Europe - day 4

On Sunday morning, we went to church at the Livingston Ward (Livingston is about 30 minutes west of Edinburgh).  In the afternoon, we flew from Edinburgh to Frankfurt, Germany.  I wasn't sure if they'd allow us to stay in Germany - the customs guy didn't know where Cochem or Fussen was when we told him where we'd be visiting.  At least he knew where Frankfurt was and we eventually got our passports stamped...

Late in the evening, we went to the Women's World Cup Final, which we were lucky enough to be able to watch USA vs. Japan.  We had to buy the tickets in advance, of course not knowing who would make it to the final.  We lucked out and got to cheer on our own team, but then had the unlucky result of losing to Japan in the penalty kick shoot out.  It was a fun game to watch and really an amazing experience just to be there (although I wished it wasn't on Sunday).  The crowd was great too - a lot of Germans (of course hoping Germany had made it), some cheering for us and some for Japan.  Directly on the right side of us were USA fans and sitting on our left were fans cheering for Japan.  The whole stadium was interspersed with fans cheering for opposite teams (many not even their own country).  USA should have won it - we were so close (tied 2 to 2 at the end of overtime), but couldn't make our penalty kicks.  The interlude and postlude to the game were cool to watch - with sparkly things, lights, music, cameras flashing, and flags waving.  It was just a little bit magical - I don't even know how to describe it.

It's amazing that we were even at the game.  We never set out to be there.  It just happened to work out just right for us.  When we were planning our trip, we originally planned on taking a train from Edinburgh through London through Paris to Frankfurt.  It was going to cost about $700 and take quite a bit of time.  We decided to look into flying.  Plane tickets ended up being a much better deal and saving us time, so we bought the tickets.  It was only after we had already purchased our plane tickets to Frankfurt that we thought about the World Cup going on in Germany.  We curiously looked at the schedule to see when and where the games were being played.  Turns out the final was that night we were flying in to Frankfurt.  A quick look at ticket prices and just the fact that it wasn't a normal Sunday activity for us turned us away, at first.  But I couldn't stop thinking about how coincidental it was that we would be in Frankfurt that day (and I love soccer - I think most soccer fans dream of being at a world cup game) - the temptation was just too much for me and I bought the very expensive tickets to the game.  So much for trying to save money by flying...

We had a fun time and I'm still amazed that we even got to cheer on the USA.  Now if they had only won it... almost perfect.

You might want to turn the volume down a little bit...  here's the replay of our 1st goal.  The second video is just a little after game stuff.  (The better after-game video was too big to post).