Got a 650am flight from Dublin to Berlin, landed on time & nice friendly greeting from British & German police on arrival with flights from Manchester & Stansted arriving at the same time, quick (€60) taxi into city Centre, weather glorious, beers and food along the river, great atmosphere mixing with fans from other nations who had come to Berlin for the final, good banter & sharing of football stories, met plenty of Blues and Villa fans (from Castle Brom and Stetchford which is of course Blues territory), many of whom had driven the 15 hours! Moved onto the fan zone around 4pm, plenty of booze and food options, beer was cheap (compared to Dublin) at €6 a pint, loads of activities for families, the Germans know how to put on a tournament.
Next onto the stadium about 6pm, quick 30 min train, that was free if you had a match ticket, lots of drink options outside and inside the stadium with short queues, local police were excellent, took a hands-off approach, no antagonizing. The Olympic Stadium is a bit like the colosseum from the outside and like the old Wembley to an extent inside. Lots of Germans sitting around us (counted 8 free seats in front of us though which was a shame!), lots of Germans were supporting England. Shout out to the Blues fan I met from Tamworth who was with his Wife? and had taken his Dads ashes with him and also the lead for BluesforAll supporters club who was sat behind me.
Saw little trouble apart from a bit of agro on the train with some England fans having a pop at some Germans for wearing Spanish shirts & some big bully confrontations including taking the mickey out of a small Spanish fan who was on the midget size which I didn't like. Headed straight to the airport afterwards, kipped on the floor as flight home was 6am and straight into the office for 830am! ; )
Onwards and upwards but apart from the 5 mins after we equalised did i think we had a sniff of winning.
