Prague, Pedalos and Past it........Part 2

The border trauma behind us and a long day stretched out in front of us as we travelled to our overnight accommodation in the German town of Amberg. The hotel had been carefully selected and seemed to offer exactly what we were looking for, a small family run hotel, in a very picturesque town.

Now that the pecking order had been clearly established, our navigators offered a trouble free route to the town. Ian, conversed with a local lady, in his schoolboy German and obtained directions to the hotel. Things were looking up, we arrived at the hotel in plenty of time to park the car, check in,, drop off our bags, change into our match gear and exchange brief pleasantries with the hotel staff.

Ready for action, pity about the black socks Ben !!

We walked to the train station, which was only 100 metres from the hotel and bumped into our friends from the German police. Once more we were treated with kid gloves, our reputation had preceded us. They were clearly rattled by our silliness..."" oh your Englander humour, we cannot understand it "" they guffawed and ushered us on to the next available train to Nuremberg.

"" Quickly bring the train into the station these zany Englanders are making me pizzen mein pants""

The train journey was great, a nice clean train, good banter with the locals and good discussions with fellow German football fans, who were also taking in the match. This is how the beautiful game should be celebrated, not a hint of trouble and conversing with people who shared a love of football. 

We arrived in Nuremberg, at the main train station, right in the heart of the city and all the action. We met up with Gary, who had assisted us in obtaining our match tickets and set off for a drink, a bite to eat and mostly to soak up the pre match atmosphere. 

We were not to be disappointed, a Caribbean carnival was in full swing, we walked into the main area where both sets of fans mingled and enjoyed the occasion.

Just one big happy football family

 

Carnival time !!!

We took advantage of the free public transport on offer and caught a tram to the football stadium. On arrival at the famous showground, which hosted the Fanzone and was also, in the past, the site of the massive rallies held before and during the Second World War by the Nazi party. The podium shown in the photo below is still there and provides a poignant reminded to  times when tolerance was what it is today, but that was the past, the present was a coming together of a vast crowd who worshipped the Gods of football.  

 

 Bloke talking to his mate..." hey I wonder who will be sat here in 60 odd years...his mate replies ....." Don't know, but I hope they don't tuck into the Ox roast after the match, its crapunze !! ".

The match lived up to all our expectations, what an experience and all of us admitted to it, after the match, that the surge of national pride in seeing your country at the World Cup was worth the expense. The match ended in a 2-0 victory to England, goals by Peter Crouch and Steven Gerrard.

Nothing better than goading our hosts, well done Herbo !

The after match feast was provided back at the Fanzone, Oxen roasted on the spit, just craved off and bunged into a breadcake. Bill and myself were set up by Ben and Ian. Our breadcakes were filled with a little bit of meat and a big dollop of fat, disguised by a covering of gravy.....Yuk Yuk I still wake up at night nauseous from the memory.

We bade farewell to Gary and his family, some off us in a more physical manner than others, but he had provided us with good company and it had been a pleasure to meet him.

the flag of St George emblazoned on the boys, plonkers

We headed to the train station to catch the last train back to Amberg, but we had to partake in a MacDonald's ..mmmm so welcoming and delicious. It hit the spot, could have and should have had two meals.

 We had forgotten one very important thing throughout the day, i.e. to take on fluids, other than alcohol and boy did we suffer. The train journey back was uneventful and it was only during the return journey that it dawned on us how long we had been without adequate sleep. The two boys were bunked up together, myself and Bill  were in two singles and all of us immediately  drained the mini bars of  any liquids, even apple juice and fizzy water, we were  all so de-hydrated.

 The boys slept in their clothes on top of  beds and all of us were exhausted, but what a day, even now I can't believed we packed so much in.

...........What will tomorrow bring as we experience the medieval town of Amberg and travel back to Prague for our last night of the trip...