Day 11
What a day...we drove from our hotel in Alzey (just outside of Kaiserslautern) to Leipzig, which is part of former East Germany. Unfortunately, my camera was on the blink until after we got into town, but I'm not sure you'd want to see pictures of the town. As we were on the way there, I was reading in one of the guide books that nearly all of Leipig was destroyed by allied bombs, and it's unfortunate to see what has cropped up as a result. The town was very dirty and grungy, and it generally looked very bad. I'm sure this was a result of rebuilding under post-war communism. The buildings were run down, graffiti everywhere, and there was even an area on the way into town where there were just hundreds of huts, not homes, very close together to form a "community." Very sad to see these types of living conditions in a country that wants to come across as being as advanced as Germany. I guess they still have a long way to go to unify the country.
Upon our arrival in Leipzig, we drove downtown to the Hauptbahnhof, or main train station, which is (if I remember correctly) the largest train station in Europe. It has 3 levels of shopping in addition to the train station. We walked around there a bit, taking in the atmosphere of Koreans and Frenchies. We then proceeded to the "Fanfest" which is set up in each city hosting the World Cup as a place with big TVs that the public is welcome to come watch the other games being played that day. Here's a photo of the Fanfest in Leipzig yesterday:
We stayed there for the second half of the Japan-Croatia match, then headed back over to the Hauptbahnhof for some lunch. From there is where it gets REAL interesting. We decided to park over by the stadium, so we hopped in the car and started heading that way only to find all of the streets we needed to take were blocked off. As we go closer, the Polizei diverted us further away until finally, on officer told us that we needed a ticket to park (which we didn't have), and as it turns out, parking was pretty much: park on the street near the stadium in the neighborhood and walk to the stadium. After much searching, we finally found a spot that was a bit from the stadium. As we got near the stadium, we kept asking where the entrance for our tickets was, and we had to (again) walk around the entire stadium to the opposite side, except you can't walk straight there, you have to walk AWAY from the stadium...around a parking lot...THEN you can go to the stadium. It was very poorly planned out.
We got to our seats just as they were lining up for kickoff. We had great seats, 31 rows from the front, just behind the goal. Luckily for me, France was coming towards us on offense in the first half. I say luckily, because I chose this particular match because Thierry Henry is my current favorite footballer, and he plays for France. We were also lucky enough to have seats in the France supporters section, so we were surrounded by people rooting for the same team (as me). In about the 12th minute or so, Thierry Henry scored RIGHT IN FRONT OF US! I was so pumped that I high-fived every Frenchie in our section, or so it seemed. This was the first goal that France has scored in a World Cup match since 1998.
The entire rest of the game was up-tempo and very enjoyable. We sat just to the side of the jumbotron, so we couldn't see how much time was left, but I didn't care...I didn't want it to end. For me, this has been the best match to watch to date.
Here is a map of our travels today:
Cheers,
Rocco
Upon our arrival in Leipzig, we drove downtown to the Hauptbahnhof, or main train station, which is (if I remember correctly) the largest train station in Europe. It has 3 levels of shopping in addition to the train station. We walked around there a bit, taking in the atmosphere of Koreans and Frenchies. We then proceeded to the "Fanfest" which is set up in each city hosting the World Cup as a place with big TVs that the public is welcome to come watch the other games being played that day. Here's a photo of the Fanfest in Leipzig yesterday:
We stayed there for the second half of the Japan-Croatia match, then headed back over to the Hauptbahnhof for some lunch. From there is where it gets REAL interesting. We decided to park over by the stadium, so we hopped in the car and started heading that way only to find all of the streets we needed to take were blocked off. As we go closer, the Polizei diverted us further away until finally, on officer told us that we needed a ticket to park (which we didn't have), and as it turns out, parking was pretty much: park on the street near the stadium in the neighborhood and walk to the stadium. After much searching, we finally found a spot that was a bit from the stadium. As we got near the stadium, we kept asking where the entrance for our tickets was, and we had to (again) walk around the entire stadium to the opposite side, except you can't walk straight there, you have to walk AWAY from the stadium...around a parking lot...THEN you can go to the stadium. It was very poorly planned out.
We got to our seats just as they were lining up for kickoff. We had great seats, 31 rows from the front, just behind the goal. Luckily for me, France was coming towards us on offense in the first half. I say luckily, because I chose this particular match because Thierry Henry is my current favorite footballer, and he plays for France. We were also lucky enough to have seats in the France supporters section, so we were surrounded by people rooting for the same team (as me). In about the 12th minute or so, Thierry Henry scored RIGHT IN FRONT OF US! I was so pumped that I high-fived every Frenchie in our section, or so it seemed. This was the first goal that France has scored in a World Cup match since 1998.
The entire rest of the game was up-tempo and very enjoyable. We sat just to the side of the jumbotron, so we couldn't see how much time was left, but I didn't care...I didn't want it to end. For me, this has been the best match to watch to date.
Here is a map of our travels today:
Cheers,
Rocco
posted by Rocco at 11:25 PM
3 Comments:
Your thoughts about the sad state of living conditions in former East German towns/cities echo what we observed in 2004 near Knonach. These towns have not recovered from Communist rule. I expect many of the people who could get out of these towns and earn a living elsewhere have done so. It seems like only the old people remain. Very sad.
It sounds like the parking is like at Wrigley Field. Did you check to see if you could park at the McDonald's across the street?...lol...dad
Thought you guys would enjoy this one....
The US press is running a story about a pair of 'Muricans that went to germany to watch the world cup. They arrived at the city where the match was being played(I believe they said Cologne), and parked on the street, writing down the name of the street so they could find it when they returned. Upon leaving the stadium, they went looking for their car. Unable to find the street, they asked a policeman where they could find their street: Ein Bahn Strassen.
(I had to guess at the spelling because I heard it on the radio. For those that don't know German, this is translated as: One Way Street. )
Hope you're still having fun over there!
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