***APOLOGIES FOR TAKING SO LONG TO UPDATE THE BLOG .

THE TRIP HAS BEEN ABSOLUTELY JAM PACKED AND MANIC. THOUGH I HAVE BEEN WRITING IN MY NOTEBOOK I HAVE NOT HAD TIME TO TYPE UP ALL OUR EXPERIENCES YET.

BUT I AM DOING THIS AS QUICK AS POSSIBLE…***

The DadLadTour (Now Actually In Switzerland)

Day 1 (Part 2) – Zürich – Pre-match Shenanigans

July 9th 2025

Yes, it is still Day One. It’s now around 1430 hours on Wednesday.

So strap in because we are nowhere near kick off for the Lionesses match… there’s still a whole lot more to fill you in on.

We’re still on the tram into Zürich. A family get on; I think it’s a family along with friends. A man, two women and three girls aged, I’d guess, around 8-10. They are all bedecked in orange – oranje – football shirts and are beaming with happiness. The children have Netherlands flags painted on their cheeks, and necklaces of blue, orange and white beads hang around their necks.

The chap chats with us. He’s not going to the game but the women and girls are. I ask one of the girls if she is excited for the match. She nods. I ask who her favourite player is but she is unsure of an answer. Her father (?) tells us the girls are only just becoming interested in football and this is, in fact, their very first match. Though Dutch, they are Zürich-ians (??). He gives us helpful directions to Kraftwerk – the venue for the @FreeLionesses meet-up – and tells us where to find the Fanzone. It seems that the “Orange March” will begin from there at 1515.

We’ll miss it as we plan to walk along the river – I must learn its name – and down to the lake from where we aim to head to LionessHQ to see what they are up to at Kraftwerk.

As the Fanzone is on our route, we decide to pop in briefly to “check it out”. I’m not so old that I can’t do cool stuff like checking things out.

I’m glad we call in to the Fanzone as we meet up again with Michaela and Amy, our other MUWFC pal. They were at the back of the heaving Fanzone but made their way to us in the middle of the mass of orange when they saw the DLT flag waving high above the sea of Dutch colours.

Three things to know about the UEFA Fanzone in Zürich on a matchday when Holland are in town to play:

1…the Dutch fans are loud.

2…the Dutch fans are dressed in every conceivable costume – it seems most anything is acceptable as long as it is oranje.

3….the Dutch fans are really quite mad.

A three-piece band are on stage belting out songs that the Netherlands fans simply love and sing along to lustily. They are crazily conga-ing around to the music. Song after song…then, en-masse. they begin to bounce to the left. Then to the right. It appears they are following the singer’s hearty instructions. Every orange-clad person is bouncing. It is the most bonkers thing I’ve witnessed before a match. It is joyous and wonderful. And I’m hooked.

A lady appears on stage and says the walk is about to begin and for everyone to simply “follow the orange people.”

Liam and I decide that sometimes plans are meant to be changed. And, with that decision made, The DadLadTour, along with Amy and Michaela, join the Oranje Fan Walk.

Boy, am I glad we did. It was simply brilliant.

A sea of orange filled the street; flags, shirts, wigs, cheese-heads, balloons, a couple of orange Freddy Flinstones too. Isolated pockets of England colours moved among the orangey chaos. Everyone is having a terrific time.

An orange open-top bus leads the way; music pumping out. A second bus – again its open-topped and, yep, it’s orange – follows. Trumpeters on board bus two break into tune regularly. The singer from the Fanzone stage is at the back of the bus – again he’s leading the trailing crowd. Everyone on the bus has a drink of some type in their hands. Half in jest, I call to the singer to throw me a can of beer. He smiles, almost sadly, and shrugs to indicate he can’t. Oh well! Worth a try. Soon we pass a “cart” where Lidl staff – Lidl are one of the tournaments main sponsors – are passing bowls of chilled and sliced fresh fruit to the crowd. This is almost as refreshing as a beer. Almost.

And then….””NAAR LINKS, NAAR RECHTS”….booms out and everyone is hopping about again “To the left, to the right”. This infectious “links/rechts” refrain breaks out repeatedly during the walk, each time to wild applause and enthusiastic bopping from the crowd. As I said, it is brilliant. Totally bonkers but absolutely brilliant. We join in. #SonInLawNo is especially enthusiastic at one point and I capture his crazy choreography on my phone.

People in the many apartments overlooking the streets have opened their windows wide and sit to witness this spectacle of human joy. Flags are waved cheerily by residents who look down in astonishment and snap away with their own phones.

The “Oranje Walk” is superb – beyond my wildest expectations – and I’m pleased The DadLadTour tagged along with the Dutch fans. They make so much noise that, even outside in the streets of Zürich, you feel like “the roof is coming off.”

TV reporters weave and dodge among the ranks of orange to grab sound bites from the revellers. I wave my flag behind one reporter’s victim as he is filmed, hoping the images are live and that our flag will be seen by many.

The merry oranje walk finally arrives at Stadion Letzigrund. This is where Liam and I leave it. We retrace our steps a little way in search of a kebab shop. It turns out to be a very good kebab shop. But it’s not cheap. Two kebab wraps, one portion of fries and two cokes set us back 56 CHF. Ouch!

The food arrives swiftly and it is amazing. So good, so goood. Just maybe not 56 CHF good. The cokes though bring a smile to my face… my bottle is called Chloé.

#LuckyOmenNo3