblivious her surroundings just as she did when she was 4 and we went to King's Island. We almost lost her 7 times.
Here is an interesting picture. We were crossing a valley and we were SURROUNDED by pine trees. That's all you saw. It was incredible.
I'm going to take this moment to refute a little of what Rocco said about "The First Incident". I didn't really use kid's gloves with the police. I just didn't have the vocabulary for what they wanted to know. They pulled me over because they didn't recognize the license plates that I had. They aren't typical rental plates. The cop with 1 star on his shoulders was nice until his boss (with 3 stars) probably told him to stop talking with me. It all ended up OK. They must have figured out that we weren't bank robbers especially since we probably could have afforded an attorney to travel with us. I just wish we had taken a picture of the incident.
We figured it would be easier to book a room in a city where there is not a match. Dusseldorf close enough to Cologne and Dortmund so we have settled there for a couple of days. Our hotel is the building with the dark balconies. We were across from a park which was PACKED with kids when we arrived. I've also included a picture of Rocco in his room. Again, I'm not kidding about the sizes of the rooms. The bathroom is on the left in the hall. For reference, this hotel was 87 euros a night or about $110/night.
Our timing today was a little off. We checked into the hotel and then drove to Cologne. We though we had plenty of time so we drove around a bit. We found this character meandering around downtown Cologne. Holy white suits, Elvis. He was quite the stylish dresser. We swore he was a pimp. At least, if I was a pimp, I would dress like this.
We got a lost a bit. Got found a bit. Thank God. We did get some nice shots of downtown Cologne.
We also found the Fan Plaza in Cologne. Isn't it amazing how many people will turn-out to watch the World Cup on a big screen downtown? I think it really adds to the game to watch with hundreds of other people even if you're favorite team isn't playing. To me, it is like watching a big move on opening night. You can just feel the excitement in the air.
We were getting a little peckish so we decided to find a restaurant. This took longer than expected and we had to rush dinner. We had pizza European fashion. The crust isn't quite as thick and pepperoni is salami. Our waitress was very beautiful though. I think Rocco was watching a different match on television.
We got to the pitch in time though. Here is a picture of me in walking (OK, posing) outside the parking lot in Cologne. They had the parking lot in this nice park. They had the cars on the sand lot football pitch. We had to walk about 1/2 mile to get to the field.
Rocco had traded some of our Czech tickets to an English lad for these Portugal tickets. While we waited outside the stadium for the trade, we saw this sports fan dressed in white jumpers with World Cup team flags. I thought it was really cool. I'm thinking of doing the same thing but with Beatles albums.
We finally made the trade and went into the stadium. Once we got past security, I struck a pose just for good measure. Actually, I was musing how I would answer the question "Are you really Sinead McDonald?" That was the name on my ticket. I do a pretty good Scottish accent but I only have half of the important anatomy to be a Sinead.
Here are some action shots of the players as they warmed up and played. I won't include many of these since you can see all of these you want (in better detail) on TV and in the news.
This guy was a little out of place. Holland fans wear orange. This was Portugal v Angola. I thought Europeans were better at geometry than me. I just really like his hat. We have seen a lot of this though. Fans from other countries enjoying a match but still supporting their country.
Here is a picture of the Portugal section. It is incredible to hear thousands of voices shouting in unison supporting their team. The only thing that hurts their rhythm is when they hear the chants from other fans across the stadium. The time delay in sound usually confuses everyone and the cheer dies. Still, the uniformity in color is impressive.
Here's another "I was there" shot. I'm going to try and do this for every game. Maybe you'll be able to tell where I am in the trip by how long my hair is. I wore my "European" outfit today. Bad idea. Typical European casual attire is blue jeans with nice shoes (I wore tenni's, much more comfortable) and a dark colored or blue shirt. I was very hot today but I didn't melt too badly.
Portugal won the match against Angola, 1 - 0. There was this one Angola player who tried to do a bicycle kick several times. It reminded me of this kids who slid into second on a walk just to get their uniform dirty. It definitely was fun to watch.
Rocco mentioned that we met a very nice Cologne resident at the match (in Cologne). Toward (thanks Dr. D!) the end of the match, almost the entire crowd was singing fight songs. It turns out that they weren't Portugal or Angola fight songs. The Cologne resident said that they were Cologne fight songs. That would be weird for me to go to a Fort Wayne hockey game to sing Huntington North fight songs. It takes all kinds.
Once we made it back to Dusseldorf, I was up until about 3AM paying bills. Just because I am on vacation doesn't mean that the bills disappear. Out of sight, out of mind just doesn't work no matter how much I petition my congressman. I did take some time though to do a practice run for my hair stying for tomorrow's US match. Here is a preview.
Fast and furious,
Knuckles
posted by jprg4evr at 2:12 PM
1 Comments:
I'm surprised your head is still so white and not red. SPF 50? :-)
and
Go Komets!!!
-Shaffer
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