July 13, 2015

One Year Later, Still the Weltmeister



One year ago today, Germany won the men's World Cup! In honor of that win, I'm re-blogging my piece about experiencing the win while in the heart of Germany.

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(Original post here)

When we booked our tickets last winter for a summer visit to Europe, we knew we'd be in Germany for the final matches of the World Cup.  Danny spent his childhood summers watching fuβball in Germany, cheering on FC Bayern-München and the national team, and we were hoping to recreate some of those memories with our visit this year.  But although we hoped, we never really thought we'd be so lucky as to actually be in Germany when they won the World Cup for the first time in 24 years!

After a day spent touring Strasbourg, France, and driving through the Black Forest, we made it back to Stuttgart in time to change and then do a little pre-gaming on the S-Bahn (I don't exactly look my best when mid-sentence in a buzzed state!...


We watched the game in the "fellowship hall" of a church. I can't think of many places in the U.S. that would condone any drinking where a church regularly meets -- and a Protestant one at that! This is one liberal aspect of Europe that I can fully embrace!


We had a few nail-biting moments... but ultimately exploded in celebration!  As did German fans across the globe!


Götze dank!


Full of elation (and beer!), we made our way out into the streets and towards the Königstraβe, the pedestrian-only center of the city.  Apparently, so did everyone else in Stuttgart!

There were ten times as many people out celebrating compared to the German third place finish when we were visiting in 2010!  Here we were four years ago...


...And here we are in 2014!  Same pose, same group of friends, same love for Deutschland!


A HUGE thank you to our Stuttgarter friends, D. and E. for being such wonderful hosts, and for making all the arrangements to meet up with D.F., A.W., and J.B. to continue our World Cup viewing tradition!  We can't wait to do it again in 2018!


Have you experienced a World Cup celebration like this?

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