Opening Day and Dusseldorf

The tournament has begun! The first round of games kicked off today at 11:30 am in both Bochum and Bielefield.

VP and I aren’t working the first round of games (today and tomorrow), so we were part of the group that got to attend the opening ceremonies and first two games. Bochum is about 30 minutes from Dusseldorf and we got our first real experience of the Germany highways. Coming from California, the traffic seemed really light. I mean, of course you’re going to hit traffic if you only have two lanes going each direction! When we got to the VIP area at the stadium, we were lucky enough to mingle with all the dignitaries including Franz Beckenbauer and Steffi Jones who are on the local organizing committee.

The opening ceremonies had singing, dancing, and a bunch of players juggling soccer balls and doing tricks in unison. With all the different players they had, only one lost the ball one time and she just kept on miming as if she had her ball to keep going until someone passed it back to her. She was quite the trooper!

The VIP area was really nice and our seats were in a lovely shaded area in the stands behind the media area where we were able to enjoy the breeze in our formal FIFA suits. The first game was especially exciting with an official attendance of over 23,000! They certainly got their money’s worth with four goals for Germany, two for Costa Rica, five yellow cards, a red card, and a penalty kick! Phew! If all the games are that exciting, we’re certainly in for quite a tournament.

Yesterday, while Veronica was getting a massage, I took the time off in the afternoon to go for a bike ride into Dusseldorf with one of the Australian assistants. The Hilton we are staying at has apparently won awards for being very green and was rewarded with bicycles which they loan out to guests along with locks and helmets. Ten minutes after checking out bikes at the hotel, we were in downtown Dusseldorf with all the restaurants and some cute little shops.

They seem to really like candy, chocolate, bread, and fries.

Now that I know where the bikes are, I may have to take the next chance to go adventuring some more (and blog about it of course!).

Until next time!