USA 1 - Italy 1

After Bratislava I made my way to Germany via Prague and the Czech Republic. I got an early start Friday so I could spend a few hours in Prague shopping. I wish I had more time there to see how things have changed in the two years since EU membership (and since my last visit). My only observation on this point is that grocery prices seem to have stayed pretty much the same. You can still buy a bag of picnic food that will last you all day long for just a few dollars. Shopping for food at Tesco took longer than it should have and even though I made it to the train station in time to catch the only direct train to Nürnberg I did not have enough time to wait in the outrageously long line for international tickets. So instead of an easy train ride straight to Germany I had to take a slower train to the Czech border town of Cheb and then catch a German train to Marktredwitz across the border. The tracks on the line to Cheb must have been under maintainence because about 60 km from Cheb the train stopped and everyone on board had to get on some buses that were waiting to take us further down the line. This of course caused me to miss the train to Marktredwitz and be stuck in Cheb for awhile. When the next German train came along it was one that was actually going through to Nürnberg. Fortunately I had enough time in Marktredwitz to jump off the train, run to the automated ticket machine and buy a new ticket (the Bavaria ticket) that would get me all the way to Aschaffenburg for just 18 euro. I jumped back on the same train quite pleased with myself thinking I might actually make it to Darmstadt before midnight. My hopes were dashed when I got to Nürnberg to find out I had missed the train to Würzburg by 16 minutes and that the next one wasn't for 3 hours. This ment Würzburg would be as far as I would get this day. At least I knew the hostel in Wüzburg would have beds available. I checked in, got a good nights sleep and finished the journey the next day. All this effort was to avoid paying 160 dollars for the overnight train from Prague to Frankfurt. My way cost about 70 to go the same distance but would have been cheaper if I'd made it to Aschaffenburg as planned and I would have saved on the bed for the night if I'd made it as well.

Saturday afternoon was another train journey to Kaiserslautern for the USA/Italy match. It was exciting. The Italians played dirty but the US players just kept running and playing their hearts out.