Sunday 30 April 2017

Berlin day 1

The sun shone all day and made for glorious sight seeing conditions. 

I ran solo first thing and found a route which was essentially 10k to the Brandenburger Tor and then added a bit on to Alexander Platz down Unter den Linden.

On the way back I picked up the canals and used them to guide me all the way to the hotel.  With a week of strict diet and not eating much yesterday I was running low on energy but enjoying the new surroundings I managed about 25ks in 4.25s.  Not bad 1 week after the marathon.

I then played tour guide by taking Rich and Greggy (+my Jack) into Berlin starting with the UBahn to Wilmersdorfer Strasse where we then walked up Kantstrasse stopping for food at CHAO and Indonesian restaurant which was pretty good.  I know Kantstrasse well. We sat there in the sunshine but them got talking to this 70ish year old Polish bloke behind me. We got talking about where we all came from and he took an interest in the boys and guessed we were there for some sort of sporting occasion.

Turns out it was Wojtek Fibak who won the Australian Open doubles in 1978.  He was also ranked high top 10s in singles. He told me that he was the one that brought Ivan Lendl to the US and that he stayed at his house before he hooked up with Tony Roach.  A really nice smart and funny guy. We hit it off.

Afterwards we walked to the Gedachnis Kirche and took the 100 bus along the tourist route to the new Reichstagsgebaude and then the short walk to the Bandenburger Tor.

Andreas then picked us up from there and drove us to Check Point Charlie.  I actually went through into East Berlin when the wall was still up in 1985ish.  It was on a school exchange and because we didn't have German passports we were allowed to cross over for the day. To this day it was one of the best things I ever did.  I have fond memories of bringing a tennis ball and playing football with a bunch of east German kids with my best mate at the time Toby Chappenden. It was surreal.

Nice dinner followed by early into bed. I love Berlin and was a great day.





Wojtek Fibak

























Saturday 29 April 2017

RB Salzburg vs Ingolstadt

Just Jack and I for his football touranement week in Germany and an early flight from Gatwick to Berlin (meeting Rich and Greggy who have flown over from Sydney). Andreas the head coach of Berlin Viktoria was there to meet us before we headed for the 2 hour drive south west to Leipzig to watch the Bundesliga game between RB Leipzig (2nd in the league behind Bayern and hoping to cement a Champions league spot) and relegation destined Ingolstadt.

Leipzig were nothing a few years ago before the Red Bull owner bought 4 clubs around the world: Leipzig, New York, Salzburg and in Brazil. Leipzig have been promoted in 4 consequetive years with the exception of one year and are now heading for the big prize. Today it did not happen for them with the game petering out 0-0. The crowds at German games though are always good and pretty sure is the best supported league globally. The Australian Lecce played for Ingolstadt but was woeful before coming off early on.

The stadium is impressive too. It was rebuilt in time for the 2006 World Cup but was built inside the old 120,000 stadium which was for the DDR Lokomotive Leipzig team. It's pretty cool as they have kept the original infrastructure. There are bridges you walk over to get into the new peice.






Susanna's son met us after the game - he is signed at RB Leipzig's youth academy. We visited it and it is impressive. He signed from Berlin Viktoria at the tender age of 13 which meant moving away from home. They live at the training complex (recently built by Red Bull for ~50m euros) and now 16 (born 2000) he has just signed for another three years. It's tough being away from Berlin, training twice a day and having to fit in the small matter of his school work - Leipzig pay for all academy players to attend a private school.

We got the van back with him and he was giving the goss on what it takes and the zero tolerance policy at the club. This means no messing around and eating literally NO crap. He gave us a load of free Red Bull but he is band from drinking it and refused all chocolate and sweet offers in the car.  Next week he is away in Duisburg for the German national u17 trials, perfect timing for his GCSEs the following week. Yikes.

I've said this before. Germany treats its younger generation with a lot more respect than in Anglo Saxon societies and therefore they behave better. It's actually not just football but German society as a whole.