Schalke - Champions League

We were up about the same time I get up for work and out of the house about 0820 and by 0840 I had secured my first coffee of the day.

Before the off!

As usual the shuttle was late leaving by about 10 minutes. First stop Auchun to fill the tank. Diesel is much cheaper in France at €1.348 a litre rather that £1.45. At the current exchange rate that makes it about £1.15!!! A considerable saving. An £80 tank was about £60 instead.

The first problem was TomTom failed. No map of Germany. With no paper map we had to follow our noses.

Having been this way before I knew the route and occasionally used the Skrobbler app on my phone to check when we were nearby.

We had a coffee break about 1.30pm and arrived at about 4.15pm at the hotel.

Arena Hotel

The room is small but clean and cheap!

Once checked in we set off for the Stadium to see where to go in daylight.

The bratwurst and beer stands had barely opened and so we ended up in Burger King by the hotel.

Bratwurst free grill

Curry for the currywurst

Now back in the hotel with two hours to kick off. Need a beer and after the game I need a sausage!

Part 2

After a feast at BK, we went back into the hotel and changed into our football gear.

A pint of Veltins Pils

Veltins and bretzel

Once at the stadium getting in was very easy and we found ourselves in Block 65 along with the home supporters. The fact that we weren't segregated actually went off very well and there was none of the expected and customary trouble.

The game was a disappointment ending 2-2 after we had been 2-0 up.



Teams warming up.

I was there....

and so was he....

I took this video on my phone of the "community signing" before the kick off.  Most of the songs to rouse their crowd were like this - http://youtu.be/9ZuWfryxUVo

Part 3

On the way home we planned a shopping trip in Auchun and to fill the car with diesel, so we were up and at breakfast by 8.30am and off on the road. A stop in Lidl revealed no different makes of beer so we bought eistee and then were off again back tracking along the autobahns towards Holland.

As we approached the border we couldn't help notice this sign for a town with a humorous name....

Once in Belgium we had a stop for a coffee and a leg stretch at the E17 stop and decided that we would go straight to Auchun and shop, then lunch then fuel and back to the Shuttle.

Shopping included some beers we had never tried before, plus cheese, casoulet and chocolate. For those times when people drop round a 5 litre cask of wine, rose, was also dropped in the cart.

5l ought to be enough

Last night's purchase!!

When we put fuel in at Auchun it worked out that for 518 miles we had used 10.5 galls (imp)...... around 49mpg....  Had we gone on the bikes it would have been about the same each!