Endspiel

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Deutsche Bahn, the German railway, had served us pretty well for the previous 2 weeks or so - clean, fast trains speeding us across the country in relative luxury. Until the final big journey to Berlin...

The train from Goslar to Braunschweig was fine enough - a slightly grotty local train, but only an hour's journey. Then the heavens opened on the platform in Braunschweig just as we learned that our train would be a little late.

When the train arrived, it wasn't the cool ICE train we'd become accustomed to, but a somewhat shabbier IC train - a replacement due to a problem earlier along the line with the one we were supposed to get. Anyway, on we got.

30mins or so later, the train slowed suddenly and began to crawl, then stop. We sat there in the heat for 20mins before an announcement came through the tannoy that there was some kind of electrical fault above the train and that we'd be making our way slowly to the nearest station to await a replacement. Hmpf! Not great - the next piece of the journey took another hour, and everyone piled off and onto the other platform to await the replacement (which turned out to simply be the next train on the route). Naturally, this being the World Cup final weekend, there was not enough room on this train for everyone, so we waited another half hour for a train we could board.

Our nice easy 2 hour journey took us 5 hours and we were not happy.

So to Berlin...
Happily, our friends we stayed with announced that they were engaged to be married next year, so we had some cause for celebration upon arrival, and a barbeque on the balcony together with some local beers chilled us out after the crappy journey.

Having already seen most sights in Berlin on previous trips, we were really just there for the football. The first game of the weekend was the Germany - Portugal 3rd/4th place game. Normally, this would be a pretty meaningless game, but as the host nation were competing and this would be their last game as hosts of the World Cup, the fans in the beergarden were up for it more than normal.


At the end of the game, Germany having won reasonably comfortably, the fans around us clapped and cheered their team to the end, in what was an electric atmosphere in the damp summer evening in Prenzlauer Berg. On the streets, German fans continued to wave their flags in this new sense of national pride which had swept the country during the competition.


We wandered into town along Oranienburger Strasse later to one of the Fan Fest beergardens where we witnessed Brazilians (many of whom were presumably stranded in Germany following the collapse of the airline Varig) dance with Germans, Turks, Irish, Americans, you name it. A great party to end what was surely one of the worst World Cups for football quality ever.

Before going into town the next day to watch the final, we headed out for lunch to Potsdam in the car, and on the way were stopped by police to let the German national team bus pass unhindered - they were on their way to the farewell parade by the Brandenburg Gate. We wandered around the old palace of Sanssoucci and the surrounding gardens after lunch, then went for a swim in a local lake in the blistering heat before jumping into the car to head back to town.

Bizarrely, on the way back we were again stopped by police, this time to allow safe passage of the French team bus on the way to the Final!

Sadly for the French, passing us in their bus was more like walking under a ladder than crossing the path of a black cat, as they lost a crap final to the Italians. We watched the game amongst the throngs of people on the Fan Mile beside the famous Siegessaeule. The atmosphere was good, but perhaps less good than I'd expected. I think the balloon had been punctured somewhat with the exit of the hosts, and the country didn't have the emotional energy left to lift the City for the final...they tried, however.

Awaiting our flight back to London a few days later, we took the opportunity to complete our "four corners" tour of Germany by taking a daytrip to the beach on the Ostsee (Baltic coast) right in the north of Germany. Having been to Germany many, many times before, seeing a coastline was a big novelty. We had a great day out, replete with rollmops, ice cream, beach lounger and a swim in some very nice (if cold) water.

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