Another trip, another couple of stadiums ticked off. City were awful, but everything else was good.
We arrived in Kaiserslautern at lunchtime on the Friday so we had loads of time to wander round. Its a fairly small city and there's not a lot to see. Like everywhere else though the people were friendly and the beer was good.
Its a bit of a hill to get up to it, but I was really impressed with the ground. We had to cut through the smallest stand which had a giant beer hall for the fans to watch the early game on the big screen. After catching our breath from the walk up the hill, we grabbed a beer before having to climb a similar amount of steps as Newcastle to get our standing area.
A terrible game was then played out, which resulted in what I think was my first 0-0 draw on German soil. The supporters in the west-tribune were loud, but the rest of the stadium looked comparatively empty. I think there were 33k in the 50k-ish stadium which is still good for 2nd division.
In the morning we travelled back to Stuttgart, and met a few other blues at the Biergarten. Got to the ground early and watched a bit of 1860 v Freiburg in the sports bar at the ground. A brief meeting with
@Innsbruckblue followed but I wanted to get into the ground as I'd not left much time. Knowing what happened as I do now I'd rather have stood at the bar for more of a chat!
City were an absolute shambles defensively. I think it was a collective problem but it got noticeably better when Denayer came on for Kompany. Thats a bit of a worry that a team that barely survived on the last day could tear us apart so easily, and so close to the beginning of the season. I had a great evening back at the sports bar watching the German Supercup, where there were about 15 Stuttgart fans who were chatting to us for hours. Like a typical Englishman abroad, my dad had far too much to drink and we had to get a taxi back to the hotel at about 11. Great day despite the result though.
Good thing about the German purity laws is that the hangovers aren't anywhere near as bad, so we were ready to start again the following day (although I had to drive home that evening so couldn't have much). Quick train to Karlsruhe and we wandered round the area near the hauptbahnhof for a bit. Really regret that because on our way to the ground we saw the Karlsruhe Palace which had a market and a band on in the grounds, and I would have preferred to spend more time there. I would not have found the ground walking through the forest without following the other fans who thankfully knew where they were going.
I wasn't sure what to expect from the ground, because its the first ground I've been to that's in a traditional style bowl. I was pleasantly surprised because it generated a great atmosphere and I was particularly impressed with the Karlsruhe fans who generated a fantastic atmosphere. It was so hot though. My face is now as red as the Kaiserslautern shirts and I've never sweated so much just from standing up. The club were putting sprinklers onto the supporters to cool them down a bit.
We had to leave a few minutes before the end to catch a bus to the Airport, but thankfully we didn't miss any goals as it finished 2-1 to St Pauli.
Trip over and looking forward to the Champions League draw in a couple of weeks, and hoping to get an opportunity to tick off a few more.
