Back from a Slovakia>Czechia>Germany>Czechia trip. Will just focus on the Germany aspect of it here.
I spent a couple of days based in Dresden. Considering it was flattened, they have done an absolutely fantastic job of rebuilding it. In terms of "points of interest", I'd say that its only bettered by Berlin in my opinion. The square around the Frauenkirche and Brühl's Terrace were both places I could have happily sat with a beer just people watching for an entire day. But there was football to watch....
I took the train to Chemnitz (formerly Karl Marx Stadt) on the Saturday morning and had about 2 hours to look around. That was probably about 1 and a half hours more than I needed. Not much to see - a big statue of Karl Marx's head and a nice town hall square were the highlights. Given what I had read about the right wing in Chemnitz, I was surprised to find an "intercultural festival" taking place in the town square. Lots of stalls with information on culture and foods from different countries - eg Pakistan, Lebanon, Ukraine, Hungary, Turkey. There were a few people at this, but the whole City just felt a bit quiet - there were hardly any cars on the roads, so it was just a bit eerie.
Walked to the stadium which was about 15 mins from the station. You have to walk under the train tracks through a tunnel. Presumably because it was a bit of a derby, there was quite a big police presence at the station and at the ground but if there was going to be any trouble, it would have taken place in the tunnel I reckon and there were no police there. Didn't see any trouble myself though.
The ground has been completely redeveloped and was a smaller version of Mainz's ground, but still quite large for 3.Liga. Admittedly I didn't understand every word of every song, but I didn't detect any political views and it felt like I could have been at any ground in Germany. Good beer, and good bratwurst as always, some status quo in the build up and mercifully no YNWA.
Chemnitz beat Carl Zeiss Jena 3-2 with a goal late on, but it was undeserved in my opinion and the game was generally lacking in quality. Not surprising it was the bottom two teams and CZJ look to have been cut adrift already at this point in the season. Could be a long season for both on the basis of what I saw.
I got the train back immediately after the game, and in the 15 minutes I spent walking from the ground to the train station - back in England, City had kicked off and had scored 5 goals. Not the best game I could have chosen to skip!
On Sunday, having spent the morning exploring more of Dresden, it was time for Dynamo Dresden v Regensburg. This was the 40th different ground in Germany I've been to and the supporters were up there with the best. Neither team had started the season particularly well but the terrace behind the goal was absolutely filled to the brim with people. If they ever get to the Bundesliga again they could fill a ground twice the size of the current one I reckon. The ground itself was very similar to Augsburg from memory (with different coloured seats), and fairly unimaginative and indistinctive on the outside. The whole ground seemed pretty full as far as I could tell, apart from the away section which was about half full, but they still made plenty of noise.
Dresden won it 2-1 with a late goal, but I thought their equaliser was a bit contentious - not sure if its been spoken about in the German media. The new rule this season that the game is stopped if the ball touches the referee was implemented. He ordered a drop ball about 25 yards out, and about 20 seconds later Dresden had scored without a Regensburg player touching the ball.
Would go back to Dresden in a heart beat, and would recommend anyone going.
No further German trips booked at this stage, but I have 6 teams left in Bundesliga 2 that I need to get to at some point.
