Wow what a trip to Germany!  It was great catching up with Mikey and Zrinka and having Marko came along made the trip even more enjoyable.  This is how it unfolded.  Thursday - caught the 10:15am bus to stansted, marko asked the driver how long it will take to get to the airport, the driver replied 75mins (considering our flight was departing at 12:10 we had to check in by 11:30 so we were cutting it close), Marko replied 'Can you make it 50?'.  Funnily enough we made the check in by 10 mins.  Marko had priority queueing so he jumped on the plane first and got front seats.  sweet, leg room (not that I needed it) but Marko definately did.  Arrived to a rainy Frankfurt and took a bus to Ramstein, where Mikey picked us up to take us to Kusel.  The Katman never changes.  On the drive to the house he gave us a run down of everything that has happened in true Mikey fashion, in a nutshell... he is playing for a team called 'Blaubach - Diedelkopf' and he is staying with the team manager along with Zrinka.   The team is coming 1st in their division and playing well.  We (Marko, Mikey and myself) arrive at the house to a warm reception from Zrinka, Erdich (the team manager) Marionne (wife), Marcus and Mikael (the 2 sons).  We then headed to training at what I considered to be a footballers playground with astro turf, the wooden cutouts used for a 'wall' and everything to satisfy your footballing needs.  marko and I met the team and trained for 1.5 hours.  It was great training with decent players again and the level was very competitive.  I was buggered and we arrived home for a very nice cooked meal.  Fri - Went back to the footballers paradise and we played soccer tennis for 2 hours.  Mikey won all sets against both Marko and I in a very competitive envrionment.  We then coached 'kindergarten's who come on down from the local school to play some football.  After that went to town, Marko bought some football boots and we just did some window shopping.  Got back home for a hearty dinner and prepared for another intense training session.  After training we went for coffee with Zrinka and Karlston (a player from the team) and had a typical schnitzel with Pommes (fries).  Saturday - Marko, Mikey, Zrinka and myself drove to Metz, walked around randomnly (as neither of us had been there), had a really nice lunch (I recommend the Creme Brulee') saw some markets, a huge cathedral and managed to find the car (just as Mikey was smart enough to take a photo of where the car was located, Marko was smart enough to show this photo to locals who gave us directions).  We arrived back in Kusel in time to go to a Miss Germany competition, in which Sarah (Mikael's girlfriend) was a participant.  The boys went along and we had a great time.  We had a few drinks and cheered on Sarah, who unfortunately didn't make a placing but enjoyed every moment.  The eventual winner was a half german half american girl who I happened to grab a quick pic with.  She was great and asked where I was from etc... and we had a really good convesation. Unfortunately the manager dragged her away and she was never to be seen.  The other girls that didn't make a placing were very annoyed and were quite rude when I asked for a pic (however I wasn't in the best state), sore losers. Sarah was by far taking the situation the best.  She was our winner!  Sunday - Marko and I went to the local castle on top of the hill, had coffee at the restaurant took in some amazing scenery.  We went back and arrived in time for Mikey's game.  They drew 2-2 after being up 2-0 at halftime. After the game, Erdich supplied us with a 'Blaubach -Diedlekopf' polo shirt to both Marko and I.  Mikey and Zrinka drove us to the rendevous point of our bus to the airport and we said our goodbyes.  Arrived back home at about 3:15am (after passport control, bus to Victoria, victoria to fulham and 15min walk home).  Now totally buggered and not sure what I'm suppose to be doing at work...