Around Euro 2024 – Day One - Germany Bound

 

Day One – Friday 14th June 2024
From London to Paderborn as the tournament kicks off

I am on my travels once again, and enough people have enjoyed my past jaunts around various major foreign international tournaments for me to get out the laptop again and relay the experience.

 

So, Germany 2024 – and this one’s a little different at I have my 22-year-old son in tow. We had a brief warm up back in November when we flew to Italy for a three-night trip, taking in three matches in Milan, Empoli and Bologna, but this is the real deal. 13 nights, ten games and a hell of lot of driving. Germany is a pretty big country. 

 

As usual, the itinerary was laid out before the draw was made. The aim, to see a game in every one of the 10 stadiums, with the group stage the easiest and cheapest way of achieving this. Getting tickets was a challenge, although timely work on two of UEFA’s resale phases (7 games) and favours from two friends with contacts (3 games) completed the set. However, sadly, beggars can’t be choosers and most of the tickets are the over-priced Category 2. There’s the odd Category 1 and a couple of more reasonable Category 3 games, but ultimately, the credit card, as usual with these things, will be making its way back to London via air ambulance. Still, I’ve never regretted making these trips, and what price experience, and memories? 

The first game is on day 2 of the tournament, in Berlin, where Spain face Croatia. We caught the 9.10am ferry from Dover to Calais on Friday morning and it’s too long a drive to get to Berlin, so we will be stopping in Paderborn before making the rest of the journey on Saturday. Accommodation was booked before the draw so we’ve not faced rip-off prices which I suspect some are having to fork out after it became apparent where the more supported teams will be playing. I heard on the radio that there are an estimated 100,000 Scotland fans in Munich for tonight’s game, which should make the Fan Park there an interesting experience. 

 

I am typing this on the ferry and have a seven hour drive through France and Belgium to reach Paderborn and a welcome rest. In spite of the best of intentions I only had about four and a half hours’ sleep on Thursday night. Up at 4.45 and on the road an hour later to insure against some unforeseen delay between London and Dover. The trip needs the planning of a military organisation, not least because I am taking my own Nissan Micra instead of flying in and hiring a car. There’s all kinds of legalities required to drive in Germany. Stuff I don’t use in England ranging from hi-viz jackets, first aid kit and this green sticker that lets you drive in the cities. And then of course there is the fact that you can’t park near the stadiums these days (unless you are with UEFA or enjoying corporate hospitality – oh the hypocrisy of it all) so there’s the timing of the journeys between accommodation and stadiums. Some matches finish at 11pm. At least Sat Nav makes things a lot easier than the old days, once I work out where I need to get the car to each day. 

 

*Post Germany 5 Scotland 1
We arrived a little after 6.30pm at Paderborn and our first stop – a self-check-in place which does the job. We decided not to head into the centre of Paderborn to try and catch the game in a bar, restaurant or fan park (there wasn’t one). We had food from home and yours truly was knackered after almost 8 hours of driving over the course of the day. 

We tuned into the build-up to Germany v Scotland on ITV using VPN on the iPad. Watched the match proper on the room TV with Germany commentary. The expressions on the faces of the Scots didn’t need translation. When they scored to make it 4-1, it was like they’d won the World Cup. I’ve stood among the Tartan Army twice at the 1998 World Cup – matches against Norway (Bordeaux) and Morocco (St Etienne). I think it’s fair to say they don’t like the English to put it mildly and a good number of their songs reflected that. As a kid, I was willing them to do well in 1974 and 1978, but these days, their ability to build themselves up, followed by the reality of major tournament performances – on the rare occasions they make them - is simply amusing. Of course, the nature of the format, where 36 matches are played to eliminate just 8 countries, means they could lose two and still go through, dependent on what happens in other groups. So, they are far from out, but are going to have to play a hell of a lot better to beat either of Switzerland or Hungary. 

As for Germany, job done and the start the host nation needed after a couple of sketchy results in their last two warm up games. Their performance may have been coloured by the quality of the opposition, but scoring five goals is going to do wonders for their confidence and their bench gives them some excellent options. If they can avoid defeat against Switzerland, I think they will win their group.

Next, to Berlin for Spain v Croatia at 6pm local time. 

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