Earlier in the week we had talked about how big soccer is in Europe and Bev and I said we'd love to see a soccer game while we're here, so Holger was kind enough to get some tickets for us, Annabelle and him to see the Braunschweig Lions play a second-string team from Munich. Ulrike was not interested in going to the game, but she came with us to tour Braunschweig for a little while this morning before the 2:00 p.m. game. On the way to Braunschweig, Holger stopped at a small asparagus farm near their home, where white asparagus is grown. Annabelle tells us that spargel, as it is known in Germany, is one of her very favorite foods! Spargel is grown in long mounds and harvested as soon as it starts peeking out of the mound. I'm assuming that is what keeps it white. Apparently the Braunschweig area is famous for having the best white asparagus in Germany, and this is prime season for asparagus. The family-owned farm hires Romanians to go out into the fields, where they hand cut the asparagus plant one-by-one and bring it into a building where it's washed, loaded onto a cutting machine and cut to a certain length. We got to see this process, and the daughter of the owners, Anna, was explaining the process to us in very good English. We noticed she was wearing a shirt that said “Glencoe Wrestling.” We asked her about it and she said that she'd been an exchange student about 3 years ago in Hillsboro, Oregon, a suburb of Portland. We got excited and told her that our friend, Tom Collins, and his wife Kirsten, both work in Hillsboro! We had a good laugh about how small the world really is!
We then went on to Braunschweig and saw Holger's wholesale vegetable warehouse, made a brief visit to the drugstore where Ulrike works, and saw some of the old town city center of Braunschweig. We had gotten the impression from talking to Annabelle during her stay with us two years ago that Braunschweig was a pretty small town. Turns out it is a city of about 250,000—about 100,000 more than Sioux Falls! So it's a good-sized city, with the old city center that is centuries old, and, of course, charming. It is also clean—very typical of seemingly everything in Germany. Ulrike drove us to the game and dropped us off and went home, while Holger, Annabelle, Bev and I stayed for the big game! The fans were out in force, as this was a big game for the Lions. Apparently the Lions have to win their next several games to get bumped up into a higher league.
We enjoyed a Volkswagon-made currywurst sausage and local beer before the game. That's right—Volkswagon even makes a sausage and special ketchup sauce that is very popular. The Volkswagon influence in this area of Germany is truly all-encompassing. Not only are there Volkswagon cars everywhere, but the Lions are sponsored by Volkswagon, they play in Volkswagon arena, where Volkswagon curry sausage is sold. Funny, but impressive!
The game was a hoot—the weather was gorgeous and I thought we'd be in the sun, so I put on sunscreen this morning. As it turns out, the entire stadium is covered by a roof, as they have a lot of rain in this part of the country. The crowd was exuberant for their Lions in this big game and we sat in the section right next to the “die-hards”--the fans who wave flags and chant throughout the entire game! We had watched enough of our kids' soccer games that the rules actually made sense, and it was a good game, with the Lions winning 3-1! And of course, the beer was good too!
Ulrike picked us up at the assigned location after the game and drove us the 15 km home, where we changed clothes and ate Ulrike's home cooked dinner of Schnitzel and Spargel, before going back to Braunschweig for the “Pop Meets Classic” concert at the—you guessed it—Volkswagon Arena. The concert featured local and regional artists who performed with the Braunschweig Symphony. This is an annual concert, and it was a complete sell-out. It was great, and interesting for us that most vocalists sang popular songs in English. The emcee spoke in German, sometimes too much, so that was the only part we didn't appreciate. But it was a great night, and a fitting cap to yet another great day.
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