Today, in honor of the World Cup Soccer championship game, I bring you soccer pictures. First, we ran into the Netherlands vs Japan game while we were at the Akershus in Oslo. It was rainy that day, and we were wandering around the Bryggen area by the harbor.
There is an old, old castle, the Akershus, on the hill overlooking the harbor and Scott was excited by the stone and dirt walls. So we climbed up to the windy top and lo and behold, down below us was the soccer game on a big screen. There wasn't much of a crowd watching, probably because of the weather. And the fans seemed evenly divided between NED and JPN. Needless to say, the Dutch prevailed! I had to root for them because of their orange uniforms...!!! A French woman took our picture, telling us that the French team was no good this year....
Then when we got to Munich, Jay and Donnette hadn't arrived yet, so we walked over to the Englischer Gardens and found the Chinese Tower beer garden. Which is basically thousands of green picnic tables around a kiosk selling beer and food. Many families were there, having birthday parties and other gatherings. We found a spot at a table where we could see the screen and Scott went and got us beer and pretzels. Pretzels big enough to slide on his arm so he could carry two beers! He had the 1 liter size Hofbrauhus and I went for the smaller Weiss (wheat) beer. The NED vs Slovakia game was on the big screen and although Slovakia lost, the Slovakian fans were happy that they scored a goal in the last seconds and the entire crowd was very good natured.
I don't know if this video will play...but it is the sound of Garmisch celebrating with much honking and whistling after Germany beat England. We were back in our hotel room by then, I took this video looking out the window. What a pretty view of the Alps we had! Even though I am not a sports fan, being in Europe during the World Cup games was a lot of fun because it is a way to be a part of the local culture and not just a tourist. The enthusiasm was infectious...I think I even hooted back at a motorcylist who sped by honking, waving and holding a huge German flag aloft. We also watched the end of the Netherlands vs Brazil game from the very crowded beer garden, so crowded that the only place we could find to sit was behind a tree. I could see some of the screen by looking around a branch and Scott could see around the tree trunk. I had just as much fun people watching as I did soccer watching. There was a birthday party happening at the table next to us for a 3 or 4 year old girl. Can you imagine Emma saying she wants her birthday party at the beer garden to watch soccer? So today, we have Spain and Netherlands playing for the Cup...not a big deal here, but huge in the rest of the world. I am still rooting for Orange!
Today, in honor of the World Cup Soccer championship game, I bring you soccer pictures. First, we ran into the Netherlands vs Japan game while we were at the Akershus in Oslo. It was rainy that day, and we were wandering around the Bryggen area by the harbor.
There is an old, old castle, the Akershus, on the hill overlooking the harbor and Scott was excited by the stone and dirt walls. So we climbed up to the windy top and lo and behold, down below us was the soccer game on a big screen. There wasn't much of a crowd watching, probably because of the weather. And the fans seemed evenly divided between NED and JPN. Needless to say, the Dutch prevailed! I had to root for them because of their orange uniforms...!!! A French woman took our picture, telling us that the French team was no good this year....
Then when we got to Munich, Jay and Donnette hadn't arrived yet, so we walked over to the Englischer Gardens and found the Chinese Tower beer garden. Which is basically thousands of green picnic tables around a kiosk selling beer and food. Many families were there, having birthday parties and other gatherings. We found a spot at a table where we could see the screen and Scott went and got us beer and pretzels. Pretzels big enough to slide on his arm so he could carry two beers! He had the 1 liter size Hofbrauhus and I went for the smaller Weiss (wheat) beer. The NED vs Slovakia game was on the big screen and although Slovakia lost, the Slovakian fans were happy that they scored a goal in the last seconds and the entire crowd was very good natured. 
I don't know if this video will play...but it is the sound of Garmisch celebrating with much honking and whistling after Germany beat England. We were back in our hotel room by then, I took this video looking out the window. What a pretty view of the Alps we had! Even though I am not a sports fan, being in Europe during the World Cup games was a lot of fun because it is a way to be a part of the local culture and not just a tourist. The enthusiasm was infectious...I think I even hooted back at a motorcylist who sped by honking, waving and holding a huge German flag aloft. We also watched the end of the Netherlands vs Brazil game from the very crowded beer garden, so crowded that the only place we could find to sit was behind a tree. I could see some of the screen by looking around a branch and Scott could see around the tree trunk. I had just as much fun people watching as I did soccer watching. There was a birthday party happening at the table next to us for a 3 or 4 year old girl. Can you imagine Emma saying she wants her birthday party at the beer garden to watch soccer? So today, we have Spain and Netherlands playing for the Cup...not a big deal here, but huge in the rest of the world. I am still rooting for Orange!
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