Joy and pain of Munich

I've always wanted to visit Munich ever since my brother returned from a school trip to the German city in 1988 with a Bayern Munich mug.

Having seen them play at Carrow Road back in 1993 against Norwich in the UEFA Cup the famous German side were always on my hitlist of teams to see on the continent.

And so last Satuday me and Gordo jetted off to the freezing cold German city to catch the Bayern boys in action against Energie Cottbus in the Bundesliga.

If Munich itself was cold, the area around the Allianz Arena was brutal. A couple of hastily consumed bratwurst at the station were very welcome as we trudged our way to some cracking seats.

Once the action started, well there could only be one winner right? Well. it didn't exactly go to plan as Ervin Skela gave the visitors s surprise lead with a free-kick to delight the handful of Cottbus fans to our right.

Bayern soon restored order with a cracking Franck Ribery free-kick before Martin Demichelis nutted home the goal that gave Bayern a 2-1 lead.

After the break Miroslav Klose popped in a third before Luca Toni smashed home a volley from a corner.

The Allianz is a great ground, the only problem was you needed special tokens to buy any food inside the ground. Outside the souvenir shop was rammed in the run up to Christmas but Gordo still found time to pick out a rather dashing hat!

Leaving the Allianz behind was for me the best view - it was all lit up in Bayern red.

The day after was a day of contrasts - while the crowds descended on the Christmas markets, we took a throat-lumping trip to nearby Dachau, the former Nazi concentration camp just a few miles from Munich's city centre.
My nanny was in a similar camp in Westerbork in Holland, a camp especially for Dutch Jews - lucky them!

So I took plenty of pictures of the familiar rows of beds, communal toilets and exercise yards and even for a couple of tough Brits with no real connection to the events of 60 years ago, there was still a pretty sombre feeling shared by us.

I'm sure my nanny will shed a tear or two when she sees those pictures too.