European tour 2...

I hope you enjoyed looking around the Hook of Holland. I’m sure no one indulged themselves in any misdemeanours. The law is different here but none of my readers would ever be sinful. Anyway, back in the Kia so we can get to our hotel and check in. Unfortunately, we won’t have time to stop off in Amsterdam (I’ve been there before and it’s definitely somewhere I want to visit again) because it’s a bit out of the way. However, if Arsenal get Ajax in the Champions League next season, you never know.

The outcome of my application for Dortmund tickets was only made apparent a few weeks before the match so when we went to try and book a hotel in the North West of Germany, we discovered all of the disabled accessible rooms were fully booked. That’s why our hotel for the two-night stay was in Utrecht (a 2 hour drive to the Signal Iduna Stadion). Again, it seemed like a picturesque Dutch city but we didn’t manage to see much of it as we had a vital match to attend the next day and only arrived at 19.00 on the Tuesday evening so needed to rest.

Although the match didn’t kick off until 20.45 local time, we arrived in Dortmund city centre mid-afternoon. After buying a souvenir key ring in the official BVB shop, my brother and I decided that it was lunchtime. In hindsight, I wish I’d tasted some Bratwurst sausage because everyone knows that you must try the local delicacy when abroad. Instead, I stuck with what I know and got a McDonalds. How unadventurous of me but I did order it in German, which I’m very proud of (I knew my Modern Foreign Languages GCSE would come in handy one day).

So there I am attempting to speak the language out of courtesy for the country we are in. Meanwhile, my dad is trying to start a second cold war by taking a photo of some local policemen. Germany are suspicious after discovering Angela Merkel’s phone was allegedly tapped for over a decade so it came as no surprise to me that when my dad took a picture of a few policemen (for some bizarre reason), one marched over and told him off like a little boy telling him to “stop immediately”. Apparently, my father was taking a picture of a very fascinating landmark known in English as a Pharmacy.

As day fell into night, the main square in Dortmund was full of vocal and very drunk Arsenal fans. I didn’t want any trouble to get in the way of me and the kick-off so thought we’d head to the stadium at 17.30. Better early than late, even if there was three and a bit hours of waiting left.

Right, I’m off to the gym so I’ll be back tomorrow with another instalment.

Bye for now!