World Cup Fever Part 2

Today we woke up, ate breakfast in the hotel's restaurant, and headed into the downtown of Munich to begin our first full day in Germany. Our plan was to spend a little bit of time seeing the historic buildings in the downtown area and then join Mike's Bike Tour around 11AM and get the full overview of Munich.

During the 20 minute walk down to the Altes Rathaus (Old Courthouse), we noticed people wearing soccer jerseys and carrying around the flags of the countries playing in the World Cup: Brazil, Argentina, France, Germany, England... lots of English flags, but only 3 Trinidad & Tobago flags. Knowing that Trinidad and England were playing today in Nuremberg, the overwhelming English support was too much for Danielle, and we decided to jump on the next train to Nuremberg to watch the match!

We did just that, and after waiting for the next train and taking 2 hour ride, we were in Nuremberg. We didn't have tickets for the game, but the Germans have set up "Fan Zones" in all of the game cities. In Nuremberg, the Fan Zone was a kilometer from the stadium, and the organizers set up a giant screen to watch the game and beer and food stands. Danielle's favorite part was the tent that had been set up the T&T Tourism Ministry. They were playing soca music, had pan (steel drum) players, and overall hosted a great party. The Germans loved it, and even the English fans were getting in on the mix!


Danielle runs into a friend from home at the match.



A couple of Trini fans.


Danielle and an English fan


Nick and Danielle

The game was surprisingly close. T&T kept the game at a tie until about the 85th minute, which is when England got their first goal. They got another goal in the final seconds of the game to make the final score England 2 and T&T 0. Even though Trinidad lost, we had a great time with the English fans.

Also somewhat surprising is that all of the Germans that we saw at the game were supporting Trinidad & Tobago. I think that this is mainly that German tourists love visiting Tobago, and also they were hoping that T&T won so that Germany wouldn't run into England in the later rounds!

The train back at midnight was long, but we got back to Munich safe and sound.