Driving, beer and campgrounds in Germany

If the point of traveling is to question your
assumptions, then here’s one. In Germany, teenagers
can buy beer at 16, but can’t drive until they’re 18.
In the United States, those numbers are mostly 21 for
drinking and 16 (15 ½ with a learner’s permit if
memory serves) for driving. Let’s see, what’s more of
a worry: a pimple-faced kid struggling to stand up
straight after his first beer or deciding that driving
is just like operating an X-Box?

Then again, considering the beer brewed in both
countries, maybe Germany and the United States are
really just serving their youth’s best interest.

Horrifying moment: Talking with a few Czechs in
Prague prior to the start of the United States-Czech
Republic game, when one of them asked if I wanted a
Budweiser. What could be finer than enjoying a
Budvar – the Czech brand that translated
means Budweiser – on a fine, sunny day?

Sure, I said, and he reached into his backpack and
pulled out . . . an Anheuser-Busch Budweiser. The
ensuing scream was the first of many at the hands of
the Czechs that day.

At the other end of the fan friendly spectrum would be
good old Mother England, where it’s apparently quite
appropriate to wear pith helmets with St. George’s
cross and t-shirts that say England will shoot down
Germany in the cup just like the R.A.F. did with
German bombers. On the sensitivity scale, this seems
akin to walking into Sunday services at a First A.M.E
Church wearing a white hood.

Too bad English soccer fans won’t ever meet up in a
stadium with Eagles fans.

As if there isn’t enough to answer for these days
being an American abroad, now there’s the soccer team.
Upon introducing myself to a German grandmother, she
asked with a smile: don’t they know how to play soccer
in your country?

Good question, based on the Czech game. It will be
interesting to see whether the United States summons
up some a strong effort against Italy, much the way
Poland rebounded with a strong game against Germany.
Or if this is France ’98, Redux.

German TV announcer describing the sluggish Brazilian
offense against Croatia: ``It’s 10 guys and Ronaldo
standing on the ball.’’ No word yet on whether the
ball went pancake flat.

You know you’re at the World Cup when . . . you’re
awakened at 8 a.m. to find that the overflow camping
spot where you’ve been so kindly allowed to pitch your
tent is in the middle of a soccer field. It took a
moment to realize this. The first concern was
wondering why a dump truck was backing up within a few
feet of the tent so workers could make more progress
on a whole in the ground they were digging. Gutten
tag, indeed.