And the crowd goes wild

This World Cup thingy is really catching on in Germany. Who would have guessed?

Munich’s many beer gardens are probably the best places in town for World Cup viewing. The crowd at Menterschwaige certainly seemed to enjoy watching Germany spank Argentina yesterday.

But the celebration was just getting started. Back in the center of Munich, police closed Leopoldstraße for a three-kilometer-long victory party which lasted all afternoon and into the night. And this was just the quarter-finals.

An attempted burning of an Argentinian flag was thwarted by the flame-retardant nature of its material.

The final score?

Read moreAnd the crowd goes wild

Going on in Munich: July 2010

As usual, my travel schedule will be calming down with the heat of summer, so I’m on the lookout for local fun here in Munich. After a very rainy June, the entire city is excited to sit outside under the chestnut trees and drink beer, but there are actually other fun ways to entertain oneself … Read more

More honking*…

That would be for Turkey’s victory over Switzerland this evening. Sadly, host Switzerland has made a quick exit from the Euro Cup after losing its first two games. But I am happy that Turkey has a chance to continue on. Germany has such a large Turkish population that Turkey feels like a second home team. … Read more

Anticipation, Swiss style

Last week this clock went up in the Zurich train station. It counts down the minutes to the kick off at the first game of the Euro 2008, a year away. 5.4 million soccer fans are expected to swarm into Switzerland for this event (which the Swiss are co-hosting with the Austrians), coming close to … Read more

Rioting in Frawitzerland

Wanting to fit in one more trip before the visitor parade, we went to visit Sara and husband in a French suburb of Geneva this weekend. This gave us a chance to see first-hand some of the celebrations after France’s unexpected victory over Brazil in the quarterfinals of the World Cup. The cheering and honking … Read more

Why do all the teams I like suck at penalty shots?

So we watched the last Swiss World Cup game at El Lokal along with a couple hundred other hopeful Swiss fans. Despite Ali’s and my enthusiastic American-style face painting, things did not go well for Schwiiz. They lost to Ukraine in penalty kicks. We were all sad, especially because it meant there would not be … Read more