World Cup Fever

Picture this....two weeks ago, I get a phone call from Scott who says, "mom, wanna go to the World Cup with me?" Yah sure, first of all how do we get tickets and then there's the question of flights and rooms once we get there. But, that's exactly what we did. Scott was given two tickets to the Brazil/France game in Frankfurt and two more for the quarter finals to see Germany play Italy in Dortmund! After a little fancy footwork on his part, and a call to relatives outside of Frankfurt, we were on our way.

I've liked soccer since Scott was a 6 year old playing on the fields in Canada, but I wouldn't say that I was a serious fan. The World Cup, however, is something quite different. Every four years there's a fever that's infectious, especially strong amongst the European's in this city. The excitement we saw as we passed some of the bars here in the city couldn't quite compare though with sitting in the stadiums in Germany watching the actual games. To say that there was excitement in the air is an understatement. The flags, painted faces colourful outfits and the crowds all attested to the excitment of the matches. The sound of the fans could be heard from a distance and in the stadiums themselves, the chanting, singing, waving of flags and beating of drums was constant throughout the entire game. We have never seen anything like it and were especially overwhelmed by the crowd which numbered 65,000 in Dortmund. The game there was really exciting but it was somewhat sad to see the German team loose in the last few minutes of play. We sampled a LOT of beer, ate wurst, and a variety of local goodies and even got to spend some time in the town where I was born. All of my mom's family still lives there and no matter when we go, we're always made to feel welcome. For Scott it was the first time back in almost 15 years and it was fun to see him practise his German. We made a side trip to Colongne and thought it would be worth going back to. We both thought of Jory and all our friends who love chocolate during our tour of the "Chocolate Museum".

This Sunday is the final game between Italy and France. Popular opinion is that Italy will win, but I'm routing for the French. If you've never watched a game, tune in at 3:00pm--it should be fun.