Football fever in the camper

In 2006 we started the habit of watching World Cup matches in different countries. At that time it was Malaysia and Singapore. In 2010 we spent time in Sweden. In 2012 we viewed the Champions League Final between Bayern and Chelsea as the only watchers in a ball room on a giant projector screen. This year we are all over Europe including Sweden.

It is always an interesting experience to watch the matches in other countries with people supporting other teams, cheering and mourning in different ways, and also to get their opinion about the German team and Germany in general.

This year we watched Netherlands vs. Brazil in a Dutch pub in Netherlands. Terrific atmosphere with many football crazy people. In 2006 we got a first impression of their football enthusiasm in front of the Dutch embassy in Stockholm when they were celebrating a victory. The whole road in front of the building was blocked and flooded with cheering orange fans.

Danish football fever shows up in a bread roll.

In Denmark and Sweden it was hard to notice the World Cup at all. Both countries were not participating. So, the interest was pretty limited. In Norway football is not a big thing at all. Nevertheless, many pubs tried to use the matches as an excuse to lure innocent people to ‘public viewing’ events. However, it was seldom successful.

So our observations focused on the tourists on the camp sites. Here the Germans were clearly dominating the scene. Some cars sported small or large flags. Still popular were the side mirror mufflers in black-red-gold that look like the car´s ears needed warming.

German supporters on camp sites can easily be spotted.

As the satellites orbit close to the equator, in the north the satellite receiver dish needs to point directly south with hardly any elevation. Any tree or hill can block the signal easily. For the 3rd place match we had to participate in a 'public viewing' in the camp site´s reception room for about 10 enthusiasts. However, nobody was cheering or crying. It was just boring. For the final we hand-picked a camp site with a strong satellite signal and enjoyed the match at home in our RV.

 

Umbria developed distinct football expertise. During some matches, e.g. Netherlands vs. Argentina, she just fell sleep.

 

Swiss football expert, dressed in neutral colors, tries to observe Netherlands vs. Argentina w/o falling asleep.