FIFA
WOMEN’S WORLD CUP FOOTBALL – GERMANY
2011
Discover Girl Power in Germany This Summer
Ever since Brandi
Chastain ripped her shirt off after the winning penalty kick in the
1999 Women’s World Cup final against China in the Rose
Bowl in 1999, women’s soccer (or football if you prefer) has been
on the map. Okay, not as salacious as it sounds - she was wearing a sports
bra underneath, but it was a symbol of exuberance, skill, power, and
yes, freedom for women’s sport. Girls with power and self-assurance
and confidence competing on the world stage. Since then, young women
have joined local leagues and school teams to follow their heroes. In
2011 the FIFA Women’s World Cup comes to Germany. The best women’s
international football athletes will compete for the world soccer title
in nine cities throughout Germany, spreading the thrill of victory (and
tourism dollars) around the nation.
If you’re a go-anywhere fan of sport, have a family member or
friend on one of the teams, have a budding young future football / soccer
star in the family inspired by the dream, or just want a really good
excuse to discover Germany surrounded by fellows of your own county,
now’s your chance. Start planning your German adventure, now. The
FIFA World Cup matches commence on June 26 in Berlin and carry on over
three weeks through the nine stadium cities until the finals in Frankfurt
on July 17.
Go for a week for
a game or two, or take the three weeks and spend the time between exploring
Germany. You’ll be surprised at the beauty
of the woodlands, visit historic castles, art and culture museums. Charming
and comfortable hotels and restaurants of all stripe - forget the whole
Lederhosen stereotype - start the party night late with happy hours that
begin at midnight (at least in Cologne). And don’t worry about
the language - English is a very common second language in Germany. And
according to Olympic gold medal winner and the sport’s ambassador
and legend, Mia Hamm, the USA team is a favorite to win the cup, along
with the 2009 cup champions, home team Germany, and Australia have claimed
the title of Asian Champions coming into the 2011 World Cup. England
and Canada also have a chance as dark horses, so the stands and surrounding
sights are likely to be filled with friendly common language colonial
rivalry.
Cities
The nine cities hosting the 2011 FIFA World Cup are Berlin, the bustling vibrant new center of Europe, Frankfurt, the business capital, tons of shopping with the Rhine River castles and the Brothers Grimm Trial (see Fairy Tale Trail) not far away, Dresden, the reviving imperial Baroque capital rising from the ashes in the former east with its newly rebuilt symble (see Frauenkirche Dresden), Augsburg in Bavaria along the Romantic Road (see Romantic Road Touring), Sinsheim, home to one of the funnest museums you'll ever find (see Sinsheim Technik) near Heidelberg and the castles of Castle Road (see Castle Road Touring), Wolfsburg, near Hannover and the home to the Volkswagen Beetle, Bochum, near Dusseldorf in the former industrial Ruhr Valley (see Bochum-Dahlhausen Rail Museum), Moenchengladbach on the border with Holland, and Leverkusen on the lower Rhine River near Cologne.
See TEAM USA FIFA World Cup City and Stadium Guide
FIFA 2011 Germany Touring
Touring the
Germany 2011 World Cup tips: Pick your cities, arrange a hotel for
a few days
in each. You can rent a car and get your speed fix
on the autobahn, or get a rail pass for the trips between cities and
matches. Berlin and Dresden are the farthest from the others. Wolfsburg
and Augsburg are farthest apart the other way. You could fly on an airline
like AirBerlin, but getting to the airport is half the distance anyway.
The trains are sleek and fast (see Europe’s
High Speed Trains)
without the airport hastle. Some of the cities are easily reachable in
a few hours so you could base in a city like Heidelberg and get to many
of them.
Rail
In
advance you can get a German Rail Select Pass or Saver Pass
for two and pick the number of days travel over the three weeks.
If in
the country the Deutsche Bahn German Railway DB offers
some pass options,
or just show up at the rail station and get a ticket. Rail Passes - Rail
Europe US Canada Australia
Flying
Fly into Berlin for the opening or for Dresden and depart from Frankfurt in case your team gets to the finals. Or Frankfurt & Dusseldorf if you stay to the west. Lufthansa is the official airline (codeshares with United), but KLM, AirBerlin (codeshares with American), Condor (from Alaska) are some others with Germany routes.
Tour Packages
If you don’t want to plan your own trip, the official travel agent of the FIFA is Euro-Lloyd with packages available including tickets. Trafalgar Tours and other agencies will be offering some tour packages as well.
FIFA World Cup 2011 Match Tickets
Ticket prices range from €10 for young people in early matches up to €200 for the finals, with the average adult tickets between €30 and €75. Tickets are sold in four price categories. There are tickets for individual games or ticket packages for all the games in one city. Venue Tickets go from €40 to €425 for Frankfurt including the final. 300,000 tickets have been sold already. The ticket lottery for preferential seats is closed but individual and groups seats are still available on first come first served basis until July 17. The tickets must be ordered through the FIFA website, or can be purchased at the stadiums on game day if still available. For the opening round matches, tickets will likely not sellout, but probably will sell-out for the quarter, semi and final matches. Official FIFA Tickets
Schedule
If you want to follow your home team (for my English speaking friends) here’s a schedule of cities. © Bargain Travel Europe
USA Matches
v. Korea - Dresden - Tues, June 28
v. Columbia - Sinsheim - Sun, July 2
v. Sweden - Wolfsburg - Wed, Jul 6
Canada Matches
v. Germany Berlin - Sun, Jun 26
v. France Bochum - Jun, 30
v. Nigeria - Moenchengladbach - Tues, July 5
England Matches
v. Mexico - Wolfsburg – Monday, June 27
v. New Zealand - Dresden - Fri, July 1
v. Japan Augsburg - Tues, July 5
Australia Matches
v. Brazil - Moenchengladbach - Wed, Jun 29
v. Equitorial Guinea - Bochum - Sun, Jul 3
v. Norway - Leverkusen - Wed, July 6
Finals Rounds
Quarter Finals - Augsburg or Dresden - Sun, July 10
Semi Finals - Frankfurt or Moenchengladbach - Wed, Jul 13
3/4 Final - Sinsheim - Sat, Jul 16
Final - Frankfurt - Sun, Jul 17
Updates
and TV-Online Broadcast/Webcast Schedule
Find best travel and hotel deals in Germany at TripAdvisor
Web Info
FIFA
World Cup
These articles are copyrighted and the sole property of Bargain Travel Europe and WLPV, LLC. and may not be copied or reprinted without permission. Photos courtest FIFA and Germany Tourism.
See Also:
HOW RAIL
PASSES WORK
CITY NIGHT LINE - GERMAN SLEEPER TRAIN
DR GRAMS GERMAN ANCESTRY TOURS
