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?

This is the only country that I have ever been to in the Middle East, and even then I only saw the airport as I was in transit between Singapore and London. I can remember how the cabin crew told us to leave our hand luggage on the plane to avoid any problems when re-boarding.

Maybe now I understand why – the article describes how people have been sentenced for having minute amounts of cannabis stuck to their shoes. Other had prescription medicines with them.

The one that really makes me shudder is the man traveller who had poppy seeds on his clothes from a bread role that he had eaten and was sentenced to four years in jail!

It all makes me want to stay away from that country.  But wait – only today I read that Germany has a similar situation.  Apparently eating three pieces of poppy seed cake is sufficient to fail a roadside drugs test, resulting in the loss of your driving license.

I think I’ll stick to cheese cake!

In which case, try the Lonely Planet Guide to Thailand:

]]> http://www.cymeradwyo.com/travel/lonely-planet-thailand/feed/ 0 http://www.cymeradwyo.com/travel/rule-240-i-like-it/ http://www.cymeradwyo.com/travel/rule-240-i-like-it/#comments Tue, 05 Feb 2008 11:16:27 +0000 Graham http://www.cymeradwyo.com/index.php/general/rule-240-i-like-it/ I’ve been reading on the MSNBC Website about an interesting piece of consumer protection called “Rule 240″ for airline customers in the US, and I have to say that I like the sound of it.

I recommend that you read the full article, but to summarise: if your flight is cancelled, you may have the right for the airline to fly you at their expense on another carrier’s plane.

Now we do have consumer protection laws for these things in Europe, indeed the EU standardised them a few years ago for air travel, but they are all very much based on compensation for delayed or overbooked flights. All very well and good, but what use is compensation if you can’t fly on holiday or end up with less time at your resort?

The idea that the airline has an obligation to fly you there with someone else’s flight sounds like a very good idea!

Find out more about this fascinating country in the Lonely Planet Guide to Chile: