Y3W25 - German Classics

The first classic event of the week was St. Martins Day on November 11th. By this time (the third year in a row), we knew exactly what to expect, where to be, what to do, so it was a fine evening. It wasn't very cold and it was so much fun when we have friends to hang with.

Greg had a blast of a weekend as he got to spend it playing soccer. I will let him fill you in on the details...

I got a chance to play this weekend down in Munich against a team of former TSV Munich 1860 players. My friend Matthias, a life long fan of the Bundesliga team, had contacted the club about arranging a match against their former players. It was great to get back on a quality pitch against excellent players. The team included Martin Max amongst others. Max twice led the German Bundesliga in scoring playing for 'Sechzig', and scored 20 Bundesliga goals as recently as 2004.

We played them close for the first 60 minutes, but they pulled away the last 30. I seem to get a little overly competitive about these things. Down deep, I wanted to prove that despite 3 major knee reconstructions and a lack of dedicated training in the last 10 years, I can still compete head to head with these former German 1 Division players. Maybe it's some deep underlying insecurity, a sign of past regrets, or simply a over active competiveness that isn't properly putting in check. Whatever. It was fun. In the end, I accounted for myself well and most of all I got to get back to something I absolutely love doing. Most of all, it was fun to watch my friend live a dream. He got to play with 1860. It was like those spring training baseball fantasy camps. Guy was grinning ear to ear before, during, and after the game. That kind of excitement from a friend just naturally rubs off on everyone else.

Prior to the game, we cruised over to the home stadium of both Bundesliga teams based in Munich. It was recently constructed to support the local teams but also the 2006 World Cup in Germany a few years ago.

Saturday was interesting. The kids and I went to Bonn first thing because we had to get a couple birthday presents. It was fun because all of the Christmas decorations were up in the department store but we didn't have the Christmas crowds of people. We got some of the awesome Ciabatta bread at the Bonn Markt and it didn't even make it home. We devoured the entire thing in the car on the way home. Then we wrapped the presents and I took the younger two girls to the Miller party that I was sure started at 1:00pm. Turns out it ended at 1:00pm and we completely missed it. Heidi was nice enough to let my kids stay and play for a couple hours. It was so nice of her. I really think I'm losing my mind sometimes.