It took a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth, and declined invitations to play England and Iran (and I'm still not sure which one would have been safest!), as well as a scarcely credible SFA Chief Exec bemoaning the lack of available opponents and suggesting that friendlies get arranged with much more notice in future (say, Gordon, that sounds a good idea...), but finally, and with unlikely timing, the Czech Republic were announced as the hosts for our May friendly on Easter Monday. The game follows Lithuania's visit to Prague on the Tuesday, and we're actually a stop-gap for Belgium, who pulled out after a better offer from the Italians. Nonetheless, we now find ourselves with a Friday night kick-off in May and a game against the Euro 2008-bound Czechs, who will no doubt be looking to improve on their abysmal WC2006 performances (one of which Paul and Helen witnessed in the flesh).

Travel

Prague may offer myriad budget flight options, but with late May being prime stag party timing, and the double whammy of an English bank holiday weekend beforehand and school half-term holidays, I wouldn't hang about in getting things booked! Hotels are also moving into Paris-territory, i.e. very small and poky, and horrifically over-priced for anything near the centre. Thankfully, like the cheap beer (another endangered species in the town centre), there are still some bargains to be found for now.

On the NATA front, Bruce and Sharon are travelling for the match weekend with local budget outfit Sky Europe from Stansted and staying in Mala Strana; Ally and Susan are out for a long weekend from Aberdeen via CDG with Air France, and a nice hotel sorted near Wensclesas Square (which isn't square at all, but a long oblong); and Paul and Helen are travelling Mon-Sat (making use of the bank holiday) with BA (providing they've got their act together with T5 by then!) and switching between hotels at Prague Castle for the first three nights and the Old Town for the next two. Rich and James have both expressed an interest in going, but have yet to confirm plans, and Chris is too busy partying in Buenos Aries to care!

There are some (quite old) travel guides on NATA covering Prague in general and the pubs in particular, plus a downloadable "Prague In Your Sporran" (pdf format, 732KB).

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After the teams were drawn on 25th November, I had big plans for this one. Up to two weeks, with an approach via Tirana, Belgrade, Sofia or Thessalonki, with a departure from another, thus “ticking off” another three countries from my personal list of European countries to see. The timing of the game, immediately before Iceland away (the furthest geographical spilt possible), coupled with the heating up of tensions over Kosovo, have conspired to make this a much more straightforward trip. At least tickets for those travelling should not be too much of a problem.

The game is widely expected to be played in Skopje itself.

Travel

We’re flying on a through BA ticket, from Heathrow to Budapest, and then on a Malev operated codeshare to Skopje, out on Wednesday 3rd September and back on Monday 8th. There are other flight routings available (via Zagreb, for instance) – try Expedia or Opodo for suggestions (but remember to get a quote on the airline’s own website to see if its cheaper first!). The plane and train (or bus, if Sofia) option is proving popular, with a seemingly high number of fans planning a route via the Bulgarian capital.

Hotels are already proving problematic for some, however we just went straight to the Holiday Inn for our 5 night stay.

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Best described by Susan (or maybe Ally?) as a corrugated iron shanty town, with frozen tumbleweed blowing down the main drag and a high chance of a local exiting a bar horizontally through a plate glass window. I can understand everyone raving about the raw natural spectacle that rural Iceland offers (even if it’s main attraction is a manmade power station cooling pool…), but Reykjavik must have one hell of a tourist board if it gets taken seriously as a city break destination. From the sky-high food and drink prices to the borderline alcohol induced psychosis of the local 20-somethings, not to mention the bottle green corrugated prefab look that passes for urban chic housing, the place really does feel like the last frontier.

I understand that we’re all going for the football, which is fair enough, but if you ever were thinking of going somewhere windswept, quaint and romantic, then go to Torshavn – it’s far more Hobbiton than Reykjavik could ever hope to be!

Although Iceland have played games at a few other venues, there is little danger this match will be played anywhere other than the National Stadium on the edge of downtown Reykjavik.

Travel

We’re booked on direct (and pricey) Icelandair flights from Heathrow T1, Tuesday-Thursday. Most of the rest of NATA are taking longer trips, at least until the weekend, so they’ve obviously mustered far more enthusiasm for the place than I can manage! Glasgow Airport boasts a direct Icelandair flight, and Iceland Express offer a low-cost service from Stansted, and mainland Scandinavia has a fair few options.

Hotel-wise, the Bjork is proving possible (well, who wouldn’t to spend the night in Bjork?), but Helen and I are in the Radisson SAS Saga.

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As with Norway, this will be my third trip to the Netherlands for a Scotland game (Arnhem in 2000 and Amsterdam in 2003). Gossip suggests this game will likely take place at either the Amsterdam ArenA (scene of our 6-0 humiliation in 2003) or De Kuip in Rotterdam. Accordingly, the travel plans need to be kept suitably vague, although in fairness the two cities are relatively close and travel between the two is painless.

Travel

Options abound, with fights to Amsterdam’s award-winning Schiphol airport from almost every conceivable regional airport in the UK, and even a handful to Rotterdam’s much smaller airport. There’s also a couple of ferry options, plus those in the South East of England (or any problematic pteromerhanophobics) can go via Eurostar and Thalys (change in Brussels). German Railways even muscles in on the act, with regular ICE’s travelling from Dusseldorf.

As for hotels, Amsterdam can get very busy at weekends, although at least we stand a chance of seeing why it has the “city that never sleeps” tag – the previous two trips were midweek and it was more a case of the “city that never stays up late”. Rotterdam is very much an unknown quantity, but some inside intel is awaited from our man in Den Haag…

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I believe in the old saying “if you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all”. Having been to Oslo twice before for football (2003 and 2005), here are my thoughts on Norway:

Depending on other priorities, Helen and I are likely to take one of the three following options:
1 – Fly in Tuesday, out on Thursday
2 – Fly to Stockholm on the preceding Saturday, travel across to Oslo on the Tuesday (either by train or plane), get the ferry across to Copenhagen overnight on the Thursday, fly home Sunday (or in reverse, with the ferry to Oslo overnight on the Monday).
3 – Fly in and out of Copenhagen, with the ferry both ways Monday and Thursday.

The game is almost guaranteed to be played in Oslo’s 25,000 capacity Ulleval Stadium.

We caught the ferry to Copenhagen after the 2003 friendly and had a great time – there’s a spacious bar (at Danish prices, which will seem like a bargain on the Thursday!), a disco and other sundry distractions to keep you amused.

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