That's all, Volks! I…read morewas lucky enough to visit every stadium in the Bundesliga (top flight) dand I had an amazing time while doing that. I also visited a lot of stadiums where the tenants were not in the top division, some of which now are higher. Touring all of the stadiums is something I do whenever I go to a new country, and I find it very enjoyable. Germany has some of the best stadiums in Europe, which makes sense because its league and supporters are some of the most passionate in in Germany, which is why they're able to fill the stadiums to an amazing degree. Some of the stadiums in Germany are magnificent. Nothing short of magnificent. This stadium in Hamburg is one of my all-time favourites. It doesn't get much better than the Hamburg Stadium. And it always looks brand new, and I remember taking a tour and loving how modern and well-made it is. It's a shame that they haven't achieved the kind of success that they deserve considering the kind of stadium they have and the size and prominence of the city, but that's because of the ugly domination of FC Hollywood aka Bayern Munich in recent years, and I hope that someday somebody does something about that financial/capitalist domination of Fussball in Deutschland, sooner rather than later.

Hello dear friends from Madrid, Mailand, Barcelona and Manchester!…read more You will come to visit our stadium this season? You are welcome! But sorry, I'm afraid you will leave our beautiful arena very sad. No European final for you this season oooooh! Because I can see only one champion this season and that's the Hamburger Sport Verein. Or as we say: Nur der HSV! But don't be sad too long. Just touch the foot of Uwe Seeler and you will smile again. So your journey was a bit succsessful after all

I've been to see St. Pauli many times, and I've been to HSV's stadium to see the UEFA Cup final…read more However, while I love St. Pauli, and the HSV stadium is impressive, it's hard (and sometimes expensive) to get tickets. That, and the discovery that there was a team around the corner from my flat made me inquisitive enough to come along to watch Altona 93 this past weekend. Altona are currently close to the top of a regional league in the 5th tier of German football. Apparently this stadium holds 8,000, but I can't really imagine it! On the day 541 turned up. There were quite a lot of children, and amusingly also quite a lot of dogs on the terraces. A standing ticket is EUR6 and a seat is EUR9. I was quite impressed that they actually have a proper covered stand with seats. There were numerous beer stands around, and a few stands selling bratwurst and fries. In fact, there was a bar in the middle of the main terrace. Even more impressively this bar had leather sofas! Random. Yes, yes, but how was the football? Well, not that great, but we saw two good goals. Altona tried to play good football rather than physical football and at the end of the second half there was a comedy red-card incident. One of the away team's central defenders made a bad challenge on one of the Altona strikers. It probably would have been a yellow card were it not for the fact that the defender quickly got to his feet and then blasted the ball into the prone striker's face! Much fighting ensued all quite entertaining. The beer and food prices weren't bad either. A pint was EUR2.80 and a big plate of currywurst & fries EUR4. All in all a pretty fun afternoon out. I'll probably be back.