Well, I've been meaning to write something up since Tuesday, it's not directly about the games, so it's
Championship side notes
As you may or may not know, Tuesday the German team had their last game in the first round.
Stupidly, the game was scheduled for the early afternoon, when everybody was still at work - I'm currently teaching a full-time class, and on Monday the first students had asked me about finishing earlier. So I asked the secretary - and heard that no way could anyone be allowed to finish early.
Darn!
Tuesday another student comes and tells me he had it from the head of department it would be ok to go home.
So I ask again, and, lo and behold, the idea is that, no, of course we can't officially finish early. But we can't hinder anyone from leaving. And we can't blame them (i.e. write it down) either.
I pass on the happy news, hoping that everybody will just go at three-thirty. (I can only leave when there's really no one left requesting tuition, of course.)
But apparently people don't live far from the school, or try not to be too bold in leaving. Still, at four everybody has left apart from one Russian guy, who's never doing any English anyway, and now also is just finishing a job application.
He keeps me another ten minutes, and when he's gone, I pack up, too.
As I get out of the classroom, I meet the janitor - darn, I think, I'd have rather left unnoticed - but it turns out that he was there to lock up! "You're still here?" he asks "I almost locked you in - didn't think of checking."
Ooooookay.
On my way out I ponder what I would have done if I had got locked in. Probably tried to smash the (glass) door with a chair, or called the fire-department, whichever I'd have thought of first.
Well, by the time I'm on my way home it's no use to try to make it in time to see something of the game, so I decide to check on the "fan-fest" for a change. I travel past the main station, but always take the shorter way from the back entrance. The whole time, it had never occurred to me to go round the long way and check out the party on the place in front of the cathedral, 100 meters from the station.
I don't much mind missing the German game, but the game that really interests me is that night, too: England meets Sweden in the Cologne Stadium. So, just the time to have a look at the city!
On leaving the station, one guy in a small group of England fans walking close to me looks around and - uses an expression I can't type here.
I'm just wondering if it was at the sight of the Cathedral that you see in all its splendour the instant you step out of the station, or at the host of England fans that occupy the place.
It looks as if we'd been invaded and the English had set up camp on the steps to the Cathedral. There's a mess as if there'd been a battle, and all over the steps you see people draped in flags, or flags without people in them attached wherever possible.
I need to go round the Cathedral to find the public viewing space. My first glimpse of it is a giant screen, filling a whole mobile stage, all cordoned off, though. What a pity I didn't think of going here before! (For a game where it might be less crowded.) On the place outside the viewing area, fans (mostly English - the poor Swedes are hopelessly outnumbered) are milling around, some are playing football right in front of Cologne's most expensive hotel.
I keep walking round, wondering if there'll be another way in, wondering also at the many German fans who are just hanging around rather than watching the game somewhere - probably not only the viewing area but also the pubs are all full.
Arrived on the other end, which is where the pubs are, the merry crowd is getting thick. I seem to have found the main entrance to the public viewing area, as there's a queue about 50 meters long extending into the road to the city hall - are these people hoping to get in for the Germany game or are they queueing for the later game at nine (it's now going on five)?
Well, there'll obviously be no room to watch the England-Sweden game anywhere around here, so I slowly make my way back.
All the fences of the cordon are decorated with St. George flags, usually with some cryptic name on it (places? football clubs?)
It's unmistakable that the local beer has found the official approbation of the English fans.
Groups of Swedes in blue and yellow and larger groups of English in white and red are singing, chatting, honking those silly horns and drinking. There's not the least tension or feeling of antagonism, just noisy mirth - everybody is just having a great time (ok, some might not remember the great time the next day, but still...
) It's like the Carnival.
I get back home as the German game is just about ended. I'm determined to try to watch the later game in company, so I decide to go to the new beergarden the Italian takeaway at the end of the street has just opened a few weeks ago.
I get there early, in case it gets crowded, but it seems that people exhausted themselves cheering for Germany - there's only a group of giggly women, a family and two older couples there, plus it gets chilly after a while, so I go home in the break and watch the rest at home. Still, I had a very nice pizza and some wine - and a very nice evening. And as I like both teams equally, the result is most pleasing, too: England win the group, but the long "tradition" of England not winning against Sweden remains unbroken by the 2-2.
The news-report later says that there were an estimated 80,000 English fans in Cologne, of whom only 25,000 had a ticket to see the game at the stadium, and about 20,000 (IIRC) Swedes.
Brewery owners also compared it to the Carnival, saying at the moment every day was like a high-day in the Carnival, and one pub-owner said the English were wonderfully nice guests, and happy to drink just about anything liquid.
A third public viewing area had been designated to the English fans - in order to prevent so many ticket-less visitors rioting with frustration, from what I understand - game comments there were in English, and the whole thing seems to have been a great success.
piccie,
close-up
The only disturbance came from a group of German hooligans who tried to pick a fight with English fans, but were fortunately arrested by the police.
Piccies (samples from big collection found in an online newspaper):
the English invasion wasn't restricted to the Cathedral area, as the flags show
Partayyy!
1-1
Cathedral place in white-red-blue-yellow
. Private ..... crap (and this is a harmless word for it!). However yesterday, the whole inner city of Geneva was blocked by cheering Portuguese. Many people have flags on their balconies... and there are a lot more Portuguese than Swiss flags. 
I asked at the office whether something was possible (dunno, might have been everybody would gather to watch or something) - but no exceptions from work are to be made for football. 
