World Cup 2006

This June I had the chance of a lifetime to experience the excitement and passion of  the 2006 World Cup in Germany. So after months of planning I finally met up with two of my closest friends, Tom and Tony P in Frankfurt.  Hoping to watch England play their first game v Paraguay we arrived the day before the "big match" just as Germany were to open the tournament. Waiting for Tony P's arrival, Tom and I watched the game in the bar at The Courtyard Marriott Messe, which was a far cry from where we were going to see the next dozen or so matches.

We headed for downtown Frankfurt and we were amazed at seeing our first view of the city's Fan Fest.  Two huge screens set in the middle of the river, allowing fans to watch from both banks.  Along each side were  vendors of all description but our favorites were of course the beer and sausage "tents".

Late that night we saw the first and thank heavens the only incident of violence when German fans, celebrating their win from earlier met up with English fans who were taking in a few libations. The police though quickly put a stop to the activities with out too much distraction for everybody else who were there to just have a good time.

Despite a late night we were up early and headed back towards the river but we could not resist joining in with all the English fans who had taken over Frankfurt.  Believe it or not we managed to get 2 tickets for the game but as there were three of us we could not leave one of our friends behind, so we passed and in the end we had more fun.

The England fans were ready and so were my two American, turned English for the day, friends.

Half time and England lead 1-0 and they hold on for the win so the English lads are very happy despite the heat but somebody comes up with a great idea how to cool everybody down.

Then some of the lads decided to really cool off by jumping from the bridge in to the river.  What happy fans will do !!

Soccer, beer & naked women, what could be better?

The next day we were off to Nuremburg as we had VIP tickets for the Mexico v Iran game that night.

All Lufthansa planes had soccer ball noses

Covering up a competitors logo and joining in the fun with a couple of true Mexican fans.

Mexicans celebrate a goal and then their victory hours afterwards on the train.

We stayed in Erlangen, a small town just outside of Nuremburg and the next day we walked down to their large TV screen to watch the USA v Czech Republic.   Not much interest as you can see for this game from the locals, so more beer for the boys.

We were off to Berlin

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