I just spent a rather odd day in Germany. You’d expect with the World Cup just round the corner that you’d find the country in the grip of World Cup fever, German flags flying from every shop window and car windscreen.
Well, not in Dusseldorf, and not any place else in Germany either, I expect.
It’s odd because on the surface, to a Martian, England and Germany look so similar. The people look similar. Many years ago my brother was stopped by some Americans in a hotel in Los Angeles and they said “don’t tell me, you’re either from England or Germany.”
There were a few football shirts on sale in the airport, from different counties. Argentina, Australia and, yes, Germany. But they were hard to find amongst the alchohol, cigarettes and – best of all – Micro Magnetic Playmobil boxes (my boys got one each).
On the flight home I flicked through the Lufthansa in-flight magazine, and found this wonderful photo and caption: “Football and beer are the perfect combination”.
I just can’t work out if this is a sly dig at the English, or if it’s just naive.