With
Calli lured by the promise of some outlet shopping, we boarded the
train on our second day in Berlin and headed for the nearby town of
Wolfsburg to watch (another) soccer game.
Home
to the Volkswagen headquarters, the city owes it's size to the car
manufacturer that has essentially been the sole purpose of the city
since its inception. Originally set up by the Nazis in 1938 to produce
the "people's car", aka the Beetle, the city has grown from just 1000
people to over 130,000 today. Today the city is full of stylish modern
architecture and large parks, however, the Volkswagen factory still
dominates the skyline from wherever you are.
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| The Volkswagen factory - always visible in Wolfsburg |
Unfortunately,
German outlet shopping is more pricey than the American original and we
left the stores empty handed. Although this part of the trip turned out
to be a disappointment, the game itself turned out even better than we
anticipated.
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| Approaching the Volkswagen Arena - Home of VFL Wolfsburg |
The
Bundesliga (the German Soccer League) has a reputation as providing the
best atmosphere to watch soccer in the world, and from our experience
this reputation is well-deserved. From the moment we arrived, we were amazed by the atmosphere. Electrically-charged but welcoming, cheap beers, sausages, and pretzels, wolf calls and singing - what more could you ask for? People were friendly and welcoming, and the stadium was fantastic lit up in neon green. From the warm-up to the end of the game we thoroughly enjoyed our experience there and would recommend going to a game to anyone, whether you are interested in soccer or not.
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| The atmosphere was electric |
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| Start of the second half |
Oh and the match was fantastic as well, ending in a 1-1 draw with multiple shots hitting the woodwork and a red card to boot.
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| Heading home |
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| The award-winning Phaeno building and the Volkswagen factory |
After a long day, with
our fingers and toes tingling from the cold temperatures of the outdoor
stadium, we made our way back to Berlin with another successful
European football game under our belts.
