EURO 2008 is getting nearer

Switzerland is gradually being contaminated with football fever. In approximately a week the EURO 2008 will start. At the moment you see many cars driving around as the one in the photo that I took on our parking lot at work. You can buy flags from all nations, and Switzerland being a very international country, the cars are being decorated with all sorts of flags in preparation for the football matches. Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, - you name it, we have it sort of thing. I did ask my husband whether he thought it might be an idea for our car, but he sort of said "forget it". Now if England had qualified, then I think we may have had a slight disagreement, but being only sort of half Swiss (although my years in Switzerland outnumber those in England) I could get over the fact that our car will not have any flags.

The lady that lives next door, and is the owner of a super cat called Bobinette (I always seem to associate people with their cats) is originally from the French part of Switzerland, which is only about 45 minutes away by road. She works in Neuchatel and travels back and forth during the week. The Portuguese team have their headquarters in Neuchatel. They have already moved into their hotel which is near where she works. She told me the hotel has been cut off from the surroundings and you can only get near if you have business there. The team are training in the new stadium of Xamax Neuchatel which is one of the best in Switzerland at the moment. Of course everyone would like to steal a glimpse of Ronaldo I suppose.

Talking of football, yesterday evening there was the annual match in Switzerland of the legends against the prominents. That meant that the "retired" footballers were playing against some well-known people, mostly from the Swiss and some germans. The legends didn't have to train so much together as they were really the best, even if they are now a few years older. The prominents had a training camp. The trainer of the prominents, Gilbert Gress, invited Michael Schuhmacher and he said he would think about it. Well he did, and I shot this photo from the television yesterday.

Not exactly a super photo, but it is difficult from the tv to take a good photo. He arrived by helicopter, naturally, but was fully integrated in the match and played quite well. Although the prominents lost against the legends. For the Shuhmacher fans amongst us here is a better photo where he was being interviewed before the match. The legends won 2:1 against the prominents. It was quite a good match, although nothing in comparison with the professional games. And as promised here is Schumi again.