Germany 2025

Tour party – Zio, Pedro & G

An early start meant we were checked into the hotel by 11:30 and into Schreckenskammer by mid-day, which was fortunate as it shuts at 13:45!

An Asia Gourmet was followed by a trip to Düsseldorf for the Women’s Nation’s League semi-final between Germany and France which turned out to be the best game of the weekend with the home side winning 1-0! The rest of the evening was spent socialising in the Altstadt part of that city.

Saturday’s game was a Regional League West encounter between Bonner SC and SC Wiedenbrück which the home side won 2-1 and I think that’s about all you can say about that match albeit it was slightly better than the epic Koblenz match from yesteryear! Fortunately, the Paulaner Brauhaus was available for post-match refreshments! Later on, that evening we went back to Köln for another Asia Gourmet, a visit to Shorty’s, then arguably one of the best White Russian’s ever in the Cubana bar, ok several along with a mojito! Finally ending in the Kwartier Latäng which was also disgustingly cheap!

Sunday involved going to the Viktoria Köln/Hansa Rostock game, it seems to be a Köln Sunday pastime to go for lunch which meant we were struggling to get into one of our usual haunts, however Zio’s desire to visit Sünner im Walfisch was a definite success, especially when chatting to a well-tattooed gent who was amazed that we were going to the game. As Hansa have a fairly bad reputation, it looked like all the Ultras from Westphalia had combined to go to the game which was almost sold out! Indeed, the difference in the ground from our last visit to it in 2016 was quite marked. Hansa won the match quite easily 4-2. We completed a hat-trick of Asia Gourmet’s with the amount of duck Pedro got on his plate increasing remarkable over the three trips as well. We ended up in Zur Eigelschänke which is an interesting bar to put it mildly!