Right Track, Wrong Train

The title tells it all. In typical fashion, we followed the crazed crowd, but ended up at the Olympic Park rather than the football stadium. To our credit, there were more fans headed to the park to watch the game on a big screen than the stadium to watch in person.

What a game it was! But, we need to talk about the pre-game a bit. The German sitting next to us said it all when she remarked "This is typical Germany, no typical Bavaria, not Germany!" How could one tell with the hundred or so lederhosen-wearing men and enormous (and we DO mean ENORMOUS) cow bells, hanging from their waist to their knees - they must have cows the size of dinosaurs! The sole American in the opening ceremonies was a scantily clad Toni Braxton, but she had an amazing voice, though it was hard to tell with the chants of Deutschland and Tico echoing off the donut-shaped stadium. The stadium was packed, with CR well-represented by its fans, even though they lost 2-4 to the Germans.

As we were leaving the stadium, the loud speaker in the subway screamed that the fan park was "hopelessly" filled to capacity so "please do not go there!" That was a silly thing to say, because the crowd promptly filled the train to the park to join in the celebration of Germany´s win and Costa Rica´s excellent showing.

We had dinner at the Hofbrauhaus where we saw, according to a friendly Costa Rican, the President of Costa Rica. We doubt he was being truthful, but it could have been.

The latest tally: 3 radlers and 2 brats for Mark and 2 spezi for Lisa. Sorry for our lack of excitement, but we have an early train - 8 hours - to the Czech Republic in a couple of hours...we need sleep!