Bigsoccer Weltmeisterschafts guide (discussion)

[96Squig]

Hi
I think it would be a good idea to create a guide about the sites of the upcoming World cup, with tips about the stadiums, restaurants, public transport, driving, sightseeing, shopping and day trips.
Best thing would be one thread about discussing it and two threads (one in the Germany forum, one in the World Cup forum) showing the results.

The threads should be there so people have a quickguide for planning a trip to the world cup.
I will start on Hanover later this afternoon ;-)

[nippeserbock]

sounds like a good idea. if you know the particular town well, give some inside information so that vivtors see more than the well-known tourist spots.

i know cologne very well and i'll through out one ore two spots not too many people know about:

Em Goldene Kappes- a traditional cologne restaurant in the outskirts. the menues are in cologne dialect which even most germans can't read. people will enjoy helping you get through it. huge tables make you join with others and you will get into conversation. its located at subway station "florastrasse" in nippes. a definate must see. there are other places like that in the city but they're full of tourists and the staff are very difficult.
if anybody wants more information on cologne, let me know...

[Dead Fingers]

Thought I would add some of the basic stuff from FIFA

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/d/

they also have it in Deutsch, Spanish and French

brief info on host cities, some travel info, and even some info onaccommodation services.

[Doc_Aeppler]

well, if anybody starts so i can see what kind of information you mean, I will do the same for Frankfurt (and maybe also Rhein/Main Area) in the next days...

[comme]

I hope I'm not spamming here or rehashing something already done to death (if so please provide a link), but I was interested in getting a German perspective on where would be a good base for people to stay during the World Cup.

If you were to go on a holiday with a group of young(ish), semi-cultured men, or about 5-10 days where would be ideal for it?

Please take into account the possible travel required for games etc (as yet unconfirmed).

Thanks

[96Squig]

It's about time that I start this, shouldn't have put a this afternoon in the 1st post. Anyway, thanks for digging it out ;-)

I thought that everybody in this thread can write basic information about any place he wants in Germany and we than put this sorted in another thread here and in the world cup forum.

I'll start with Hanover with some links on the city:
www.hannover.de official website of the city, in German, Spanish, French, English, Russian and other languages. Features information about hotels, nightlife and cultural events as well as a portal for other websites.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanover Wiki article on hanover, features a brief overview of the city.
www.efa.de website of the local mass transport system of lower saxony and Bremen. If you want to take the underground in Hanover, here you can get your connections, information about the system and stuff like that.

Some facts for the WC:
-local team: Hannover 96, 1st Bundesliga, as well as a few 4th level teams like Arminia Hanover.
-local stadium: AWD Arena, historical name Niedersachsenstadion, for the wc renamed into Fifa world cup arena Hannover
-German writting of the name: Hannover
-state: Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen)
-location: relatively in the central, a bit to the north, good connections to the Ruhr area, Bremen, Hamburg, Bremen and Frankfurt via Autobahn (A2/A7) or train
-pop: 500 000 in the city istelf, another 500 000 in the region.
-local childs of the city: Gerhard Schröder, Doris Dörrie, The Scorpions, Fury in the Slaughterhouse.
-posters in this forum: 96Squig, Hannover96girl (and a few others whose nicknames I tend to forget)

more to come, especially informations about day trips to Brunswick, Göttingen (Alex' part), Bremen (the Bremers' part), the Harz mountains, the Weser-mountainland, Celle and Hamelin, about the nightlife, shopping, sightseeing and living here.
Your thoughts?

[Alex_K]

Hannover96girl

Where is she anyway? I'm starting to miss her :D.

[ForeverRed]

sounds like a good idea. if you know the particular town well, give some inside information so that vivtors see more than the well-known tourist spots.

i know cologne very well and i'll through out one ore two spots not too many people know about:

Em Goldene Kappes- a traditional cologne restaurant in the outskirts. the menues are in cologne dialect which even most germans can't read. people will enjoy helping you get through it. huge tables make you join with others and you will get into conversation. its located at subway station "florastrasse" in nippes. a definate must see. there are other places like that in the city but they're full of tourists and the staff are very difficult.
if anybody wants more information on cologne, let me know...

I'm going to be staying with my family in Koln come next year, fortunately, and won't have to find a hotel....I was wondering about a few things about the city actually. My german isn't exactly perfect, its been years since I've been to Austria, where I learned the language. Do a lot of people in Koln speak english? Also, would it be easy to get around from city to city, where the games are going to be held because I was thinking of traveling to watch the games on the giant screens since I won't be getting tickets. Thanks.

[ohk4]

Where is she anyway? I'm starting to miss her :D.

moi aussi :)

[Alex_K]

Damn, my French sucks. I needed a dictionary for this.

My german isn't exactly perfect, its been years since I've been to Austria, where I learned the language.

Don't worry, if you learned it in Austria, nobody will expect that your German is perfect. (I'm kidding, i'm kidding...)

Also, would it be easy to get around from city to city, where the games are going to be held because I was thinking of traveling to watch the games on the giant screens since I won't be getting tickets. Thanks.

Should be easy if you go by train.

[jonam]

Just some basic Dortmund infos:

http://www.schwatzgelb.com/fanservice/guestguide.htm3

[96Squig]

I think the bigger the city and the more used to tourists, the more English is spoken. But information about public transport is written in English almost everywhere (not in Stockholm, that screwed me sort of ^^).
In general there is more English spoken in Munich, Hamburg, Berlin or Cologne than in let's say Herne or Wolfenbüttel. But in general you get along quite well with English.
travelling from city to city is easy, but expensive (only exception: cheap airlins: nothing wrong with Hanover - Stuttgart for 29€, if you book early). The train company will charge you a lot of money. There is a kind of car sharing thing, Mitfahrzentralen, which get cheaper, but you may not get your connection or destination.

[Doc_Aeppler]

http://frankfurt.de/sixcms/media.php/2320/thumbnails/228_skyline2003_panorama_500x119.jpg.34956.jpg

FRANKFURT

www.frankfurt.de (http://frankfurt.de/sis/English.html) (in english)
another site (http://www.germany-tourism.de/e/dest_cities_frankfurt_e.html)
and another (http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Germany/Land_Hessen/Frankfurt_am_Main-63347/Shopping-Frankfurt_am_Main-BR-1.html)

- The local footballteam is Eintracht Frankfurt.
- They play in the beautiful Waldstadion which some people now call Commerzbank-Arena tough. It will be called the Fifa-WC-stadium Frankfurt for the World Cup.
- There are other professional teams in the area like Mainz 05 and Offenbach, and the second team in Frankfurt is the FSV Frankfurt, who will probably promote to 3rd division this season.
- Frankfurt is in the state of Hesse (Hessen in german)
- The city is pretty much right in the center of germany and also all of europe, so it traditionally is a major traffic-junction. We have the worlds 7th biggest airport, as well as one of germany busiest railroadstations and a junction for two main Autobahns (A3 and A5).
- From here you can get to almost anywhere in germany within 5 or 6 hours by car or by ICE-train.
- The population of Frankfurt is 620000 but there are probably about 2 million within the metropolitan area.
- The area around Frankfurt is pretty densly populated. It is called the "Rhein-Main-Area" as the Rivers Rhein and Mein pass through it, and it includes cities like Wiesbaden, Mainz, Hanau and Darmstadt.
- Frankfurt is the banking/money-capital of germany. The european centralbank is here, as well as germanys stock-exchange and a ton of other major banks.
- It is also the only city in europe with a city-center full of skyscrapers, as every bank has giant buildings. The skyline is unique in europe, and the mix of modern skyscrapers and historic buildings (like the cathedral where the german emperors were crowned back in the days), is very interesting.
- Frankfurt is also traditionally a big fair-town, and holds big exhibitions like the anual bookfair or the international automobile fair every other year.
- As the american influence in Frankfurt was huge over the last 50 years (rhein-main-airbase was europes biggest us-airbase once), english is basically spoken everywhere and you shouldnt get any problems whatsoever.
(American friends of me made that experience)
- For the world cup they are already planign a great show. They will build a giant screen on a ship that will be floating on the Main-River, which goes right through downtown Frankfurt, and they will have big stands on both sides of the river where 15-20000 people can watch the games! They will also illuminate 11 of the big skyscrapers and make a show with that. Should be interesting...


I think Im the only poster from Frankfurt on BS, so I will post more detailed information sometimes. Feel free to contact me at any time, should you have any questions about the area. I dont know everything but i will gladly try to answer! :)



- one important thing at the end: if you come to Frankfurt you HAVE to try our "Stöffschär" (Applewine). It is our local "national-drink" and is kinda like cider, just waaaay better! :D Best is to try it in one of the traditional Apple-wine-pubs in the southern part of town, called "Sachsenhausen". They are still fighting and trying to sell it in the stadium and at the big screens during the world cup, but Anheuser-Busch and them FIFA-guys probably wont let it happen...

[96Squig]

props to the doc!

Hanover, part 2:
http://www.uestra.de/presse/Haltestelle_Steintor_Mendini_dw.jpg

famous soccer clubs near to Hanover are: VFL Wolfsburg (1st BL), Eintracht Braunschweig (2nd BL), Arminia Bielefeld (1st BL). One, if not the first soccer club of Germany was founded here also, by British expats (don't know the name)

local beers: Herrenhäuser (mircobrew)
Gilde Ratskeller, Gilde Pilsener, Lindener Export (former microbrew, now InBev)
Hasseröder (from the Harz mountains, InBev)
Härke Pils, Niedersachsen Pils (microbrew from Peine)
Wolters Pilsener (InBev, Brunswick)

local drink:
Lüttje Lagen:
You have two glasses, one with black beer, one with clear Schnapps. You try to drink both at the same time and get usually screwed if you are not practiced in it. You can also put the schnapps in the beer glass, but real Hanoverians don't do that.

local festivities:
-Schützenfest (beginning of summer, like Oktoberfest in munich, transl: marskmenfest)
-Maschseefest (midsummer, more for young people, no rides, life music, at the local city-lake)
-Oktoberfest (end of september, explanation needed?)
-Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas, hot drinks, all over the city

local radio stations:
-traditional pop:
NDR2
FFN
Hitradio Antenne
-pop for young people
N-Joy
RTL 89.0
Jump FM
Einslife
-classic rock:
Radio 21
-English music, news in English
BFBS 1
-News
NDR4 Info
-local stations
Radio Flora, sometimes Kurdish, Turkish and other immigrants' music, sometimes punk or metal

shopping:
-Besides malls at the edge of the city you can shop in the city center itself very good (highest density of shops in the city center in all of Germany). Most streets are closed for cars (as in most other German/European cities) with big department stores but also boutiques and media markets
-There is also the so-called Lister Meile where more small boutiques are. It's less overcrowded than the city centre and more gemütlich

nightlife:
-at the Raschplatz, behind the central station, there is a kind of Bermuda Dreieck with the cheapest bar in hanover, the Backstreet, an American bar called Cooper's, a big Cinema: the Cinemaxx, the Gelbe Seitenbar and the Mexcal bar, the biggest disco in the center of the city (osho discothek, also called Baggi)|a mix of music, RnB, House, Pop, Rock, oldies, the gay club Liquid, the more expensive Zaza|house and RnB as well as some oldies, the MEC|big disco with different rooms for RnB, mixed music, tabledance, ... and the Palo Palo|RnB as well as the more German Bierbörse|German Apres Ski music and oldies. A bit further away are the Cafe Extrablatt and the Mezzo.
At the other side of the train station in the Fußgängerzone you can find the London tavern Jack the Ripper's, the American bar Henry's griddle, the cocktail bar Masa, the Paulaner, a bavarian pub, the disco Excelsior|RnB, and the bar HeimW.
The only Rock club in the city center is the Rockhouse between Kröpcke and Steintor
- In the Old Town you find more German pubs as well as the Fire bar, some gay people meet there but it isn't a problem for heteros to go there, too.
- More pubs can also be found in the List quarters and in Linden and the Südstadt, very good is the Mottenburg near to the Christuskirche.
- At the Aegidientorplatz there is the Ständige Vertretung, a Ruhr area kind of pub, and the Asian restaurant/cocktail bar Kabuki.
- At the Steintor there are also a lot of clubs as well as the red-light district. The Phoenix is a bit away from the red lights, it's a very stylish RnB club with free admission, a lot of celebs come here. At the other side of the Steintor you find clubs like the Eve's, the Sansibar or the Intensivstation. Admission is free here, also.
- the Alternative scene in Hanover can more be found in the Linden quarters, but it is hareder to get there. I don't know that well about the clubs there, but the bei Chez Heinz, Capitol, Glocksee and Faust are well known for great concerts and a lot of Ska and Punk.
- A bit away from the train station in the Königsstrasse is the club Naoum's situated, the best architechture and most style in town, they either play RnB or House music all night long.
- the biggest disco in the whole city is the so-called Fun Discothek at the fair ground. A bit further away.
- The disco Rainbow is the place for a lot of problems, don't go there.

fast food:
There is McDonalds all over the place, as well as Burger King, Subway and a lot of Turkish Döner shops, a dish invented by Turks in Germany conquering the European fast food market. Italian Pizza places as well as Pizza Hut, the German Fish-chain Nordsee and Asian fast food places are very well reachable in the city center. You can find also shops that sell Greek fast food or Sushi.
The best Döner shops are situated at the Schwarzer Bär, the Kantplatz, the Kurze Kamp Strasse, Döhren and Anderten.
A bit more expensive is the Max in the Gallerie Luise where they use home-made pasta, cook them and make the sauce in front of your eyes.
-There is no Dunkin' Donuts in the whole town, and no Starbucks. Similair to the ladder are a few of coffe shops in the city center, the closest thing to Dunkin' donuts are our Bakeries, but those are not even close.

normal food:
-Italian, German, Greek and Asian/Chinese/Thai restaurants are all over the city as well as a fair amount of Spanish, Indian, texMex and American food stores.
If you look for a real burger you may try Henry's griddle, the Coopers, the Picolli's roadhouse or Mel's diner as well as a lot of other places I propably forgot.
The only place serving something close to British food I know is the Jack the Ripper's near the Kröpcke right at the center of the city-center.
Bavarian food can be eaten at the Paulaner at the Thielenplatz near to the city center and a restaurant at the fair ground, forgot it's name.

personal highlights:
-La Scala in Hanover-Bothfeld
-Zeus in Hanover-Isernhagen-Süd
-Piccoli's Roadhouse in the city center

English in Hanover:
- The Cinemaxx at the Raschplatz showes English Versions of Hollywood movies. (look for 'OV').

A map to follow.

[Doc_Aeppler]

I have two tips concerning dining in and around Frankfurt:

- Snack Point "best worscht in town" (that means best sausage in town)
This is a small stall, close to downtown that sells sausages and fries. but not just any sausages, they sell germanys HOTTEST sausage! it has been on national tv severall times, so i guess this is actually true. They have specialised on currywurst, which is a german specialty where the bratwurst is cut up into peaces and then a tomatosauce with currypowder is put on top of that. usually its not that hot, but at the snack-point they wanted to do it differently i guess, so they add extremely hot sauces. they have hotness-grades from A to F with F being the highest. Let me tell you, I have problems eating a freakin C, and I like eating hot... :D should definitely try that out if you like hot food!
www.snack-point.com

- Waldgeist
This is a restaurant a bit outside of Frankfurt, just beside the A66 going to Wiesbaden. The town is called Hofheim. This restaurant serves traditionall german food, like Schnitzel and Sausages, but in huge amounts, yet at great prices! They have Schnitzel that are probably 50cm in diameter...! And if you are naiv enough to order a "big" drink (they dont say how big on the menu) you get a glas that holds 2 liters!
Its definitely worth a trip, though on fridays and saturdays its usually full and only for reserved seats...
http://www.waldgeist-hofheim.de/images/waldgeist-XXL-burger-01_240x180.jpghttp://www.waldgeist-hofheim.de/images/waldgeist-schnitzel-01_250x188.jpg
www.waldgeist-hofheim.de

[DanielHSV]

Btw. the US-NT will stay in Hamburg during the 06 WC :)
So I guess it'll be my job to post some Hamburg stuff in the future...

[F96]

Where is she anyway? I'm starting to miss her :D.

Awwwwww.... (what about the smilie?) ;)

I was here (http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/3856/stra9xu.jpg)!

Btw, this is how our city hall will look like during the WC:
http://img424.imageshack.us/img424/160/img3301190bl.jpg

[The Old Lady Hertha]

Awwwwww.... (what about the smilie?) ;)

I was here (http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/3856/stra9xu.jpg)!



Wow...you guys actually had sun there????

(Seriously, it's been raining since LAST FRIDAY and it won't stop raining until NEXT THURSDAY! :eek: )

[F96]

Wow...you guys actually had sun there????

(Seriously, it's been raining since LAST FRIDAY and it won't stop raining until NEXT THURSDAY! :eek: )

Haha, well, I was in Greece, there the weather was great of course but I've been told the last two weeks have also been great here in Germany.

[Alex_K]

(what about the smilie?)

I didn't want to make it look like I was e-stalking you ;).