On the Road to Gelsenkirchen, Germany

On Sat July 1st, we received the first of a series of exciting phone calls from Andy, Arnie's colleague, who ... gulp ... fingers crossed ... double gulp ... MIGHT ... EEEEEKKKKK ... have 2 World Cup tickets for England (yeah) vs Portugal (booo) at the Gilsenkirchen Stadium.

The first call came at 11:00, to inform us that we had a 98% chance of tickets but a 2% chance that we might not sit together and we would only know once we got there. After a 1 minute discussion we decided, LET'S GO FOR IT: hey ... it is the World Cup and I ain't gonna miss this opportunity!!! Second call came at 13:30 to confirm the tickets so we jumped in the car and drove like M-A-D.

We arrived Q - U - I - C - K - L - Y at the German border or as quickly as the Dutch speed limits would allow, or rather, Arnie's interpretation of the Dutch speed limit. Once we passed the Dutch/Germany border, the speed limit "conveniently" changed to "unlimited" and Arnold drove 180km/hour ... just because he HE CAN!!! For those of you who don't know this about me - I am a freak-of-nerves at these speeds. I know, I can hear the shouts from everyone - WIMP ... CHICKEN ... but I was REALLY wishing for an adult sized diaper. Luckily, I drank a triple vodka and OJ before leaving which helped to prepare me for the 3 hour drive at THE-SPEED-OF-LIGHT!! OK, I am exaggerating slightly but that is truly how it felt at the time.

Above is one of our German neighbours, just before we passed him because we had to get there quick - quick - quick, find parking, stop for an urgent pee break in the woods (thanks to the big OJ I had before we left) walk 25 minutes to the Stadium, pick up our tickets and finally, find our seats. Perhaps I should mention, that all this was done during a major heatwave - 30 degrees and not a cloud in the sky - HOT HOT HOT!

Almost there ... now let's get our tickets - below is my ticket ... a nice souvenir.