Good afternoon folks (I’ll stick to referencing East Coast USA time even though it’s night time here in Austria and I’m close to passing out). I’ve managed to settle into my hotel room and wanted to pass some thoughts on the trip here for those of you who might be interested.
The flight was six hours and. as anyone who flies from NYC to LA can tell you, spending that much time on a plane is just not a great thing. It wasn’t terrible, but arriving in Frankfurt, Germany at 8am local time (and 2am in my body) was no party. Especially not when having to navigate what may be the longest security checkpoint line in international airport security. You would have thought it was Ellis Island with the huddled masses trying to get through the metal detector. In this instance, German efficiency did not come through.
I’m sure by now you’re saying "Boo hoo, poor you for having to stand in a line while you travel to Europe to watch soccer." Yes, I know, I can’t complain, but I’m just telling you how it is.
One thing I can and will complain about is the exchange rate for the dollar bill. It stands at about 1.5 dollars per Euro, which makes exchanging American money for Euros a painful proposition. I thought the exchange during the World Cup was bad (I seem to recall it at closer to 1.3 dollars per Euro).
After a four-hour layover in Frankfurt I boarded a small plane to Salzburg. How small? It had propellers. The one-hour flight to Salzburg wasn’t bad and going through "customs" at the Salzburg airport was easy. How easy? There was no process. You basically got off the plane and walked straight to your luggage. The Salzburg airport officially surpassed the Columbus Airport as the smallest airport I’ve ever gone to.
From there it was off to the stadium in Salzburg, which looks much better on the inside than the outside. From the outside it looks like an erector set gone bad. On the inside it’s big and beautiful. I watched training and interviewed Claudio Reyna and Juan Osorio before cranking out some posts.
I am on fumes right now but I am joining some other media here for dinner. I will crank out a Soccer on TV schedule and call it a day (night). Tomorrow is going to be another busy day.