To Hennef and Back

IT was perhaps an omen as, sitting the departure lounge of East Midlands Airport, the music in the neighbouring bar (and I wasn’t actually in it, 9.30am is too early for even my booze addled liver) the music changed to ‘The Road to Nowhere’ by Talking Heads.
Moments later the PA burst into life to announce that the flight to Cologne had been delayed, before the ironic choice of bar entertainment then switched in timely fashion to ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’. If only.
Not exactly an auspicious start for our trip to join Nottingham Forest on their pre-season training camp in Germany.
Things did not improve much when the plane did arrive on the tarmac, as it was of the size of something that could easily have been constructed with Lego and should have had propellers rather than jet engines.
Certainly not ideal for somebody who is not keen on flying at the best of times. I began to wish I had partaken of a pint or two.
But, once the road to nowhere had finally lead us to Europe, via a rather nervous, delayed flight, things began to look up.
After I had kissed the ground in gratitude, a short journey via car took us to our destination, a small, pretty town just outside of Cologne.
Few people the English side of the Channel will have heard of the small town of Hennef, but in Germany, it has quite a fulsome history.
Since just the after the war (sorry) the picturesque training camp that Forest are staying at has been the premier venue for the German international team and, also, in the late 60s, as a base for the England World Cup winning team including the likes of Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst.
Forest’s goal for the coming season may not be world or European domination, but a more modest target of a place in the Premiership.
But, as they competed an afternoon training session in the blazing afternoon sunshine on a crisp green pitch that was surrounded by lush green hills, it felt as though it was the start of a longer journey.