Day 12 – Good bye Switzerland Hallo Deutschland

After a good night’s rest we were up for breakfast and ready to board the bus at 8:45 a.m.  We pulled away from the Hotel Allegra at 9 a.m., right on schedule for our 325 km drive to Augsburg, Germany for our first FIFA Women’s World Cup 2011 game. 

It was time to say goodbye to Zurich and Switzerland, and hello Germany.  After about 15 minutes the bus grew quiet as the team took this opportunity to sleep, read, or enjoy the ride through the country side.

We were pleasantly surprised when we made a stop at the Austria boarder.  Turns out going this route was quicker than staying on the main highway.  Thus we can now say this was a five country tour.  We were to be in Austria all of 24 km (that’s just under 15 miles).   The route was through small towns and country roads.  It ended up taking a bit longer than anticipated due to unplanned road construction in a tunnel.  After not moving for about 10 minutes, Massi our bus driver, re-evaluated the situation and made a u-turn.  He knew another route that was slightly longer but would end up being less time than waiting for our turn. Before we knew it we were back on track and quickly in Germany.

The countryside here in Germany is very green with many dense forests that are close to the highway. Farmland can be found between the trees.  Switzerland and the Alps faded quickly as we reached our final country. 

The Autobahn is the German highway known for speed.  The highest posted speed limit prior to Germany was 90 km/hr with 70 km/hr the most common.  The posted speed limit on the Autobahn was 120 km/hr.  We’ll leave that for you to convert to miles/hr.

After three hours on the bus we pulled over to one the many rest stops that are found all over Europe.  This one had a cafeteria style restaurant where we were introduced to our first real German fair.  The team took a little time to peruse the choices before making their decision.  I think everyone was happy with their choice.

 

After the 45 minute lunch break, we were back on the bus for the remaining 60 km to Augsburg for the Norway vs. Equatorial Guinea (EG) game.  We arrived at 2 p.m., one hour before kick off.  On our way to our seats we explored the entire stadium, mostly unintentionally as we went right when we should have gone left while searching for our seats.

Augsburg stadium was beautiful, a real futbol stadium.  There were no bad seats.  We found our way to the blau (blue) section; block O, rows 22 and 23, between the corner flag and the 18-yard box on the north end of the stadium. 

We had plenty of time before kick-off to purchase souvenirs, Coca-Cola, and sausages in a pretzel before settling in for most of the groups first ever Women’s World cup match.  After both teams completed their warm ups, they left the field to put on their game uniforms and prepare for the official march on to the field. After the national anthems for Norway and EG were complete the teams shook hands and then huddled together one last time before the whistle blew.

Norway had two quick chances in the first five minutes, but then the surprising upstarts of EG gave Norway a run for their money.  EG’s center mid had three great scoring opportunities but was not able to finish.  The half ended tied 0-0. 

In the second half Norway made a few changes and started to figure out EG’s system of play, but EG continued to create chances using their speed and desire to attack.  Overall Norway played uninspired.  Finally with about 10 minutes to go in the game Norway was able to put the ball in the back of the net and win the game 1-0. 

Not the game any of us expected but the 12,928 fans in attendance seemed to enjoy the experience, especially those rooting for their national teams.  The team is looking forward to the USA game as it is more fun to attend a game when your nation is one of the teams playing.  But this was a great introduction to World Cup play for the team.

After the game it was back to the bus for the hour ride to Munich and our Hotel Europa.  We all met at 7:30 p.m. for dinner at the hotel.  This may have been our best meal yet.  It was a buffet with all typical German dishes according to one member of our group.  I’ll have to take her word.   

We started off with the salad bar consisting of potato salad, cucumbers with dill sauce and thin slices of salmon, caprese salad, roasted red, yellow, and green peppers with red onions and tuna, cucumber and tomatoes.  These may sound familiar to you but they were made the German way.  There was also an incredible cream of celery soup; so good many of us went back for seconds and possibly thirds.

Then there was the entire buffet consisting of penne pasta with a light, creamy tomato sauce and chicken, spatzle, and roasted pork with carrots and green onions.  If this wasn’t enough, for dessert there was a dish of Bavarian cream with cherries. 

A great way to end day 12.