Australia vs Lichtenstein - Warm up match
Trip Start
Apr 25, 2006
1
29
76
Trip End
Apr 25, 2007
Ulm, Germany
Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Brett received a Standard Fine (carton of beer) for his attempt at burning down our campervan by setting alight a plastic thermast on the gas burners (his defence was that he thought it was a kettle).
Walked into town for a look around, then noticed that Ulm is home to "The Tallest Steeple in the World", and the challenge was too much to ignore. At 161m high and at least 2 million spiralling steps, we were perhaps having second thoughts on the way up but made it to the top all the same. Gothic buildings are scary enough, but construction started on this one in 1377 and took 500 years to construct, so climbing it was just a little bit more scary. Apparently it was spared from bombing in WWII because the Ulm area was so foggy that it was too valuable a landmark.
After that we searched in vain for any Aussie Socceroo shirts, and soon realised that if you believe the shops here there are only in fact Germany and Brazil playing in the World Cup. We bought the cheapest ball we could find so that we could have a kick, and walked down the main street of town passing to random people for a "one-two". Down a picturesque side alley we found a stereotypical local German pub, and after standing around looking menacing in the extreme heat for a while someone finally left so that we could grab their table. At this stage we were the only Aussies in sight. As the hours ticked by and the beers flowed, more and more Aussies were attracted to our hilarious antics and soon the street was dominated with only Aussies - plenty of beers and street games of football. At one stage a radio station rep interviewed Mark, and hopefully it got to air that we were all looking forward to seeing our star attacking midfielder David Boon.
As game time approached we headed towards the stadium. We were all pretty blind at this stage having been boozing all day and not eaten a single thing. This showed by a lot of stumbling around and Mark even kicking our ball into the river (his jeans got a bit of a wash retrieving it). At the stadium they confiscated my bottle of water (which was to be my saviour), and I think it was 8 euro entry. The actual game was pretty shit - Viduka sat on the bench the whole time, but Kewell got to have a run as a test of his fitness. We won unconvincingly 3-1, and the real highlight was Viduka coming over to us and signing my hat and our ball (see photos). What a champ. He didn't mutter a single word, but what a champ.
