As the sun rose over the river Rhine I leisurely packed away my things as I knew I had all day to ride 40km to Freiburg. The change from France to Germany is literally a bridge over the river, no "Wilkommen to Deutschland!" sign I thought there might be for Nigel to pose under. The whole morning I didn't see a car. They have special cycle paths tucked away from the road that run parallel to the main roads so you can sing away till your hearts content without killing anyone. (This I surely did) I was halfway through belting out "this is the girl" by Craig David when a road cyclist flew past me. He didn't even give me a chance to hold my helmet out for a collection!
The road into Freiburg is again beautiful and they have fields of flowers that you can go pick and just leave a donation in the pot by the stand. I came across another blackberry bush similar to the one by the railway in St Omer but these berries were massive so I felt rude to leave it untouched. No donation box so I had breakfast and pushed on. About 3km away from the town centre I noticed some ladies football training going on. Naturally I cycled over and chatted to a guy that was watching. His girlfriend was a player and it was the professional Freiburg team so i was very interested to see how they work. (If you dont know the German ladies team are immense and European champions) They finished 5th in their premiership last season and they all get paid to play and train twice a day. They were only doing fitness in the morning which looked far too much hard work in the 30 degree heat but I was very impressed with their footwork. I wanted to have lunch so told Niels the guy that I will return at 6pm to see some actual football being played and spread the word of my trip.
Pushing the bike around Freiburg was nice, busy, but nice. Bumped into 3 lads, 2 from Bristol one from London who started in Budapest and were cycling around Europe doing a boozy one and ending in Amsterdam. Another very tempting proposition but even I try not to mix cycling with booze, ends in too many broken wing mirrors!
As I walk aimlessly around the centre looking for a wifi sign a man on a bike is trying to catch my eye. I recognise him but can't remember where from, then he approaches me. "You sing on fahrrad!" It was the guy I unknowingly seranaded coming back for an encore about 3 hours later. We both laughed and I walked on still out of pocket! Next time i get in the mood, I'm checking my shoulder before I feel like giving "Living on a prayer" my all.
After a bit more wandering and a lonely romantic lunch of two cheese, tomato and ham baguettes (one for me and the other for my shadow but he didn't eat his as he was having a lie down at the time so I had his) I returned back to the football ground for round two and to see if I could meet the coach.
I waited for a while to be fair, about 4 hours. You see there isn't actually that much to do in Freiburg so I just sat in the sun doing a crossword and talked to myself. When the coach did arrive he was great! Dietmar was his name and he was more than happy for me to watch and take photos although the girls were off on a run for an hour while he stayed with the goalkeepers. I was ok with that, he's a Uefa A Licensed coach and I'm here to learn! Before the girls went for a run he sent two of his more able English representatives over to me to get more facts so they could properly explain to the rest of the group. Sylvia and another that I forget the name of unfortunately, were equally as lovely and I had a few group photos and it made the whole waiting around well worth it.
The girls were put into groups of three with pace makers and were told to run for exactly an hour and I believe to stick to a certain heart rate. While this went on I picked up some good goalkeeping sessions and when all the girls returned they played on for a further 45 minutes or so.
All the players and staff were so hospitable not just Dietmar and they were clearly a very talented and close-knit group of players. The training was sharp and well organised as i would expect but still light hearted to ensure it wasn't all work an no play. I will look forward to monitoring their progress this season and wish them all the best.
By the time things had finished, it was getting pretty cold and pretty dark. I asked If they had security that checked around the fields and they said no, so I asked If I could camp by the pitch. "Don't see why not" seemed to be the general consensus but still with the uncertainty of possible security this would be my most stealthfull camp yet. Tucked in the shadows from nearby street lights, far enough into stinging nettles to cause a nuisance when pushing pegs in (pretty sure I'm immune to their attack now) I pitched my tent on the training ground of a women's bundesliga team. You could not do this in England! Fact!
I knew the next day I would have to be up at the crack of dawn so i didnt unpack everything but was again pleased with another days work. Amazingly after only scheduling one day for Germany, I managed to get my German football experience in and it was a professional one of a very very good standard. Big pat on the back.
All the best in the future SC Freiburg I will hopefully see you again!
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