22 JUN - Stay on Target (Day 15)
I can't believe that we have been here over 2 weeks now!
We stayed at a VERY nice place last night. It was a castle in the middle of the woods in this really small town called Rothenbuch. It didn't look like your typical castle though. You could tell it was old because the doors were low and we had to climb a circular staircase to reach the rooms. That's always fun. I think when I grow-up I'm going to have circular stairwells in my house.
If you weren't looking for it, you might drive by the castle. Once you turn of the main road, it's apparent which building is the castle. Of course, there are signs that say that too.
When we first pulled up to the castle, we were sure route to take. Were supposed to drive under the gate or turn left down an unknown hill to some unknown destination? If this was a working castle, I wouldn't want to run over their chickens.
We know it wasn't to our right. You could see a city wall or castle wall off to the right. Turns out this castle straddled the main road. People have been collecting tolls for a long time.
We made a decision NOT to make a decision and just park and walk into the courtyard.
It turns out that the parking lot was BEHIND the castle and the road to the left took us there.
We did have to cross this cool little creek into the parking lot. I stopped to give the dogs a drink.
We had to make sure we were on the road early today. We had to drive from Rothenbuch (about 45km outside of Frankfurt) into Frankfurt, retrieved Imran and then drove to Nuremberg which was about 150km from Frankfurt. Just in case you didn't know, Nuremberg has at least 3 spellings of it's name, Nuremberg, Nurmberg and Nurnberg. Even the last spelling is not correct. I do not have the cool u with dots above it. Why is it that in English we have to "rename" cities? Why can't we just call them what the locals call them?
I am in the full swing of the World Cup now. I was totally pumped for the USA match today. I was even more pumped after we had arrived at the stadium and I found my hair gel. I thought that I had left it in the hotel in Leipzig. I lifted and massaged and created this beautfiul bouffant hairdo that you see here. I also changed my face paint. I decided to go a little more war style today which had some interesting aspects later on. Here we are, Brothers in Paint.
Although the fans of a lot of other teams wear crazy clothes, I think the Americans really give them the run for their money in terms of originality. These guys had a good beat and you could dance their music. I'd give them a 72.
Here is a classic example of American ingenuity. These guys were indicating how US soccer was in its infancy. I wasn't quite sure that's how the message came across. I thought they were "Gruntin' for Goals". I'm just glad that they weren't carrying magazines or books with them.
Of course, other American fans chose more subtle ways of displaying their patriotism. This lovely lady had an American flag bikini top. It was quite inspiring. The guys in the Ghana getup just to the right were definitely eyeing her Stars and Stripes.
I think these girls are going to be wiping paint from themselves until the US returns to the World Cup in 2010 in South Africa. They look kind of like patriotic smurfs.
We didn't have any problems finding the stadium today. We arrived in Nuremberg with plenty of time, found our parking place and made our way to the field. The dogs were feeling patriotic today.
Here is one FOCUSED fan. He knew that today's game was critical. Italy had to lose and the US had to win. It's Ghana right? We should be able to beat them with our hands behind our backs.
Of course, the stadium was sold-out today. For some reason, FIFA always tells us how many people attended the match and that the match is sold-out. If there was a World Cup match that wasn't sold-out, I would be astounded. Now, as we all know, sold-out doesn't mean completely packed. There were probably still some empty seats today especially in the VIP section.
Here is our man Imran. He is an actuarian who is moving from South Africa to Saudi Arabia and is in Germany to attend a couple World Cup matches. We sold him the Argentina v Netheralnd tickets and offered to take him with us to the USA v Ghana match. He was very excited to see Ghana play since he is from Africa. I felt a little sorry for him since he was wearing a Ghana flag in the middle of the USA fan section. It really wasn't a problem though. The lady next to him noticed that he was a little cold and offered to let him wear her USA scarf, tee-hee.
Today's match was very disappointing. We lost 2 to 1. The USA played their typical game and it just can't match against a quick, fluid team like Ghana. The referees didn't help. "And the Oscar goes to .... Ghana". Seriously, if our players breathed on these guys, they fell down. Ahh well, we're onto another match tomorrow.
After the match, we went straight to the airport in Frankfurt. OK, we didn't go STRAIGHT there. We came upon a stand still traffic jam and decided to take a detour. We just followed all the rest of the traffic. Of course, as we were making our back to the highway, we had to stop and get something to eat. I don't think that the Burger King where we stopped was expecting all of the traffic. It seems like all of the fans at the game today were from Frankfurt. Anyway, we made it to the Frankfurt airport about 11:30. We were picking-up Rocco's friend John. Rocco and John had worked together at the law firm. John is living and studying in Spain right now and he flew in for the Spain v Saudi Arabie match tomorrow with Rocco and me. Unfortunately, John had to wait at the airport about 3 hours before we arrived. After that, we took Imran to his apartment (he was on his way to Berlin the next morning for another match) and we headed back to Rottenbuch and our castle away from home.
We had perfect weather for today though. It was about 80 degrees Fahrenheit with a slight breeze and slightly overcast. It was warm enough but you probably weren't going to get sunburned. I said probably. It turns out that I did get a little sunburned but not in a normal manner. Once I had removed the zig-zag make-up on my face that night, I noticed that I had zig-zag stripes in my head. I was looking very fashionable when John and I made our way to the bar in the hotel tonight.
Your friend in stripes,
Knuckles
We stayed at a VERY nice place last night. It was a castle in the middle of the woods in this really small town called Rothenbuch. It didn't look like your typical castle though. You could tell it was old because the doors were low and we had to climb a circular staircase to reach the rooms. That's always fun. I think when I grow-up I'm going to have circular stairwells in my house.
If you weren't looking for it, you might drive by the castle. Once you turn of the main road, it's apparent which building is the castle. Of course, there are signs that say that too.
When we first pulled up to the castle, we were sure route to take. Were supposed to drive under the gate or turn left down an unknown hill to some unknown destination? If this was a working castle, I wouldn't want to run over their chickens.
We know it wasn't to our right. You could see a city wall or castle wall off to the right. Turns out this castle straddled the main road. People have been collecting tolls for a long time.
We made a decision NOT to make a decision and just park and walk into the courtyard.
It turns out that the parking lot was BEHIND the castle and the road to the left took us there.
We did have to cross this cool little creek into the parking lot. I stopped to give the dogs a drink.
We had to make sure we were on the road early today. We had to drive from Rothenbuch (about 45km outside of Frankfurt) into Frankfurt, retrieved Imran and then drove to Nuremberg which was about 150km from Frankfurt. Just in case you didn't know, Nuremberg has at least 3 spellings of it's name, Nuremberg, Nurmberg and Nurnberg. Even the last spelling is not correct. I do not have the cool u with dots above it. Why is it that in English we have to "rename" cities? Why can't we just call them what the locals call them?
I am in the full swing of the World Cup now. I was totally pumped for the USA match today. I was even more pumped after we had arrived at the stadium and I found my hair gel. I thought that I had left it in the hotel in Leipzig. I lifted and massaged and created this beautfiul bouffant hairdo that you see here. I also changed my face paint. I decided to go a little more war style today which had some interesting aspects later on. Here we are, Brothers in Paint.
Although the fans of a lot of other teams wear crazy clothes, I think the Americans really give them the run for their money in terms of originality. These guys had a good beat and you could dance their music. I'd give them a 72.
Here is a classic example of American ingenuity. These guys were indicating how US soccer was in its infancy. I wasn't quite sure that's how the message came across. I thought they were "Gruntin' for Goals". I'm just glad that they weren't carrying magazines or books with them.
Of course, other American fans chose more subtle ways of displaying their patriotism. This lovely lady had an American flag bikini top. It was quite inspiring. The guys in the Ghana getup just to the right were definitely eyeing her Stars and Stripes.
I think these girls are going to be wiping paint from themselves until the US returns to the World Cup in 2010 in South Africa. They look kind of like patriotic smurfs.
We didn't have any problems finding the stadium today. We arrived in Nuremberg with plenty of time, found our parking place and made our way to the field. The dogs were feeling patriotic today.
Here is one FOCUSED fan. He knew that today's game was critical. Italy had to lose and the US had to win. It's Ghana right? We should be able to beat them with our hands behind our backs.
Of course, the stadium was sold-out today. For some reason, FIFA always tells us how many people attended the match and that the match is sold-out. If there was a World Cup match that wasn't sold-out, I would be astounded. Now, as we all know, sold-out doesn't mean completely packed. There were probably still some empty seats today especially in the VIP section.
Here is our man Imran. He is an actuarian who is moving from South Africa to Saudi Arabia and is in Germany to attend a couple World Cup matches. We sold him the Argentina v Netheralnd tickets and offered to take him with us to the USA v Ghana match. He was very excited to see Ghana play since he is from Africa. I felt a little sorry for him since he was wearing a Ghana flag in the middle of the USA fan section. It really wasn't a problem though. The lady next to him noticed that he was a little cold and offered to let him wear her USA scarf, tee-hee.
Today's match was very disappointing. We lost 2 to 1. The USA played their typical game and it just can't match against a quick, fluid team like Ghana. The referees didn't help. "And the Oscar goes to .... Ghana". Seriously, if our players breathed on these guys, they fell down. Ahh well, we're onto another match tomorrow.
After the match, we went straight to the airport in Frankfurt. OK, we didn't go STRAIGHT there. We came upon a stand still traffic jam and decided to take a detour. We just followed all the rest of the traffic. Of course, as we were making our back to the highway, we had to stop and get something to eat. I don't think that the Burger King where we stopped was expecting all of the traffic. It seems like all of the fans at the game today were from Frankfurt. Anyway, we made it to the Frankfurt airport about 11:30. We were picking-up Rocco's friend John. Rocco and John had worked together at the law firm. John is living and studying in Spain right now and he flew in for the Spain v Saudi Arabie match tomorrow with Rocco and me. Unfortunately, John had to wait at the airport about 3 hours before we arrived. After that, we took Imran to his apartment (he was on his way to Berlin the next morning for another match) and we headed back to Rottenbuch and our castle away from home.
We had perfect weather for today though. It was about 80 degrees Fahrenheit with a slight breeze and slightly overcast. It was warm enough but you probably weren't going to get sunburned. I said probably. It turns out that I did get a little sunburned but not in a normal manner. Once I had removed the zig-zag make-up on my face that night, I noticed that I had zig-zag stripes in my head. I was looking very fashionable when John and I made our way to the bar in the hotel tonight.
Your friend in stripes,
Knuckles
posted by jprg4evr at 1:56 PM
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