DAy 21: Bundesliga! (Saturday, September 10th)

Last night our friend Markus was trying to transfer the Bundesliga tickets to my Eintracht Frankfurt iPhone app that I loaded before I left Canada. Markus' friend is a season ticket holder and wanted to sell his tickets so we lucked out. Apparently, the tickets (75Euro total) can only be transferred virtually and Markus had sent them to the 'wallet' of my app. Before we left Markus the tickets were 'loading' and no email notification indicating the tickets had been transferred. Hoping when we woke up this morning everything was in order and we could confidently go to the game. 

                                                           Eintracht Frankfurt team logo. 

The tickets were transferred successfully! I received two emails from Eintracht Frankfurt that needed my confirmation and voila we have the two tickets in my app "wallet". This is a screen shot of one of our tickets for the big match this afternoon. Pretty exciting! We have been to the stadium before a number of years ago and saw the home team play Borussia Dortmund which they lost. The game is not until 15:30, but we want to get there early and enjoy the atmosphere and see the players warm up. 

Pretty lazy morning. Lana did some German grocery shopping (REWE) with food items we will bring home and eat at sometime in the future. German food is not fancy, but it is comforting. We watch some tv as the big news is the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the signing in of Charles as the new king. Boring to me, but much of the world adores royalty. Lana notes that this a pretty significant event for our lifetime having grown up with the Queen as our monarch.  Her primary school in Moose Jaw was named Queen Elizabeth School. 

Lana bought a wurst croissant in the morning. Basically a weiner inside a croissant. Pretty good.

               Lana found a pineapple peeling and coring machine at REWE for customer who buy a whole pineapple! No, she did not buy it not did she buy a pineapple to try it out but she thought it looked pretty cool. 

I do some word and number puzzles and slowly get ready. The only real activity today will be attending the Bundesliga game. We finally get moving and can't really find anything in the airport for lunch. We do know that outside of the stadium and on the way to the stadium there are many food and beverage vendors.

The weather is very unpredictable today. For certain it is no longer shorts weather and there are forecasts of rain and clouds. We are in our seats in the beautiful stadium by 14:30 and in Row 10 and around the 18 yard line. We took the S9 train from the Flughafen and it was packed with Eintracht Frankfurt fans. Train kept stopping on the tracks at various places so what should have been about five minutes was up to twenty minutes. Lots of people drinking beer. Our first stop is at a hot dog stand and a bratwurst for me and a spiesbraten (roast pork) on a bun for Lana. Got a glass of water as well. Lots of police once you get off the train and all the way to the stadium. Plus, there are police in full riot gear.

One of many police vans around the stadium and the train station. 

Our shot inside the stadium and not too far from our seats. This stadium was built for the 2006 World Cup in Deutschland.

Long walk to the stadium through a forest for some of the walk. When we arrive to the stadium, Security checks our bag and pats Lana down. We scan both tickets through an electronic card reader machine and we are officially inside. It is more of a walk around the stadium towards Gate 2. There is a sign indicating 14 so we enter this narrow section and confirm this is correct. A father and his adult son are beside us and the son speaks English. Shortly after sitting we see ourselves on the giant Jumbotron hanging from high in the middle of the stadium. We are famous for a few seconds. Lana obtains a screenshot of the young guy's phone as he took a picture. 

Our brief moment of fame!

They are playing Nirvana on the stadium speakers and other great rock music. All the music they play is American rock. When the visiting team (Wolfsburg) two goalies come on the field the crowd boos. At this point it is sunny and warm and Lana is using her umbrella like a hat due to the heat. After a while it becomes cloudy and dark and then some moments of rain. Temperature is 19 degrees Celsius. When Eintracht Frankfurt comes out with their players the stadium erupts in cheers. Their colours are black and white. We are partly under cover. If the wind is blowing our way we will get some rain on our heads, but Lana shares her umbrella with me. About five minutes into the game two young fans come running onto the field and are immediately grabbed and thrown to the ground by Security. The game is stopped and they are placed in handcuffs and carried away. 

We are seated on the lower tier and Lana is standing beside the green jacketed steward. Individual seats with lots of leg room. All concrete. 

             Before the game started and before most of the fans arrived we had our picture taken.

                       Cool idea to have the backs of seats painted to match the Eintracht Frankfurt crest. 

                                          The home team warming up before the game. 

These are the standings in the Bundesliga before the game started. Neither team has made a very good start to the season. 

Most of the fans had their team scarves and before the game started they waved them as they sang their team anthem. 

Picture of the north end of the stadium where the rabid Eintracht Frankfurt supporters all stand for the entire game. Huge flags waving, chanting and in some cases bobbing up and down in unison. Quite the sight. 

Eintracht Frankfurt fans singing their anthem prior to the start of the game. Very moving...Check out his link on YouTube courtesy of Lana's iPhone. 

At the end of the first half it is a 0-0 draw. Eintracht Frankfurt had most of the ball possession and hit the goal post on a shot. The most famous player on the pitch is Mario Götze who scored a winning World Cup goal for Deutschland a few years ago. Interesting that they water the field before the game and at half time. The home fans are fantastic. The north end of the stadium is the super fans zone and they are constantly waving flags, chanting, singing, jeering and making a ton of noise. Each time the visiting team fans (small zone opposite end fenced off) make noise then the home fans ratchet up their noise to drown them out. Superb atmosphere! Interesting too that there are no concessions inside the stadium and in fact no toilets either. Basically you walk in and out and that is it. All the concessions, toilets and fan sales are outside of the stadium. There are Police constantly on vigilance. 

Unfortunate for the home fans but the home team gives up a goal around the 60 minute mark to a header off a corner. They mount many attacks, but no scoring. Game ends up a 1-0 win for Wolfsburg. 

At the conclusion of the game we wait for many of the fans to depart given there is simply too much of a crush of people. At half-time I bought a carbonated water at a vendor and used my best German. Problem was he said "sechs" which is the number six in German. I am shocked that a glass of water could cost that much. I think he didn't understand why I was asking more questions as he reverted to English. The actual cost is 4Euros, but they charge you 2Euros for the plastic cup. You can return the cup to get your 2Euro refund which we did after the game. 

I am getting pretty hungry as it is already after 17:15. No problem as we will find delicious German food on the way to the train. Lana remembered a food cart selling Leberkäse on a bun. We wait in line and then after our order wait longer. It was worth the wait as Lana ate a fair bit herself. 

Food cart with leberkäse, but also many types of German weiners.

 

This is a picture of my Leberkäse in a bun. I squeezed on some of my favourite German mustard as well. 

OK, we are fairly close to the Stadion train station and there are hundreds of fans hanging around and getting in a queue for the train. Different from North America, after a game fans hang around for a long time and drink beer and eat and talk. We see that an S train is on its way to track 5 so we head to the tunnel and then onto the platform. Many fellow riders are crowding the platform and we wait quite a while for the train. Then we jam inside and eventually in two stations we are at the Flughafen station. On the way to our hotel, I purchase a tomato and mozzarella sandwich within a bagel baguette. Lana wants "Chinese" food so she buys her take-out and back to the room. It is now past 19:00 so we have been gone for around six hours. She enjoyed her Chinese food and I wolfed down my sandwich. In the morning Lana had bought two Portuguese egg tarts (Pastis de nada) that we enjoyed as our dinner dessert.

Our last full day in Deutschland. Lana wants us out of the room by 07:30. Our Air Canada direct flight is scheduled to leave at 10:15. Of course we have already completed our ArriveCan app as required by the Canadian government before landing in Vancouver. All our 18 bottles of wine are packed away. I will need to complete packing most of my stuff prior to going to bed tonight. Also, we will need to weigh Lana's suitcase tomorrow to ensure she is under her allowable weight.