Oranje crushed

Football fever has of coursed gripped the nations of Switzerland and Austria for nearly three weeks now, along with the rest of Europe. CH and Austria just feel it more because they are hosting the Cup. The Opening game was in Basel (main CH host city), many rounds were played also in Zurich, Geneva and Bern; and in Austria, Vienna (main Austrian host city), Salzburg, Innsbruck, and Klagenfurt (no, I've never heard of it either). Now that we've reached the semi-finals, Basel will host one (tonight) and Vienna will host the other (tomorrow night); then (yay!!) Vienna will host the Final on Sunday. Whew.

It should be stated right up front that both Switzerland and Austria fell out of contention before the quarterfinals. England were also knocked out before the Cup, so they haven't a dog in this race...which must be killing them since they are all utter football fanatics. It seems, though, that they sort of adopted Holland as their favourite (my guess being that it's one of the few Euro countries England have no historical beef with...and vice versa), and certainly Switzerland caught Holland fever. They have been on fire for most of the tournament, and they have been winning all their games handily and with style and flair. Scott is also a big Holland fan, donning his orange Holland jersey to watch the matches. Ah, bless. :-) (Secretly, I believe it's because he loves Amsterdam and he loves the colour orange...but he's also becoming a bit of a football fan anyhow, so who knows? He already has Holland hats and shirts, and a Holland label on the bike trailer for the dogs.)

Anyhoo, last Saturday was a big quarterfinal match, Holland vs Russia. Holland were the easy favorites, Russia the underdogs. Basel ranneth o'er with Dutch fans -- over 100,000 of them. The entire city was orange. Please see for yourself...

First, we have "The Hammering Man," a very tall (note the life-sized people walking near the base) sculpture of...a hammering man. "Since the end of August 1989 this giant with a height of 13.5 metres and a weight of 8 tons has been swinging his hammer in the steady rhythm of a man's breathing. According to [American artist] Jonathan Borofsky, at his location on the Aeschenplatz he is intended to serve as a symbol «for all of us who are working together to make our environment on this planet safe and worth living in»."

In celebration of the Oranje, he was wrapped all in orange, head to toe. Festive, is he not?

Across the street from The Hammering Man, in the park where we walk our dogs, many Dutch had simply found a place to sleep by grabbing a spot on the grass.


Later on Saturday, it became clear just how full of Dutch the town was. Here's a picture of just one of the squares in town (there were several other places fully packed full of Oranje fans).


The Dutch fans were having a great time, just partying like mad all Friday and Saturday, in preparation for their big match on Saturday night. They are not obnoxious or scary football drunks, like, say, the English -- they are just wild and crazy and fun. They did pee everywhere, but with that much beer, that was sort of inevitable. But they didn't fight or commit crimes or intimidate the locals. Mostly, they just wore a lot of orange and drank a lot of beer. There were a lot of orange rubber faux-wooden shoes, which I just found amusing.


Nice, huh?

So there were a LOT of drunk and happy Dutch fans. Until the end of the match, which they lost. Russia beat them 3-1. SO much sadness. So many cheery orange-dressed Dutch people walking around like a funeral procession. Woe was them. It was sad just to watch them. But they didn't fight and they didn't riot, they were just sad. And then they were okay again. Being Dutch seems fairly straightforward, to be honest.

Tonight will be the last game in Basel -- yay! But it's Germany vs Turkey, so there should be a big crowd, and it's a longtime rivalry. Aside from the all-night horn honking (which is how they celebrate a win here), let's hope they just want to turn in early on a weeknight. I know I do.

London calling

A couple of weeks ago (okay, like five weeks ago now), we hopped over to London for a long weekend with Carmen (at her place in London) and Liz and Martyn (who came down from Birmingham to join the festivities). Here's Liz and Martyn in the Tube, and it kind of turned out a bit like American Gothic on the Underground, but that's cause Scott didn't give enough warning. Still, a cute picture...


We've been to London before, of course, but this time we wanted to be more touristy than we'd done in the past. So we did a number of things that are standard-issue Londony things, but we hadn't gotten around to before.

We went to the Imperial War Museum and saw a special exhibit on James Bond 007/Ian Fleming, which was quite interesting and detailed, though full of lots of people and children. We also saw a whole Holocaust exhibit, which was emotionally exhausting. And looked at a load of old tanks and guns and stuff. Whatev. Scott loved it. ;-) Actually, the best thing about that museum visit, for me, was that I learned that Ian Fleming was in his 40s before he ever even thought up the notion of James Bond or wrote a book at all. So he's one of those later-life success stories that keeps slim hope alive.

Here's a photo of Scott in front of the museum, if you squint he's in blue in the foreground. With funky sunglasses on.


We also took another Thames River boat trip -- we love these and do them in any and every city they're available, along with those double-decker bus tours. We're cheesy and we're totally comfortable with that. It was kind of a grey crappy day, though, so none of the photos turned out very well. Here's one picture from the river, and this is the HMS Belfast, which is also part of the Imperial War Museum, a retired battleship you can tour. Scott wanted to go there, but we didn't end up having time. So he only got to see the outside.


After the river, we saw that the lines were short for the London Eye, so we made a quick detour there and saw the views. For those of you always wanting pictures with faces in, here's me on the Eye (and no, I don't have a shiner, that's just the perpetual dark circles under/around my eyes...sigh).


Here's another picture showing some of the view, which wasn't great due to grey skies and haze, and also the back of Carmen and me.


Another thing I've wanted to do for a long time is go to the Tower of London, so we did. It was really cool and I could've stayed for many hours. We did stay for about two hours and it was all fascinating and worth the effort. I highly recommend it. Yes, we saw the crown jewels and the great big diamond sceptre and all that, but the very building and history itself were far more interesting to me. So here's the obligatory photo of Scott and me in front of the main gate to the Tower. Not a good picture, which is WHY I NEVER POST ANY! :-)


Here's our Beefeater Yeoman Bob, who was our very awesome tour guide. The Beefeater Yeomans and all their families live in the Tower, and they have a doctor who lives on site as well, since they're all locked in from 10 pm every night. Their uniforms are very sharp and cost about 8000 pounds sterling (or was it 3000??), if I remember correctly.



Inside the tower are ravens, who are harbingers of doom (if they disappear), so they are taken care of well and live inside the Tower as well.


Scott was keen to see all the old weaponry stored in the old royal residence within the Tower. He took several pictures, but this one is the coolest.


Finally, the best views of Tower Bridge are from the Tower:


Outside the Tower, as we headed back to Carmen's place -- she has moved to a very, very cool neighborhood called Marylebone that is very central -- Scott snapped a photo of these dragons that mark the borders of the City of London (aka The Square Mile, or just The City), and caught the cool red bus in the background too.


Other less touristy things we did while there included wandering around Carmen's new neighborhood, eating full English breakfasts (which take you through dinner), shopping in nearby Bond and Oxford Streets, having a pedicure (me) at House of Fraser, going to sporting goods shops (Scott), buying shoes at Selfridges and a couple of other shops (can't find good shoes here, but London has loads!!), eating pub food, loading up at Boots, etc.

Thanks, Carmen, for having us all to stay! And thanks Liz and Martyn for coming down to join in! It was great fun, and you're all due to come here next!!!