If you live outside of Europe then you’ll probably be wondering which “final” I’m talking about.

I mean the final of Euro 2008 - the football (soccer) event that has been taking place in Austria and Switzerland for the past month. Probably of little interest to readers in the UK, the first round created little interest in Germany as well - except to the game against Austria which became so important to qualify for the final rounds.

The excitement reached a climax with Germany against Turkey - a match full of emotion with so many Turkish nationals living in Germany itself!

Tomorrow in the final Germany are up against Spain - and I shall very probably be watching it from the comfort of my own sofa in front of the television. Where else would I prefer to be?

How about in front of a large public screen in Frankfurt or Madrid?

With so many holidays makers from Germany on the Spanish islands, I could image somewhere like Mallorca or Lanzarote could be quite an interesting place to be as well.

But obviously top of the list has to be in Vienna for the final itself, doesn’t it?

With the exception of Frankfurt it would probably be the easiest as well - just get in the car and drive for 7 hours… after which I’d probably end up being rather tired and looking for a hotel. You don’t really think there would be any rooms available, do you?

Well there are - according to the site HotelsCombined. Admittedly most of the rooms for tomorrow night are not exactly cheap, but the FanCamp was offering a bed for the night for 38EUR - and was still advertising space available!

For a bit more style (and several hundred Euros) I could stay at Schloss Wilhelminenberg - a hotel in a former castle.

Now, how do I explain not being at work on Monday morning?

Here’s a novel idea: creating electricity using a children’s see-saw!

Doesn’t the idea sound so simple, and yet effective.  Especially the idea that other playground equipment could be used to create electricity as well.  How about a roundabout with a built-in dynamo?

Well anyway, having read that article it set me thinking.  Why does the project just have to be for Africa?  Why can we not develop and use this novel idea for European playgrounds as well?

After all, we talk so much these days about carbon-emissions and finding a cleaner and more environmentally-friendly way of generating electricity.  Here’s an idea that could really work!

I could just imagine the local playgrounds here generating and storing electricity during the daytime, in order to use it for the street lighting at night.

I think that inventor deserves a lot more funding and hope that one day his idea becomes a reality - all over the world!

I was in Madrid last weekend for the Great Madrid Escape, when on Saturday afternoon - with not too much to due thanks to the weather - I ventured out of my hotel only to be confronted by police cars blocking off the street.

It turned out that a demonstration was about to take place and I stayed to watch and found out what it was all about.

The flyer that one of the passing demonstratos gave to me explained the main reason for the march. The week before there had been attacks by a group of right-wing “terrorists” who had thrown bottles and stones, requiring at least one person to need medical treatment.

They claim that was not an isolated incident, and that these “terrorists” are part of the far-right, neo-nazi scene, who want other people to be afraid to go out on the streets.

For this reason they organised the demonstration as an act of public defiance, to show that the working people of Madrid will not tolerate such violence in their city.

I have a feeling that many of the people there came with groups that have other main causes - the large red, yellow and purple flag for example was being carried by a group who wanted to make Spain a republic and to do away with the monarchy.

What fascinated me most was how different it was compared to such an event in Germany. Here, many people would turn away - in Madrid many passers-by stopped to listen and even take photographs. There were even family members walking alongside the march and passing in drinks to the marchers.

I often wonder if we do enough in Germany to stand up for our rights. The Spanish, or at least the Madrileños are definitely more passionate about theirs!