Gelsenkirchen here we come? CRAIG HOPE's postcard from somewhere in the German countryside...
after a nightmare day on the train! Craig Hope isn't a huge fan of Gelsenkirchen - or his train journey there! He is staying in the charming medieval town of Erfurt, which is full of life LISTEN to It’s All Kicking Off! ‘I wouldn’t touch Nagelsmann with a barge pole!’ By Craig Hope Published: 17:30 EDT, 15 June 2024 | Updated: 19:10 EDT, 15 June 2024 e-mail View comments German inefficiency, who knew? This postcard might have featured a few thoughts from Gelsenkirchen, if I hadn’t spent most of Saturday stuck on a train in the Bavarian countryside. Rolling hills, yes. Sadly, no rolling wheels.
I didn’t even have a seat, the chaos caused by the delays meaning a lady had taken mine. It wasn’t that I didn’t have the heart to evict her, it was more that I didn’t know the German for ‘please move’. For all that, my previous experience of Gelsenkirchen would probably have reduced my dispatch to the following: ‘Get me out of here.
’ There isn’t a great deal to write home about in a city where the glorious Veltins Arena is the sole antidote to the pain of the beige, industrial oblivion of elsewhere. The same cannot be said of wonderfully charming Erfurt, a medieval town close to where England are staying and my base for the tournament. To think my image of East Germany was ‘grey, cold and closed’.
On Friday night, Erfurt was vibrant, balmy and open to all. Mail .
