Frankfurt is ok

I was in Frankfurt this week on training with my firm. We had to be there on Sunday night but I went in a bit earlier in the afternoon since I had never been to Ftown before. It was also the Euro Cup 2008 final and since Germany was playing, I was excited to watch the game in Germany. An old friend of mine Giovanna who I know from Singapore lives in Ftown and we finally got to meet up again after 7 years!
Like old times. We watched the game outside on a terrace with a lot of locals. I kind of got the feeling that most of them already expected Germany to lose. They weren't very upbeat. I was informed later by a colleague in the Frankfurt office that it's not that Germans are always negative, they are always just super realistic.

Spanish fans celebrating their victory on Ftown streets.


The river.Giovanna showed me around and informed me that the tourist sites would take all of about 5 minutes. This is 1 of the 2 things she pointed out. I think it's some sort of mayoral building.


Second thing she pointed out - cute German style buildings which were across from the mayoral building see above. The locals found it quite funny that the firm had organized a 2 hour city tour for us. Seeing that I had already seen the 2 touristic sites, I skipped it.


One night we went on a tour of a winery about 1 hour outside of the city. This is the outdoor terrace we had dinner on.

The spectacular view from the restaurant.

At LivingXXL.
Also met up with Amber from Toronto, now living in Frankfurt.

1 Grand Slam down, 3 to go

I went to Wimbledon last Wednesday on the third day of the tournament. I had Centre Court tickets. Saw Federer beat Soderling. Who is Soderling you may ask? Well very coincidentally I saw the Swede play in the final round of the Rotterdam ABN Amro tournament a few months ago. I think that makes me his biggest fan. Also saw Djokovic lose to Safin. There were 2 other matches on Centre Court also but we opted to walk aroun da bit. The tournament was great though. So organized, especially considering the number of people on the grounds. The venue was much smaller and much more intimate than I thought it was going to be. Centre and Courts 1 and 2 are ticketed while the rest of the 20 courts not reserved.

Getting tickets to Wimbledon is a little bit of a process that starts in the fall before. You have to put yourself on the mailing list. Wait for a form to be sent to your mailing address. Fill out the form and return by mail to be entered into the lottery. There is a 1 in 6 chance of getting drawn. You don't get to choose the day or the court, basically you don't choose anything. Then maybe 2 months before Wimbledon you get notified by mail of the results of the draw, whether you got a pair of tickets and on what day. Then you pay for the tickets and then FINALLY they are sent to you a few weeks before the tournament starts.

Non-ticket holder line. If you don't have tickets, you can line up in the non-ticket holder line for the chance to buy last minute returns and releases.

This was me zooming past the non-ticket holder lineup with my TICKETS in hand. Many people going to Wimbledon were dragging suitcases with them. Were they so eager to get to the tournament that they didn't even drop their bags off at the hotel first??! I especially liked the father/son twin look .

My view from Centre Court seats.


Henman Hill where people can watch various matches on big screen.


Guarded entrance to the All England Lawn and Tennis Club (AELTC). A big crowd was gathered so I waited with them expecting to see someone famous come out of the club.

All of a sudden, the other Roger in my life zooms past from the right. Good thing I was quick on the trigger.