Fun with football...and the Fuhrer?

The title of this post may be in poor taste, but it nicely sums up the day's activities. Due to our late night the previous evening, we didn't leave the hostel until about 3:30. We started by making our may through the Reichstag quarter and heading towards Bradenburger Tor and Pariser Platz. Predator was out making his rounds again, and this time Murph broke down and paid 2€ to get a series of pictures taken (look for Murph vs Predator, coming to theaters next summer). I have included pictures of Brandenbuger Tor pre and post football match for your viewing pleasure. The road behind Branderbuger Tor, Unter den Linden, was closed off for outdoor viewing of the game later that night.

From here, we made our way to a series of WWII monuments. The first was the Holocaust Memorial, followed by Hitler's "bunker"(in quotes because only all that remains is the plot of land where the bunker once stood). We surreptitiously joined a tour group and learned that Germany decided it would be best to not have any any sort of memorial where people could pay homage to Hitler, which is definitely for the best. Feeling a bit somber after viewing these two sites, we started heading towards Potsdamer Platz, one of the newest parts of Berlin. Along the way, we came across the Salvador Dali museum and decided to stop in. Among the works that were displayed were illustrations Dali created for Alice in Wonderland, which were pretty awesome. We left the museum and briefly walked around Potsdamer Platz before making our way back towards Brandenburger Tor for the game. 

      
The pre-game atmosphere was amazing to experience. Everyone seemed to be wearing either a flag, a jersey, or had their face painted. I was also pleased to see a sign forbidding any vuvuzelas (the horn that ruined the South Africa World Cup). Seeing all the people lined up in the street reminded me a lot of standing on the Ben Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia during Live 8 a few years ago. After securing brats and beer, we found a good place to stand and settled in to watch the match. Germany scored around the 20th minute, followed immediately by the obligatory lighting of a flare (not sure why this is a tradition, but it was fun to observe). Denmark answered with a goal of their own and the score was tied at the half. We wandered around a bit and at some point Mike acquired wigs with the colors of the German flag, which naturally we wore for the rest of the night. The second half was slow-building and you could sense that the fans were getting restless. Then, around the 80th minute, Germany scored what ended up being the match-winning goal...and the crowd went wild.  My camera is not so great at taking pictures in the darkness, but I think the pictures below do a nice job contrasting the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. 

After the match, we headed back to the hostel and watched an episode of South Park in German and went to sleep. Today, we are going to channel our inner-European and rent bikes to explore more of the city. I will try to add a post tomorrow morning before we head to the airport on our way to Amsterdam.