Critical Info for Gelsenkirchen Game

[GOOOOAL!!]

Posted to another thread but thought it important enough to start a new one.

Critical Information!!!

We just went to the Ecuador - Poland game last night in Gelsenkirchen and travel was not as easy as they made it sound. It took an hour to get to the stadium from the main train station not 15 minutes. The tram was completely full at the station so if you wanted to get the tram at one of the intermediate stops you couldn´t get on.

I haven´t followed exactly where the bar is we are meeting, but it is best to be near the stadium or near the main station.

The a trip that was suppose to take 2 hours (from our home stay in Kaarst) took 3 1/2 hours! Trains were delayed and some were out of order from the posted signs.

Once in the stadium, the concessions were the slowest I´ve ever been a party too. 45 minutes to get 2 beers and 2 waters. Only 3 people taking money and 1 person pouring Bud from bottles! Drink up before the game!

Food was good and relatively cheep in the stadium and was fast. They were selling food in a seperate line from the beer and it was a 1 minute line.

The ticket check was done by sheer volume of ticket takers. There were no lines at all and we did not get our passports checked. My wife and I switched tickets to see if they looked at the names and they didn't check. Good news for black market tickets.

[lebowski2332]

I picked up fifa tix at the collection point in gelsen today and had a similar experience.

local train from dussel was delayed 30 minutes <protest at station by fascist and antifascist groups<. long lines at dussel train station to buy tix too.

lines very long at fifa ticket window <over 90 min< and there is no way the subway system can handle a huge number of people. stadium is 7 km away from train station and its really far to walk.

lots of sun, bring water with you. it was really disappointing how slow and disorganized the crack fifa people were...

[210597]

To be fair, you can reach the Arena by bus as well. The problem is that everyone is taking the 302 from the main station, making it extremely full.

Another problem was vintage DB yesterday: Two trains broke down between Düsseldorf and Duisburg. The Düsseldorf-Duisburg section works kinda like a funnel, basically, it's impossible to get from the Ruhr region to Düsseldorf or anywhere further south without going through Duisburg. So if something gets ********ed up there, count on delays, and that's what happened yesterday.

[illini]

How long did it take to get through customs? We are landing today around 11:00 am in Frankfurt and needless to say, need to haul ass to get to the hotel and game...thanks.

[goussoccer]

How long did it take to get through customs? We are landing today around 11:00 am in Frankfurt and needless to say, need to haul ass to get to the hotel and game...thanks.

Depends...are you on a straight shot from US to Frankfurt, or connecting somewhere in Europe? I landed in London and due to late flight missed connection to Dusseldorf so I routed through Paris to Dusseldorf. The only place that even checked my passport (besides just going through security gates) was in Paris because I had to switch terminals. I walked off the plane in Dusseldorf and never saw a customs person at all. So...it could be nothing at all.

[AGF Aarhus]

How long did it take to get through customs? We are landing today around 11:00 am in Frankfurt and needless to say, need to haul ass to get to the hotel and game...thanks.
I've gotten through German customs in as little as 5 min. in the past.

[AGF Aarhus]

Once in the stadium, the concessions were the slowest I´ve ever been a party too. 45 minutes to get 2 beers and 2 waters. Only 3 people taking money and 1 person pouring Bud from bottles! Drink up before the game!
This doesn't surprise me at all. Very typical in Germany. See it at Bundesliga games, see it in grocery stores, see it at train stations. Even at what is easy to predict as a very busy time, they will have 2 people working when the capacity is easily 20, and somehow those two people are always to dumbest people in the city.