Around Euro 2024 – Day Eleven – Munich (Day 1)

 

Day Eleven – Monday 24th June 2024   
Rest Day 2 (of 2)   
Munich Fan Park – Italy 1 Croatia 1 - 9pm local time   

Today we made our way from Pforzheim near Stuttgart to Munich. But not before opting for the hotel breakfast, in what was a ballroom that had been converted to a the reception desk and a dining area. We were the only people eating for a while until later one other guest arrived. No wonder hot food was cooked on request – a choice of scrambled egg or scrambled egg with bacon. I didn’t see too much of Pforzheim, but it looked a nice enough place.  

We couldn’t check in until 3pm in Munich, and with checkout at our hotel at 10am, we stopped a couple of times on the route for extended periods. I was taken on some strange diversion by Waze, presumably to avoid some autobahn queuing, without which I wouldn’t have seen the delightful village of Wiesensteig – set in a valley. The other stop was at a more prosaic service station. They charge you to use the loos at these places. You can then use the voucher you get upon paying your euro to relieve yourself for money off of food and drink, but the principle sucks. Fortunately, these establishments are often surrounded by trees and bushes, so nature can take its course in nature. Not so easy for the fairer sex mind you. 

 

I was thinking ahead of this drive, this is the first of three more long drives and then I can relax back in London and take a break for a few days. Once we reached Munich, there remained only getting to Frankfurt and the day after that, traveling to Calais.

 

We were staying in Dachau, which is a distant suburb of Munich, but it’s easy enough to get into Munich proper by car. Of course, Dachau has other connotations, but I didn’t spot anything that alluded to events in World War II. That was likely me not really seeking out such things though as there is a Concentration Camp Memorial Site, which I have discovered was about three miles from where we were staying. Still, I remember having to leave an Imperial War Museum exhibition on the Holocaust about a third of the way through because I found the whole thing too distressing, so I’m not certain I’d have been able to really endure a visit to the place where events took place. Sometimes, knowing is enough.

 

Back to the hotel and it was a modern comfortable affair, although lacking a fridge and a kettle, which I consider necessities. Of course, a lot of these places want you to eat and drink on site and add it to your tab. But we were going out anyway, as we decided with no game to attend to today, we’d do the Fan Park experience for the 9pm kick off between Italy And Croatia. Some cities were only running fan parks for Germany matches and the games taking place in their city during the group phase – however Munich is showing everything. I guess predicted demand dictates these things. We thought we’d catch England’s first game in the Hamburg Fan Park, but they weren’t showing it. And I get that, there’s nothing worse than an empty fan park. Mind you mobbed ones aren’t perfect.

 

We parked in the old Olympic Stadium Car Park, the Fan Park being on the other side of the stadium. Even though I am no fan of football pitches surrounded by athletics tracks, there’s no question the sheer scale of Bayern’s old stadium is impressive, with its unique roof over the stands held up by huge angled external metal poles – so big I reckon you could shimmy up them to get into the ground. 

We walked around it on the south side – the only time I’d previously visited it was a freezing February night in 2005 when Arsenal lost 3-1 in the first leg of a round of 16 tie. It was dark then, so I had no real appreciation of the hilly nature of the park generally, which is quite spectacular. 

We got into the Fan Park bought some beer and settled for game. I’m not a big fan of these places, although some people seem to love them. It was good to at least tick the fan park box for this tournament, although in honesty, it was more for my son’s benefit. We found a spot to sit and were treated to a German speaking MC and a DJ set. When the game started everyone in front of the biggest screen stood up. A second smaller screen to the side had people who preferred to sit and behind us somewhere, they were showing Spain play Albania to a smaller crowd. 

 

As for the game itself, well, the drama of football, eh? Modric’s penalty being saved, the goal to make it good a moment later. Modric being subbed and then that last minute of injury time equaliser. From triumph to tragedy in a split second. Will Modric be back? I reckon he’ll hang on for an outing in the 2026 World Cup, although he’s only coming on as a sub at Real Madrid these days. There’s such a thing as match fitness. I think he’d be best served by a move to a club where he will be starting and coming off after 65 minutes.

 

Game over, we made our way back to the car and found a machine to pay for our parking that did not have huge queues. We were back at the hotel in half an hour, with our match in Munich to follow the next day.

 

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If you like this kind of thing, you can always revisit my Qatar 2022 blog entries - just search for 'Qatar 2022' in the labels