Just back from a long weekend in Berlin (organised entirely in ignorance of the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the Wall coming down). Plan was to drink some beers, eat sausage (or more specifically currywurst) and watch some football. Objectives achieved, and only my liver regrets it. Plus it was of course an exciting time to be in Berlin. The Bundesliga has a growing reputation for good football, strong participation of fans in running clubs and great, atmospheric, stadia. I certainly wasn't disappointed. Match One: Hertha Berlin (just above the relegation zone) v Hannover (top five). Pre match experience - brilliant - great home fans, who dragged us off the tube a couple of stops early so we could get cheap beer to drink walking up the huge avenue towards the Olympic Stadium, which has been brilliantly modernised but retains all of its history, including the plaque listing the medal winners, with Jesse Owens at the top. A very friendly atmosphere, but few travelling fans (televised Friday night match). Beer 3 euro for half a litre, you can take it to your seat. It's a huge (80,000) stadium and was probably less than half full. Despite this, and the fact that the pitch is miles away over the running track, atmosphere was very good. The hard core Hertha support (perhaps 8-9,000 of them) sang for the entire match, regardless of what was going on on the pitch. Which was a good thing, as the game was crap, 2 - 0 to Hannover, who scored with the only two chances of the game. But the fans, an iconic stadium, and the free flowing beer made it a great experience. Ticket cost 25 euros. Match 2: Wolfsburg (2nd in the league, 4 points behind Bayern) vs Hamburg (bottom half), Sunday afternoon televised match. Hour on the train to get 150 miles west of Berlin. Pre match experience - dire. Wolfsburg is a new town, built for Volkswagen, its got a horrible sixties style shopping precinct centre, loads of heavily armed police, sometimes escorting bunches of Hamburg fans, but otherwise deserted. Followed some small groups of fans on the 15 minute walk to the VW Stadium.......which is brilliant. New stadium, 30,000 capacity, but somehow looks much bigger, brilliant views, steep stands, huge leg space, and the whole of the lower tier behind one goal safe standing for the 6-7,000 home fans who once again sang for the entire game. The away fans were numerous and noisy too. Despite the pre match omens not a hint of trouble during or after the game. Again a friendly bunch of fans, beer affordable and can be taken in (although you can watch the whole game from the bars on the concourse between the first and second tiers). I would be delighted to watch the Rs in a stadium just like this every home game - and I think 30k is the right capacity to generate atmosphere for us. Full stadium, good game, 2-0 win for Wolfsburg a very tidy team, Kevin de Bruyne their big buy from Chelsea was very good. Ticket 25 euros again. Like to post some photos, but have to figure out a way to save them in a smaller format because of site rules. They had already let the balloons off by the time we got back to Berlin, but the place was buzzing, very special atmosphere. Apparently Peter Gabriel sang "Heroes" at some stage. I'll be doing this again, perhaps elsewhere in Europe, before the end of the season, but would seriously recommend Germany and in particular Berlin. As a result I'll be taking a special interest in Hertha Berlin from now on......play in blue and white, really great fans, and of course, fighting relegation. f** it, typo in the thread title!
Of course it can cost a bit, but for anyone interested in football and the experience, its worth saving for. And less stressful than watching the Rs. One of the mates I went with, a Leicester season ticket holder, does these trips regularly - Lisbon, Slovakia, Budapest, Slovenia....but keeps on going back to Germany. I loved it because the whole thing was focussed on the fans actually in the ground, no rip off prices, 'restricted views' etc, and the response was full throated support.
What was the age demographic, Stan? Younger people here getting priced out of games seems to result in less atmosphere.
Try Cologne next time Stan - the stadium (Rhein Energie Stadium) holds 50,000 and is nearly always full. With 8,000 home standing and about 4,500 away there's always a great atmosphere. Average ticket prices are about the same as you experienced 25-30 euros, and standing is for 10 Euros. Another plus is that when I go to the stadium from Engelskirchen (about 40km to the east) all public transport is included in the match ticket. The atmosphere at Dortmund and Schalke (Gelsenkirchen) is pretty special as well - though the towns themselves are not exactly tourist attractions.
Everyone looks young to me mate......but I think it was a good mix, lot of younger lads and (I may be wrong) in retrospect more ladies than over here too. And as Cologne says with standing tickets at 10 euros a go, they put premiership prices to shame. To be fair, a lot of the singing is orchestrated, led by blokes with megaphones....but they still get thousands giving it their all for 95 minutes. Cheers Cologne, I'll do my best. Have heard that Dortmund is an outstanding experience. Apparently a thousand UK based Brits are season ticket holders and fly out for the games re, which is an amazing advert. With the train system (when not on strike, we got lucky with it being called off on Sunday) fast and reasonably priced its easy to get two matches in over a weekend. As is probably obvious, I was seriously impressed. I've watched football in lots of places, including Italy (a lot), Spain and Portugal, and usually thoroughly enjoyed myself, but can't think of a better all round experience for something that I had little emotional investment in.
You should try Hamburg next time Stan, and get to a St Pauli game. You will get a very special experience and one you'll probably never forget.
One of the lads I went with has done that Norway, and says the same, it's a unique club..........looks like I've got a long list. Also would like to see Union Berlin, the second tier team, which was the East Berlin team before reunification. A few years ago they decided to modernize their stadium, but had no cash. So 2,000 of their fans put in 140,000 hours ofwork and did it themselves. Now have a 21,000 capacity ground, with 18,000 standing space. I've just read that McCoy's has become the 'official crisp partner' of the Football League. I'm sure that the German's also have 'anything for cash' sponsorships, but I doubt the St Pauli faithful would be impressed. What have we come to?
