Day 16 – Monday 29th June – Losing to the Germans and losing sleep

JUNE 29, 2009. The date of the Final, and our last full day in Sweden.
To my excitement, England were still alive – just – after scraping through on penalties against the hosts, with Stuart Pearce’s boys up against the Germans (who else) in the showpiece occasion.
We opted to spend the hours leading up to the [...]

Day 14 – Saturday 27th June – Missed penalties, scored penalties and penalties we did not see

ANOTHER day and another long wait for another train. (I get all the exciting ones to write about don’t I?!)
With check-out time again at 10am, we had another four-and-a-half-hour gap to fill between departing our room and leaving the hostel. This led us to our own separate ways – Houlker opted to stay in the [...]

Day 12 – Thursday 25th June – A final return to Helsingborg

ONCE again, we found ourselves stuck with hours to spare between checking out of our latest hostel and catching the train to our next port of call.
With check out at 10am, but the train not until gone half past three, it was a longer wait than usual. My right foot, injured in an awkward fall playing [...]

Day 11 – Wednesday 23rd June – My credit crunch

WE had another free day, this time in Malmö, where had seen Serbia take on Sweden in a very entertaining game the previous night.
After waking at around 11 o’ clock we debated whether we should go for breakfast or lunch. Deciding on the latter we headed to Pizza Hut in hope of a lunch buffet [...]