Berlin: Wannsee

One day after Paraguay's defeat to the Swedes, Johnny, Jo Anna, and I went on a cruise along the Wannsee lake, which surrounds the outskirts of Berlin.

Here are some of the images I captured:















































Today's WM scores:
Argentina 6 - Serbia/Montenegro 0
Netherlands 2 - Ivory Coast 1
Mexico 0 - Angola 0

Berlin: Paraguay 0 - Sweden 1

What a day. Thrilling. Exciting. Disappointing. Excruciating. I spent all day at my cousin's place, gathering my energy for the big night: Paraguay - Sweden. When it was finally time to leave for the game around 4pm, I was ready. I'd borrowed a camiseta albirroja from my friend Christian, and took the train to meet with Christian, Paul, Stefan, and Tanya (friends of Christian). Together we boarded the U2 train stadium-bound.

After arriving at the stadium station, we were amazed and astonished at the sea of blue and yellow that awaited us. Swedish fans outnumbered us by about 10 to 1 (if not more!), but we proudly walked around, showing our red, white, and blue colours.

We bought some bratwurst, drank a beer, and entered the stadium. Here's the sight that awaited us inside:

However, we were seated right among the small throngs of Paraguay fans, which was quite a consolation. There's security in numbers.....

The game itself was brilliant. A hard-fought battle between two good teams. The Swedes played good, attacking futbol, while the albirrojas played equally aggressive and skillfully. Both teams had some really good chances to score, but in the end it turned out to be a low scoring game: 1 - 0. The oh-so-disappointing thing is that in the end, the Swedes scored and we didn't. What made things worse, they scored in the 89th minute. A 0 - 0 tie would have kept hope alive for passage to the second round: a tie tonight and a win against Trinidad on the 20th (coupled with a Sweden loss to England) would've seen us through to the next round, but now that we've lost the first two games, we're out. Just like that.

Well, at least the team fought valiantly. They really are a talented team, and it's unfortunate that this is the way things have turned out. Two 1-0 losses: both in games that we could just as well have tied or even won, for that matter.

Highlights: Julio Dos Santos, Nelson Haedo Valdez, and Paredes. Those three played excellent.

On the 20th I'm going to Kaiserslautern to see Paraguay - Trinidad & Tobago. Even though Paraguay is out of the tournament, the atmosphere at the games is such that the games are definitely worth attending. I look forward to it. Below are some more pictures of tonight.

Stefan, Christian, Paul, and Tanya:

Christian & Cub:

Paul & Cub:

One more thing: the Swedish fans are great. They were proud to wear their colours, without insulting anyone not wearing their colours. This is more than can be said of the English.....

Today's WM scores:
Ecuador 3 - Costa Rica 0
England 2 - Trinidad & Tobago 0
Paraguay 0 - Sweden 1

Berlin: Charlottenhof, Brandenburger Tor

Another cooker. The weather's so hot, it's hard to believe I'm in Deutschland. This weather reminds me of my year spent in the Philippines - clothes sticking to your skin, sweat rolling down your cheeks. Or, maybe I'm just fat and unfit. After all, I haven't done any excercise since last summer, and to boot, I've been drinking beer the last two weeks here. I'll probably come home with a beer belly.

Today Paul & I visited the Charlottenhof. This is located on the grounds of the Chalottenschloß. I remember coming here eight years ago and viewing the beautifully manicured gardens. Back then I saw it on a very rainy day - so, seeing it today was very different. Here are a few pictures:

In the evening we met up with Christian, here from Paraguay to enjoy the WM. We met at the main train station in Berlin at around 7. Immediately after meeting up, we went to the Brandenburger Tor area, where close to 300,000, that's right, over a quarter of a million fans gathered to watch the Deutschland - Poland game. The atmosphere was electric and intense - and this is still the first round; what will happen in later rounds? - but we were all quite tired, and in no mood to stand for the 5 hours to watch the game, and so we went to a restaurant to watch the game there.

The Germans know how to pull out a win when there's none to be had. They played a very good and disciplined game, but were unable to crack the Polish wall of defence. Until minute 89. The wall cracked. And Germany went crazy. Final score: Deutschland 1 - Poland 0.

Today's WM scores:
Spain 4 - Ukraine 0
Tunisia 2 - Saudi Arabia 2
Deutschland 1 - Poland 0

Berlin: Alexanderplatz

Today my friend Paul arrived in Berlin. I met him at the Alexanderplatz train station in the eastside of the city, shortly after noon.

The weather's been quite hot here, and today was no exception. Pretty much the first thing we did upon meeting was look for a cool place to watch the Korea - Togo game. After looking around for a few hours, the best place we came up with was a bowling joint. Not exactly the atmosphere we were looking for, but hey, ya can't always be picky.

Afterwards, we took the S-Bahn towards the downtown core, where we walked around for a while, inhaling the festive atmosphere. Croatian fans were everywhere, celebrating their nation's presence at the WM. For dinner we found ourselves a place with a nice ambience, a giant screen showing the Brasil - Croatia game, and there we ate a nice dinner.

German beer is super. I don't know what we're drinking in Canada, but it ain't beer. I feel sorry for the yanks, because their beer's even worse than ours.

I got home late. Tired. Sticky. Exhausted.

Today's WM scores:
Korea 2 - Togo 1
France 0 - Switzerland 0
Brasil 1 - Croatia 0

Berlin: Gedächtniskirche, Ku'Damm

Berlin is one of my favourite cities, alongside Buenos Aires, Madrid, and Milan. Today I bought myself a 7-day transit pass for Berlin, which cost €25.90 .. not cheap! But it will be worth it, as over the next few days I plan to visit many parts of Berlin.

I started my time in this city by visiting the commercial district. I wanted to see the World Cup excitement as experienced in Berlin. I walked around until my feet practically fell off.

The best part of the day was visiting the Gedächtniskirche, a church bombed during World War II. In fact, all that is left of the church to this day is the tower:



The tall structure to the right of the bombed out tower is a (rather ugly) memorial, but to the left of the church (barely visible), is a new, smaller, and equally ugly memorial church. Well, it's ugly from the outside, but the inside is somewhat more bearable.



On a different note, Johnny and Jelena are amazing people. They are kind and hospitable. They have two girls, Louise (12), and Jo Enna (1). I haven't interacted much with Jelena yet, but I've had a few nice conversations with Johnny. I look forward to get to know them both a little better.

Today's WM scores:

Australia 3 - Japan 1

Czech Republic 3 - USA 0

Italy 2 - Ghana 0

Berlin: Johnny & Jelena

Today I got up early, at 6am, and packed for my trip to Berlin. By 8am I was packed, and by 8:30 I was out the door and on my way to the train station.

My train left at 10:15, and I arrived in Berlin at 2:20pm. My cousin Jelena and her man Johnny picked me up from the Hauptbahnhof.

My dad had previously told me how amazing the new train station is in Berlin, and he was right. It's phenomenal. It only opened a few weeks ago.

I'll spend the next 6 days here, until Sunday. On Tuesday the 13th I hope to see the Brasil - Croatia game, and on the 15th we will watch the Paraguay - Sweden game.

Other scores of the World Cup today:

Serbia/Montenegro 0 - Netherlands 1
Mexico 3 - Iran 1
Portugal 1 - Angola 0

Frankfurt: Paraguay 0 - England 1

It's hard to describe how I feel today. On the one hand, it was an amazing day, as we went to the Frankfurter Waldstadion to watch the mighty Albirroja Paraguaya play against the English Lions. The game was amazing, the atmosphere electrifying.

On the other hand it was a disappointing day, because Paraguay lost. They played a good game under very difficult circumstances, matching the English team throughout much of the game, and they were unfortunate not to score the equalizer. Even more disappointing was that the only goal the English scored was an own-goal by our own squad! How terrible... how disappointing... But, it's futbol, and these kind of things happen.

Paraguay fought valiantly, and as said, we were unlucky not to come away with a tie. England, however, did not play their best game either. They were "off", and if they expect to get far, they will have to pick up their tempo. Personally, I think the English team is one of the most overrated teams at the WM - same story as usual - but in fairness, they did not play their game today. The weather was very hot, and I think they were affected by it. If they expect to beat teams like Germany, Portugal, Netherlands, and Italy, nevermind Argentina or Brasil, they will have to shape up.

On the other hand, Paraguay will have to shape up too. They have some good strikers in Valdez and Santa Cruz, and their backline is solid also, but their midfield needs some shoring up. I don't understand why they tried beating England in the air today .. that was silly. England's much too strong defensively in the air, and Paraguay has the skill to penetrate on the ground, so again, I don't understand why they tried to attack by air.

Anyways, next up on June 15th in Berlin: Sweden.

After the game we went downtown Frankfurt and watched the albiceleste Argentina play against the Elephants of Ivory Coast. Throughout the city giant jumbo screens have been set up and thousands of fans can go and enjoy the game in a festive atmosphere. And as expected, the atmosphere was super. The only downside was that the typical stereotype about the English fans was once again true: the majority of them are morons: arrogant, ignorant drunkards. The English fans obviously outnumbered the Paraguayan fans by the thousands, but only a few hundred of them acted like normal people, the rest were either drunken idiots or unbelievably conceited. I shit you not.

Anyways, that was the day. Here are a few pictures from the game.

Paraguay 0 - England 1


La Hinchada


Fuerza Albirroja

Wörnitz: Rothenburg & WM

What an amazing day today was! Wow! Essentially I did two things: Uwe and I visited a historic town nearby Wörnitz, called Rothenburg. We walked all around the city and as usual, I took many pictures. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves (see below).

The other thing we did was watch the first game of the Weltmeisterschaft (affectionately known as "WM" here). It was the opening game, between Deutschland & Costa Rica, and it was a great opening game. We watched it at a community hall in Rothenburg. They'd set up two massive Leinwände (jumbo screens), and about 200 people filled the town hall to the max. The roar of the crowd whenever Germany scored was absolutely amazing...!

It was so festive, it was great. The WM is the best event on planet earth, and it's on for the next month.

I'm cheering for Paraguay, Argentina, and Brasil. Deutschland is a "backup" team to cheer for too. I predict a Germany-Brasil final. Brasil will win.

Today's score was Deutschland 4 - Costa Rica 2.

Tomorrow I'm going to Paraguay - England. We're going to smoke the English... I love the World Cup!

OK, here are pictures of Rothenburg.

Town Entrance:


Town Centre:


Alley:


Rothenburg Through a Window:


Rooftops:


Cub in Rothenburg:

Wörnitz: Uwe & Linda

Today was a special day, as I went to Wörnitz to visit with my childhood friend Uwe and his wife Linda. It was a great day meeting up with them both.

Uwe picked me up at the Würzburg train station just before noon, before we drove on the Autobahn for an hour towards Wörnitz. Wörnitz is a small country-town, situated smack halfway between Nüremberg & Frankfurt. I highly recommend driving on the Autobahn at 170km per hour. It's a liberating - verging on spiritual - experience. I think we drive like mamby-pamby sissies in North America.

Anyways, I digress. Once in Wörnitz, we ate a good lunch, and spent the rest of the day catching up. I love the country-life here. It's quiet and peaceful.

Uwe (at construction-site of his new house):


View from Uwe & Linda's new house (top floor):

Frankfurt: Karmeliterkloster

Today I visited an ex-Carmelite cloister in Frankfurt. The Carmelites emerged in 12th century Europe as a church renewal movement, in the form of monasteries and cloisters. In the 17th and 18th centuries, as Europe became more and more secularized and influenced by rationalistic enlightenment thought, many monasteries and cloisters were shut down or secularized.

The kloster I visited was a perfect example of secularization, as today it houses government offices, and the Archäologisches Museum (Archeological Museum) of Frankfurt. I didn't take many pictures of the cloister, because very few picture-worthy remnants remain. Besides the typical big structure of the buildings, and the austere/serene feel of the cloister, the wall-murals were the only things worth noting. Many of the murals are now being re-done, in order to preserve history.

Karmeliterkloster:


Wall Mural:


Midieval Architecture:

Frankfurt: Pause

Today I took a break from vacationing. Well, not really. I'm still vacationing, but I took a break from the touristy vacationing.

I've tired myself out, and haven't been sleeping well, so I decided to just hang around at my cousin's place.

In the evening I went out for a little walk around his neighbourhood. He lives in quite a lovely little neighbourhood.

Frankfurt: Ikonen-Museum, Liebfrauenkirche, Dom

I walked around today until my feet practically fell off. But it was a worthy walk nonetheless, because I took in some great sights.

Morning - the morning was disappointing. I meant to go to the Pfingsten (Pentecost) church service at the Dreikönigs-Kirche, but I slept in. I still haven't adjusted to the time-change. I woke up at 10am, to the sound of church bells all around me. I learned yesterday that all the city churches have an agreement to ring their bells in unison at 10am, 5pm, and 9pm, three times a year: Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas.

It was lovely waking up to the public "proclamation by bells" that indeed, the Holy Spirit has descended upon us, Jesus has ascended to heaven, and He sits at the right side of the Father. I like it. More please....

Afternoon - Having wasted the morning, I made very good use of the afternoon.

First I visited the Ikonen-Museum. This was a very small museum, not worth the €5 price of admission, but it had some interesting icons nonetheless. I arrived at 3pm, and joined a Führung (tour). The tour leader was Russian, very appropriate, because most of the icons were of Russian origin. I love icons. They transport us from this world to the world to come. They provide us with a "glimpse", a "peak" into heaven. I like it. More please....

A Russian Icon: Gottesmutter Glykophilousa (Mother of God, Glykophilousa)

Ikonen Museum:

After the Icons Museum I hit the Zentrum (downtown). I walked through the historic town centre, took in a Mass at the Liebfrauenkirche (Our Lady's Church), visited the peaceful Liebfrauen Klosterhof (Convent), walked around the Römerberg, the excavated Roman and Carolingian ruins, and the stunning Dom (dome), before finishing the day with a dinner at the (you guessed it ... ) Cafe Liebfrauenberg.

Liebfrauenkirche:

Frankfurter Dom:

Cafe Liebfrauenberg:

I got home exhausted at around 9:30pm. I had a headache, my back hurt, and I felt like throwing up. But I didn't. I thought this was going to be easy, but I was wrong. Sightseeing's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it.... ;)

Frankfurt: Dreikönigs-Kirche

Today I wandered around downtown Frankfurt quite a bit. There were two highlights to mention, the Dreikönigs-Kirche (Three-kings Church), & the main shopping district of Frankfurt, called Zeil.

Dreikönigs-Kirche am Main:

I will not say much about Zeil, except concur with the Lonely Planet guide in stating that it is an excellent place to shop (apparently it is the busiest shopping district in Europe). It is located between the Hauptwache and the Konstablerwache.

The high point of the day for me however came as I visited the Dreikönigs-Kirche, an Evangelical Lutheran church. I attended a Musikalischer Vespergottesdiesnt (a musical worship service), and was really blessed by it. It was short, only 50 minutes long, but it had all the necessary elements to facilitate union with God: prayer, spoken and sung liturgy, 2 Scripture readings, and a homily. In addition, all of these elements were supported by baroque organ music (this was, after all, a musical Vesper).

The organist played 4 magnificent pieces: Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780, Fantasie und Fugue F-Dur, and Zeuch ein zu deinen Toren), Dietrich Buxtehude (1617-1707, Komm, heiliger Geist, Herr Gott), and Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750, Komm, heiliger Geist, Herr Gott). The best piece was by far the final piece, by Bach.

Some more thoughts:

- Only about 40 people attended. The church probably seats 500. Sad.

- Among the attendees were at least a dozen young people. Encouraging.

- The homily was a reading by Karl Barth on Pfingsten (Pentecost). Intellectually stimulating, theologically deep and profound, but perhaps inaccessible to the average parishioner (well, at least the average Canadian parishioner). Also, no practical application given.

- The people at the church were friendly and inviting. I had a nice conversation with a few people, including both parish priests.

- The term Evangelisch (evangelical) seems to have a different meaning in Germany. I think it means what we would call liberal in Canada. Although, a liberal church in Canada would never ever read anything by Karl Barth. I'm confused. I'll have to dig a little to find out more....

- I've had very little exposure to Lutheran liturgy (just a little at Regent), but the sung liturgy is especially beautiful. I wonder whether JS Bach had anything to do with that... It seems to me that spoken liturgy is better in an Anglcan setting though.

- Finally, I was disappointed with the interior of the church. It was "bare, blank, white". If God is creative by nature, and he has given us the same creative talents, why would we create worship centres that give an impression of emptiness rather than fullness?

Here are some pictures of the church:

Frankfurt: Hauptbahnhoff

Today was a long but very pleasant day. Here's what I 'accomplished':

- went to the Hauptbahnhoff (main train station) and did research on train schedules; bought a train passage to Würzburg on June 8th, to visit my friend Uwe; also bought tickets to Berlin on June 11th.
- bought a 7 day transit pass for Frankfurt (€19). Now my travels within the city are fully covered.





- went to the Frankfurter Stadion and picked up tickets for the following World Cup games: Paraguay vs Trinidad & Tobago, Italy vs Czech Republic.
- had a donair and a Sprite at a Turkish Restaurant (€6).

Here are some random pictures I took at the main train station. All of them have the word Frankfurt in it.

Frankfurt

After a lentghy (and delayed!) journey, I arrived in Frankfurt at 8am this morning. My cousin Rudolf picked me up from the airport.



Afterwards, we went back to his place, and had breakfast. His son Artur was there too.

Afterwards, Artur went to school, Rudolf went to work, and I went to bed. I was exhausted. I slept most of the afternoon in fact, which may just make sleeping tonight difficult, as I'll be wide awake.

For dinner, Rudolf's partner Olga cooked a nice dinner: mashed potatoes, meatballs, & salad.

Around 10 in the evening the three of us went out for a drive around Frankfurt. It was rainy, so it was hard to really get out and see much, but it was nice in terms of getting the look and feel of the city. I look forward to exploring more.