Apologies for the lack of updates - due to a lot of travelling and prepping that hasn't left an awful lot of time for blogging! So let's catch up...
Well, I spoke too soon about the whole “rarely stayed in a hotel booked for us that felt dodgy” thing in an earlier blog on here.
Having let the train take the strain from Berlin to Dortmund on Saturday morning and then negotiated a very lively station concourse filled with excitable Portuguese and Turkish fans heading for Signal Iduna Park, Team Red found its collective way to our next accommodation.
Let’s just say the hotel we had booked for us initially here in Dortmund just…didn’t feel right lol! You must know that feeling when you have doubts as to your safety and security in a hotel, never mind the fact that you’d have found it hard to swing a small wasp around in the rooms we were presented with.
Izzy was right on the case with management and our affiliated travel company, and within an hour we had found a far better option a mile or so away thanks largely to her skill and patience. It’s funny how just sitting in anticipation of moving once again with your cases unpacked makes you feel tired but somehow…
Anyway, once ensconced at our new lodgings, I thought it would be an idea to act upon a tip from my darts pal Paul Nicholson to try a particular pizza restaurant in Dortmund that he’d recommended to me in the highest possible terms. Benty had gone off to see the Portugal/Turkey game so I waited for him to return before heading off there.
Big mistake. This restaurant was right next to the UEFA Fan Park and the whole Markt area of town was teeming with fans post-match. We were told it was a 2-hour wait for even a takeaway pizza when we got there.
Well done, Danter - superb planning there. Idiot.
The following day (Sunday) was a day off for me with no stadium requirements etc, but Darren was booked to join Adrian Durham and Stuart Pearce for an afternoon show live from a sports cafe in Düsseldorf, meaning a short train ride of an hour or so across country, which me and Izzy took too so we could catch up with colleagues we haven’t seen thus far.
We had a lovely afternoon in everyone’s company and Stuart persuaded me (as only Stuart Pearce CAN persuade you) to join me him and Jim Proudfoot for dinner and I would get a later train back to Dortmund.
As it turned out, not only did I join Stuart and Jim, but also m’colleague Matt Holland and BBC’s Mark Scott who were in town working for the host broadcaster company. We lucked upon a rather nice burger restaurant that was relatively quiet (German and Scottish fans were in plentiful number around us ahead of their games) and enjoyed a fantastic meal, catch up…and piss take at each others expense!
Those sorts of get togethers are always good for the soul. Lots of laughter and healthy sarcasm that helps an evening completely fly by. Before we knew it we were paying the bill and looking for a bar showing the Scotland game (most as you can imagine showed just Germany’s!). Eventually we came upon a backstreet bar (alright!) with the Tartan Army gathered around a screen placed on top of what looked like a Welsh dresser from the Victorian era.
The assembled Scots were amazed to see Stuart there and although he did get a fair few selfie requests, the fans were very respectful toward him and gave him his space - for his part Stuart joined in with the occasional bit of good natured banter that came his way.
I needed to leave at half time to get a train back to Dortmund and it seemed like I wasn’t missing a great deal of goalmouth action from Scotland as I stuck the talkSPORT App on for the journey back to the hotel. Just never seemed like it was going to fall for them -
I will always wonder why Lawrence Shankland never got a fair go up front at the start of games though.
Monday was a day to check out the Dortmund stadium with Izzy 24 hours ahead of our France/Poland commentary. The place is huge, monolithic, imposing and magnificent to behold. And that “yellow wall” end, well…just stupendous looking! Then it was back to the hotel to plan and then present another Planet Rock show for Monday evening. I’d recorded the vocals for a parody song the week before whilst in my Stuttgart hotel room - Izzy and Darren, whose rooms were either side of mine, made no complaints about the noise somewhat surprisingly! I surprised myself too by doing a reasonably passable impression of ex-Marillion singer Fish for a parody of their 80’s hit ‘Lavender’. Getting great responses to a parody song is just as rewarding as getting nice comments about a commentary I’ve done - it’s all about creativity.
Tuesday and Wednesday brought back to back games for Team Red. Dortmund played host to France v Poland first off, and the Poles put up a very good performance in Dortmund despite having been eliminated already, and the French looked like a team without a great deal of tempo at times - sounds familiar - but found Skorupski in the Polish goal in fine form when they did get through the back line. Mbappe cut an increasingly frustrated figure as the mask he’s having to wear clearly irritated him more and more as the game wore on in intense heat and the sweat undoubtedly poured from his forehead. It certainly poured with sweat in the commentary box. We’d been tipped off by Simon Brotherton and Lucy Ward - who’d already done a game at Dortmund - that the sun would be right in our eyes throughout and would make seeing monitors as well as players difficult without headgear of some sort…cue a dash down to the fan shop and me and Darren ended up with a bucket hat each. No one laughed at Darren in his - my hat seemed to elicit far too many chuckles for my liking! But it was oppressively hot! Or at least it was until Dion Dublin bought me an ice cream! He had a bucket hat on and all - reckon they did good business on those things in the fan shop…
Then, after an evening watching England fail to capture the imagination once again against Slovenia, we set off early Wednesday morning for a relatively short trip to Gelsenkirchen, home to Schalke 04’s Veltins Arena…and again, what a venue! Like a spaceship plonked in the middle of the Ruhr valley, it’s incredible to think that this place sells out 50,000 + every home game…in the 2nd tier! Plus, this is where AC/DC began their recent jaunt around Europe, where Taylor Swift is set to play 3 nights shortly on her Eras tour…only for German metal monsters Rammstein to then rock up and play FIVE nights here at the end of their tour! And they started the tour with multiple nights here too. Amazing!
Even more amazing than that was what unfolded on the pitch as the “unpronounceables” of Georgia claimed a spot in the Round of 16 as one of the best 3rd placed teams. They beat Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal 2-0 - old CR7 was booked for moaning and was subbed in the 2nd half, kicking water bottles as he exited the field. The problem Georgia have got now is they’ll face Spain in the first knockout round - Spain beat them twice in the qualifiers 3-1 and 7-1. Defensive drills no doubt the order of the day at training for Willy Sagnol, but if they defend the way they did against the Portuguese, they’ll be very tough to break down. What a night it was for the Georgian fans to see what is the greatest moment in their footballing history. Can only imagine how nuts Tbilisi must’ve been too!!
More lovely people from back home were at the hotel bar in Essen where we were staying afterwards, including Phil McNulty the BBC’s Chief Sports Writer who is one of the few press guys who finds my constant impressions entertaining. The ensuing conversation was suitably daft - almost as daft as Darren asking for a Pina Colada from the bar. He demolished it in double quick time though!
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