On Sunday morning, I was off to Copenhagen. I was scheduled to take the 8:10 am bus to Gothenburg before transferring to the 9:27 am train to Copenhagen. But, once again I could not sleep so I got to the train station slightly before 7:40 am to see the bus to Gothenburg waiting – I guess the bus runs every 30 minutes. I realized that there is no train service to Boras on the weekend, which is why I took a train here on Friday but had to take a …

Four weeks ago, I started planning a weekend trip to Europe. I had planned to fly to London in order to travel to Dublin and Edinburgh for RBS 6 Nations rugby. However, the airfares to London were not cheap enough to make the trip.
Instead, I discovered that the airfare to Sweden was only $581.90 – cheap for Scandinavia. Plus, I had never been to Sweden. My next step was to determine if there were enough sporting events to make the trip worthwhile. There was a …

We made it to Brugge yesterday. We’re spending two days at the Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce in Brugge before we go to Brussels for our last two nights in Europe. We chose Belgium for three main reasons. First, it was a quick Eurostar train ride from London. Second, American Airlines flies non-stop back to Chicago from Brussels that was available on miles. Third, Nicole and I had not been to Belgium together.
I actually almost decided not to go to this game tonight. Let’s go back to last night – our first …

From a European perspective, the biggest event I was attending this week was the Champions League match between Inter Milan and Tottenham at White Hart Lane. Inter Milan were coming into the tournament as defending champions and the hype had translated into high ticket prices.
Beg, Borrow and Deal
As usual I showed up to the stadium with no ticket in hand expecting to buy a ticket from a ticket tout (most tickets online were well over £350 for the cheapest seats). Most touts on the street wanted more than £200 for …

We landed in London on Friday morning and were planning to stay with our friends for five days. We chose London because our friends have a son eight months older than Dylan. Thus, it would be a good “first” trip to Europe to see how well we could travel. Arsenal was home against West Ham United on Saturday afternoon meaning I would be spending the day with the Arsenal boys.
Pre Game Dining
Nicole’s favorite part of hanging out with the Arsenal boys is the great lunch we go to before the …

This was a rare event where I had everything booked in advance – my train, my hotel and my game ticket. The Monday night football match in Birmingham was the main event on the schedule, so I always knew I would attend this game and no other event would be prioritized above it.
TrainI booked the train from London about one month ahead of time so it only cost £7 each way. It cost me £4 just to get from Lambeth North tube station to the Euston train station …

My flight from Helsinki was on time and we landed shortly before 9:10 am. In order to meet the Arsenal boys for brunch I hopped on the underground from Heathrow and got off at the Charing Cross tube stop.
Pre Game DiningBreakfast was scheduled for 10:45 am at the National Gallery Restaurant by Trafalgar Square. I arrived on time as more Arsenal boys showed up in the subsequent minutes. Breakfast was a much better experience than lunch two weeks ago.
Doubleheader PossibilityDuring breakfast we discussed the possibility of attending …

One of the strange things about Europe is that someone you know from the United States is bound to be in the same location as you at some point. This was the case with my friend Todd San Jule. The last game Todd and I had attended together was the Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers NFC divisional playoff game on January 12, 2008.
This time we agreed to meet for the Fulham and Basel Europa League match at Craven Cottage. In order to get to Craven Cottage I took the …

Rather than hang around downtown Manchester for a couple of hours before checking into my hostel, I decided to take the bus to Old Trafford to buy my ticket for the evening’s match. Even after seeing extra tickets in Glasgow on Tuesday night I still wanted to be sure I had my ticket for Manchester United.
Obtaining TicketsTickets were available for the match and I bought a ticket in the upper deck for £38. As I walked around the stadium looking for a restaurant to eat, there were a …

In order to get to Ibrox Stadium, I took the subway from downtown Glasgow. I arrived at the Ibrox station around 4 pm even though the game did not start until 7:45 pm. My plan was to hang out at a few pubs in the neighborhood.
Obtaining TicketsAs soon as I got off the train a man selling Rangers souvenirs was offering to sell his two tickets to the match. His tickets were priced at £37 each. He would have sold me one for face value. Instead I chose to see …