One of my mates who I met through The Arsenal had taken the plunge and moved from Dublin to Karlsruhe Germany to part own and run a pub. I had been flapping on about going to visit for some time and being a self employed contractor, I can never work bank holidays… so the time was right! I don’t spend much time messing around with these things so I actually booked without confirming he was going to be there, thankfully he was.
The place I was heading to was Karlsruhe which is about a hour train away from Stuttgart. When I arrived at Stuttgart, it was roasting and the weather was more like the Caribbean all weekend. He did warn me this area had the highest average temperature in Germany, but I still didn’t expect 33-37 degrees! I have visited so many cities in Germany now and the transport here was as easy as all the rest.
I got to Karlsruhe at a decent time and was absolutely baking. I walked to my hotel to get checked in and wandered around. Karlsruhe isn’t huge (around 300,000 people) so I headed straight to the main thing to do which was the palace. There was a beer festival there this week so there were loads of cool stands and tents in the grounds. I did a few laps of the palace taking in the gardens etc and just baked in the sun for a bit. Before I could get into the swing of the weekend though, there was an Arsenal game to contend with. So we got the game on in Sam’s pub and prayed that The Arsenal weren’t going to ruin the weekend. Thankfully, we sealed our first win of the season in style and I was ready to have a few drinks.
Usually Germany is my enemy on the alcohol front! Any Champions League away game is usually ciderless and I end up having to drink vodka in the morning/early afternoon. Thankfully, one of the perks of your mate owning an Irish Bar is there’s cider and plenty of it. A local celebrity Barry Chuckle look-a-like turned up and couldn’t speak a word of English. The guy was a legend and despite not being able to communicate, I got him a Jager and he was off dancing and entertaining. Singing Scooter with a German weirdo has to be up there with my greatest achievements in life.
We headed down to the Palace for the light show and some of Sam’s mates joined us. They had a world beer stall which sold Savanah Cider so I was happy (the South African cider they sell in Nandos). The light show was pretty incredible to be honest, they were projecting storied onto the whole side of the massive palace. I counted about 60 projectors, it really was class for such a small town/city to be honest. The ciders and mojitos were flowing but unfortunately the beer festival closed at one which was rubbish! The place was still absolutely rammed at 1 and there were no residents about so whoever decided that is an idiot. Still, it was a class night which ended with me negotiating with the owner of a bar to purchase a pineapple she had as decoration.
We headed back to their flat (with my Pineapple) and got a cab back to my hotel.
The next morning it was roasting again and I carted Hendo up to a place called Turmberg which involved a shit load of steps. Fair play though, as tough as it was (it really wasn’t that tough) it was worth it because of the view. After a trek up there in the lovely heat, I headed back to the hotel to chill out before heading to the beer festival again. This time the full crew were out and we didn’t have as much time given the place closed at 9pm on Sundays (boooo). Headed over to a rival Irish bar Scruffy’s afterwards which was good, apart from the shit metal music they played the entire night. More Jager and cider later and I walked back to the hotel.
The weekend had taken it’s toll and I was not feeling minty fresh on the Monday, and I knew I had a long day ahead with an 8pm flight and a drive to Leeds. Went for some food with Sam and Josh and met up with Neil and Annie Marie for a coffee afterwards. It was a great break and I’ll be back, probably when ROI and Wales collide in the World Cup qualifiers. Fair play to Hendo, that’s a leap of faith that has worked. I loved the city, my type of place (apart from fact it is in Germany) and I would love that kind of weather in the summer please!
Anyway, grim week of work ahead, now looking forward to Paris for the UEFA Champions League and South America is FAST approaching (starting to panic).
