Hello from Frankfurt! We arrived early on Saturday morning at 9am local time which was 3am for us. Thankfully, we took a direct flight out of Washington and both of Staci and I managed to sleep through most of it. We had a very nice driver pick us up at the airport, an expat from England. In typical English humour, when I asked him if he lived in Frankfurt, he sarcastically answered "No, I came in from London to pick you up." But all in all, he was a personable guy and gave us some good pointers around the city.
Despite sleeping on the flight, we crashed in our hotel room for another six hours. Around 3pm we managed to stir and start getting ready for the US vs Italy game. First, we grabbed a quick lunch near our hotel while watching the Ghana-Czech Republic game. Ghana was very impressive and much more organized than in their opener.
One of the highlights of being in Germany for the World Cup is that the entire city is celebrating the tournament. On the banks of the Rhine river in Frankfurt, they’ve setup fan zones where everyone can go and watch the games on huge screens. We arrived half and hour before kickoff of the US game and found a circle of US fans to sit near within a sea of Italian supporters. To say the game was tense would be an understatement, into the second half Staci noticed I was shaking from the tension. The US team we saw last night was unlike the tentative, nervous team from the opener. They attacked well and took the game to Italy. Unfortunatelz, the referee decided he wanted to be one of the highlights of the match, and I think he had an overdue effect on the game. But we got a point thanks to a lucky bounce and we’re still in it going into the Ghana game.
Today was a much more touristy day as we walked around old town of Frankfurt in the Romerberg, also near the river front. Lots of sights to see, culminating with a walk through the park to the Opera house and back to our hotel. After resting in our room while watching the first half of the Brazil-Australia game, we went across the street to the "Zwolf Apostels" restaurant for some applewein and delicious steaks. Tomorrow we head out on a river cruise but now, we get some ice cream!