If you don’t know me that well you might not know I also support another football team, FC Schalke 04. (Three if you include Cowdenbeath, but that's another story.) In fact I think everyone should have a continental football team; it gives life a bit of variety, especially if you go to the occasional game.

Quite a few people in the UK choose Germany for their other team, and with very good reason. It's far cheaper to attend games, just 15 Euros to stand at some (lets say that again - stand!) Thus the atmosphere benefits greatly, with liberal stewarding, good food at grounds, and beer consumed right until kick off. Just leave your bottle outside, it'll be recycled fairly quickly (no not like that). In fact there's a lady waiting with a shopping trolley outside the ground in Gelsenkirchen. Add an unusually unpredictable league, with smaller teams often excelling in the Bundesliga, and of course huge vociferous crowds. 

I first came to German football in 1982 when I saw FC Köln taking on a then newly promoted  Schalke 04; the noise and atmosphere was really exciting and by the end of the match I'd taken the side of the underdogs from Gelsenkirchen who lost 2-1. Schalke had a huge number of followers who marched back to the station afterwards only to be attacked by some Koln lads, who were soon scattering back away from the station  area as fast as they could after a very brief encounter and an exchange of what appeared to be minor explosive devices. Having managed to retrieve my wife from the fracas, (she had been in the thick of the action shooting some of the Koln mob, sadly only with her camera), we made our way on to Berlin where the still erect wall awaited.

Returning the next weekend, no matter how much I fiddled with the logistics, I didn't have time to get from Gelsenkirchen to the boat home we had booked, so had to compensate with Fortuna Dusseldorf instead. Boring! I wanted so much to be back with the Schalke, and it took me a good few years to eventually make my debut at the Parkstadion. It was a huge amphitheatre with a capacity of around 77,000 and when full was again a real experience. 

Over the years I have managed to get to see them whenever I could before they moved to the ultra modern Auf Schalke Arena where, with a much more limited capacity of 61,000, I found getting tickets almost impossible. I tried watching football in Holland and adopting a Dutch team, but my heart wasn’t there.  

Finally this year a UK supporters branch was formed, and an allocation of tickets granted, and in the last six months I have seen Schalke four times. I have a huge credit card bill to pay off this summer, and a wife to placate, but I haven't regretted a moment of it. 

Hence I'm just back from Berlin, where Schalke won the German cup in front of 75,000 fans at the classic Olympic stadium. I did in fact stay four nights in what is now my fourth visit to a city that continues to reinvent itself. Having done the tourist sites in past visits, this time I escaped the tourist masses and ventured deep into the city, to walk its parks and enjoy the suburbs. 

Berlin itself really has three City Centres now - the old western one around the Kurfürstendamm, the former East Alexanderplatz which has reinvented itself with a particularly nice café/bar scene around Hackechermarkt, and finally the complete rebuild around Potsdamer Platz which has become the arty theatre area.

To find a little green space tied up with history, the old death strip at Mauerpark has been turned into a beautiful park, overshadowed by the former  home of the DDR national football team, which still hosts matches in a well preserved old stadium that looks and feels like part of the DDR. Some nice restaurants and bars can be found around Oderberger Strasse, with the station at Ederswalder nicely reconstructed.

Another popular area away from the madding crowd is Kreuzberg; a particularly pleasant spot is Oranienplatz, where the rather lovely Art en Chocolat bar can be found (see image left www.art-chocolat,de).  

A worthwhile day out starts by taking the S Bahn to Wannsee and then walking down to the harbour for the boat to Kladow. From their you can catch a bus (135) through the countryside to Spandau. You will pass close by the old RAF Gatow airfield, now disused but home to what appears to be a very interesting museum, closed on Mondays. Once in Spandau, it doesn't take long to walk into the old town and the Zitadelle. Restaurant Kolk in the old town serves Silesian specialities at very reasonable prices for huge portions.   

I still rate Berlin as one of the most interesting and exciting cities in Europe. I look forward to my next visit.

After everything that happened in Cambodia and the unfortunate postscript I havn’t felt like blogging very much of late, along with the fact there really isn’t a great deal of news. I am thinking of travelling again seriously next year but we will wait and see.

In the meantime I have picked up my ever faithful comfort blanket of football and been thoroughly enjoying the season 2010/11 as Albion stormed to the League One (That’s Level three by the way) and looking forward to our new stadium next year. I have also been linking up with Schalke 04 in Germany who have formed their own UK supporters group. Thus I can now get tickets for most games and have had a few trips over to Gelsenkirchen to celebrate.

I have been to India on a works trip, visiting Delhi, Rajasthan and Hyderabad which was excellent, but being as it was a working trip I have not featured this save to say Rajasthan is a wonderful place with  and I hope to do a full trip there soon.