Wednesday 28th April:
From Blaenavon to Bayern Munich:
It’s been an interesting journey from the high veldt of Blaenavon in South Wales, to the hotel in the heart of the pretty city of Linz on the banks of the great River Danube.
Planes, trains and automobiles
Having decided to make the journey in the manner of John Candy — ie/ planes, trains and automobiles, the first leg up the M4 was uneventful, with plenty of time to have a quick browse around Terminal 1 before the flight to Munich.
All went smoothly until we got off the other end, where we were greeted by a mass media brawl in the bowels of the arrivals area.
Fame at last
As we made our way through the obligatory ‘nothing to declare’ channel, off popped a thousand and one flash bulbs and cameramen swarmed in a media scrum as the glass doors opened in front of us.
'Fame at last', I thought to myself – the Germans have finally taken to 4BR in a big way.
Not on your Deutschland nelly.
It’s De Waldsang for me and the lads Iwan, with Dyke second and Cory third. The test piece is a cracker though and they’ll be over the moonLouis van Gaal (allegedly)
Bayern Munich
Unbeknown to the 4BR Editor, 25 yards behind sauntered the Bayern Munich Football team – fresh from winning in Lyon in the Champions League semi final, and returning home triumphant, with the prospect of a European Cup Final to look forward to.
As the chance of 15 minutes of fame crumbled before me, the waiting Germans – from fat blokes in replica shirts to screaming teenagers, went ‘Bayern bonkers’ in a particularly well organised and respectful way.
Photo evidence
Photos were taken and on the spot interviews given, whilst glamorous females made their way to the front to have their photos taken with the returning heroes.
(Go to www.twitter.com/4barsrest)
Franz Beckenbauer was in the wings, flying wing Arjen Robben smiled politely, manager Louis van Gaal signed autographs, and the team’s version of Geoff Hurst, Ivica Olic, who scored a hat trick to send the team to the final in Madrid, lapped up the admiration of his nubile admirers.
And all this for getting to a European final?
Cory and Bon Accord
Cory and Bon Accord will be landing here tomorrow, and I can confidently predict that their European Finals adventure will not garner anything like this type of media coverage.
The 4BR Editor did take a few pictures to prove he was there, whilst the all important question was posed to Louis van Gaal about who he thought would win the big Euro tournament.
De Waldsang
It was met by a perky smile and a sound bite reply that sounded suspiciously like: "It’s De Waldsang for me and the lads Iwan, with Dyke second and Cory third. The test piece is a cracker though and they’ll be over the moon" – or that’s what I thought he was saying in Dutch.
Quick dash
With a quick dash to catch the train to Linz (via a very strange statute of a full size man encased in gold), there was finally a chance to reflect on another historic meeting as we wound our way through the picture postcard scenery of the ‘Sound of Music’ countryside around Salzberg and onto Linz.
A couple of years ago in Bradford it was the lads from the 70’s pop group ‘Smokey’ – now it was Kaiser Beckenbauer and Bayern Munich.
Someone should be playing ‘Standing on the Shoulders of Giants’ at the contest on Saturday...
