Getting to the bottom of soccer fever

With Euro '08 kicking off this weekend, I felt it would be only fair to share with my Antipodean friends exactly how soccer-mad Zürich is going.





Flags are flying on buildings and cars, and shops are choc-a-block with merchandise: from jewellery to flowerpots to bread. If it can be made to resemble a soccer ball, then a soccer ball it will become; no question.


The local kids are collecting and trading stickers to put in their books, and I was tickled this morning to hear, as a number of Kindergarteners filed past me, 'Olé! Olé! Olé, olé, olé!'. Our Dear Amazing Kindy Teacher had even gone so far as to schedule a Kindy concert on a Saturday morning (almost unheard of in these parts) because, 'There are no soccer matches in the morning and, sure, it is hard to find a time for parents during the soccer!'

In fact, as I wandered through the Hauptbahnhof this week, I was unsurprised to discover bare-bottomed soccer players of great magnitude towering over me. One presumes their shorts will appear at some point in the next few days, but I was starting to sense a theme as I had happened upon - only a few days previously - DS (who has definitely caught the bug) standing in his muscle-tank-top and undies on the balcony overlooking the town, yelling, 'Euro 2008! Zwei! Null! Null! Acht!' through his toilet-roll megaphone.

Incidentally, he tells me he is going for 'Italiano'. (In the same breath he also wondered if spiders eat carrots, but I think that was just to test if I was paying attention.)

PS. These pics taken on the morning of kick-off - and yes, that is an advertisement for a Swiss toilet seat which will play the national anthem when you sit on it...