Bundesliga: Arminia Bielefeld at Borussia Mönchengladbach

We went back to Dusseldorf’s Altstadt area before taking the train to Mönchengladbach for our third and final soccer match. While in Altstadt we saw Arminia Bielefeld fans wandering the area. Since Mönchengladbach is not mentioned in the guide books it probably makes sense to stay in Dusseldorf if planning to attend a Borussia Mönchengladbach match.

My brother, being tired of German food and multiple sausages, decided we should eat at the Italian restaurant across the way from Uerige – Ristorante La Grappa. While eating lunch, we considered the idea of attending the Dusseldorf Giants basketball game in Germany’s top basketball division. However, we decided it would be better to attend the soccer match in Monchengladbach.

The train to Mönchengladbach took about 30 minutes from Dusseldorf. When we arrived at the Mönchengladbach train station, we followed the crowd to the square just outside the train station where the fans walked to their favorite pub. We ended up at the Humboldt-Schanke pub which was full of Borussia supporters.

After awhile, we decided to take the bus to the stadium since we still needed to purchase tickets to the match (before flying to Germany, I realized the match would not be sold out which would give us the option of not attending if we chose to do so). The bus to the stadium took about 15 – 20 minutes.

Obtaining Tickets
There were some extra tickets being sold by scalpers outside the stadium. However, their prices were high and rather than negotiating with a German in poor English we chose to buy tickets from the box office for 35 Euros each. All tickets cheaper than that were already sold out with the exception of tickets in the visiting team’s section – Arminia Bielefeld. Tickets in their section were 13 Euros to stand or 25 Euros to sit. We decided it would be safer to sit in the Borussia section.

The Game
Just as was the case with LTU Arena in Dusseldorf, we needed to pay an extra Euro for our cups at Borussia Park.

Mönchengladbach took an early 1-0 in the 12th minute of play, but Bielefeld equalized in the 32nd minute. The game ended in a 1-1 draw.

Post Game
After the game we took the train back to Dusseldorf and ended up at Uerige for the second night in a row.

Bundesliga: Karlsruher SC at Bayer Leverkusen

We woke up early Saturday morning in order to take the train from Heidelberg to Dusseldorf. Bayer Leverkusen was playing in Dusseldorf for the second half of the season because they were re-building their stadium in Leverkusen. We had chosen to attend the Bayer Leverkusen match rather than the Borussia Dortmund match for several reasons:

1) Borussia Dortmund was sold out and Bayer Leverkusen was not.
2) Dortmund was further away than staying in Dusseldorf.
3) We had a friends and family certificate to stay at Marriott hotels. Dusseldorf has a Renaissance Hotel while Dortmund has none.

Obtaining Tickets
I called Leverkusen to purchase tickets before flying to Germany. When I tried to purchase the tickets, the ticket office told me they had reserved 2 tickets for me and that I would pay for the tickets when I picked them up at the stadium. However, when we picked up the tickets, they said we did not owe anything. I am not sure where the confusion was, but we ended up receiving free tickets.

LTU Arena and the Game
We did not find any restaurants or pubs around LTU Arena. It was basically a stadium on the outskirts of town. Once again, we could purchase beer in the stadium and drink at our seats. However, LTU Arena charged one Euro for each cup. Fans needed to return their cup in order to receive the Euro back.

Karlsruher defeated Bayer Leverkusen on a goal in the 72nd minute by Sebastian Langkamp.

Post Game Dining
After the game we took the subway back to Dusseldorf’s Altstadt (“Old Town”). We walked into the main part of the area and found an outdoor beer garden – Uerige. Uerige has been brewing beer since 1862. Servers walk by each table with about 20 beers on their tray. When the pass you ask for the number of beers you want and pay the server – quick and easy. No trip to Dusseldorf is complete without a stop at Uerige.

After a few beers, we decided to eat a German dinner at Alstadt Restaurant – a short walk from Uerige. We did not find many actual German restaurants in the area which is why we chose the restaurant we did.

Bundesliga: Hertha BSC at 1899 Hoffenheim

After spending the first day in Frankfurt, we took the train from Frankfurt to Heidelburg on Friday morning with the plan to attend the Bundesliga match between Hertha Berlin and 1899 Hoffenheim.

Any trip to Heidelberg should include a tour of the Old Town, Heidelberg Castle and the University of Heidelberg (the home of Sociology). We spent Friday afternoon touring the city after the Marriott would not allow us to check in early.

Obtaining Tickets
While still in Chicago, I did research on how to purchase tickets for the Bundesliga matches we planned to attend. I discovered that the match in Hoffenheim sold out in 90 minutes and that tickets were selling for two to three times face value on eBay. Rather than try to scalp tickets in German, I chose to take the guarantee and bought two tickets for 129 Euros from eBay Germany (I used babelfish.yahoo.com to translate the listing).

Train
We knew it would take about 30 to 45 minutes on the train to Hoffenheim. We bought a train ticket at the Heidelberg train station. To our dismay, we found out from the conductor that our tickets to the match acted as our train ticket as well. Oh well. At least we did not buy a round trip ticket.

The conductor also informed us that we needed to take the train to Sinsheim (not Hoffenheim) and that we would take a bus to Rhein-Neckar-Arena which hosted its first Bundesliga match only three months earlier on January 31, 2009.

Pre Game Dining
We arrived at the Sinsheim train station around 6 pm. Rather than hop on the shuttle right away we went to the Zum Bahnhof pub located right across from the train station. We sat inside the pub as we watched the 1899 Hoffenheim supporters sing outside.

We took the bus as the 7 pm train arrived. After the bus dropped us off, we stopped at a temporary concession stand that served beer and sausage. After eating we headed to the stadium.

I did not see anyone obvious selling tickets to the match, so it appeared my decision to buy tickets from eBay before flying over was a good one.

Concessions
To my surprise, you could buy beer inside the stadium and sit in your seat while drinking the beer. In England you can buy beer but have to drink it in the concourse. European countries all seem to have their own rules. Beer inside the stadium cost 3.10 Euro.

In order to purchase anything from the concession stand, you had to put money on a “concessions card.” Then you could purchase items from the concessions stand with the card only – no cash. This was similar to when my brother and I attended an NFL Europa game at Amsterdam ArenA.

The Game
Hertha defeated 1899 1-0 on a goal by Patrick Ebert in the 40th minute.

Post Game
Instead of taking the bus back to the train station, we followed the crowd and walked back. The walk took about 10-15 minutes. We were one of the last few to get on the train as we headed back to Heidelberg.

International Weekend Trip

Back in late March, my brother (who lives in San Francisco) and I decided we should take a weekend trip somewhere. At the time, airfares to fly overseas were pretty inexpensive and we narrowed our list down to three choices: 1) Australia, 2) Tokyo, or 3) Germany

We determined that Australia was too far to fly for a long weekend, even though round trip airfares to Melbourne were only $700 from San Francisco and $850 from Chicago – unheard of low fares.

Tokyo was similarly priced to Australia but not nearly as far. We almost chose Tokyo until we found a $440 roundtrip airfare from Chicago to Frankfurt and only $470 from San Francisco to Frankfurt. With those fares costing about half as much, Germany was the winner.

The Sporting Events
Before booking the trip to Germany, I already knew of sporting events we would attend no matter the location. With Germany, the plan was to attend three Bundesliga matches within a reasonable distance of Frankfurt – one Friday night, one Saturday afternoon and one Sunday evening.