Euro 2008

Innsbruck - 961 miles travelled

My first day in Austria felt like I was watching football on top of the world. The Tyrolean city of Innsbruck is, as Sean Connery might say, "shimply shtunning", set as it is in a valley surrounded by snow-topped mountains.

The cool, crisp air and relaxed feel make me think of a city perched high on the Andes, a feeling further underlined by the similarly lunatic antics of my bus driver as we climbed out of the city to the village where I am staying.

At no point did he show any regard for oncoming vehicles, instead spending all of his time informing his passengers, to their total bewilderment, when and where they should disembark.

The Spanish songs echoing through the centre of Innsbruck led further credence to South American comparisons. And David Villa's last-gasp winner ensured that Innsbruck belonged to the fans of Espana - for Saturday at least.

However, I'm far from convinced that this Spanish vintage will finally turn out to be the real deal. For large swathes of the contest, they struggled to unlock the obdurate Swedes. Spain's measured approach play was thorough and precise but lacked tempo and allowed Sweden far too much time to set out their defensive structure.

Despite dominating possession, Spain hardly ever turned the Swedish defence, while there were no passes down the channels for Fernando Torres to run on to, as he does to such good effect for Liverpool. Villa often dropped deep in an attempt to find space but found himself in extremely congested territory, with Xavi, Andres Iniesta and David Silva for company.

Spain seemed to lack width, and it was interesting that their winner came from a long ball upfield rather than a decisive pass.

Of course, Spain did win the match against a team that had settled for a draw after losing Zlatan Ibrahimovic - and victory when off colour is a precious commodity in any sport. It might be that Spain will not look so ponderous again, but, for now, the doubts firmly remain.

By the end of the match, I was seriously flagging, having left Berne at 6am after four hours sleep. As punctuality is such a key plank of the Swiss psyche, I knew that I could not adopt the often-deployed tactic in England of turning up late and still having an evens chance of catching my train.

The Swiss have a word - "uberpunktlich" - that literally means "over punctual". And when they do arrive far too early, it is something to be applauded. They also ask how late is it rather than what time is it? Punctuality, cleanliness, and efficiency - my first experience of Switzerland has in many ways brilliantly lived up to expectations.

On the final part of my journey to Innsbruck, I found myself in a carriage with several Uefa officials and Arsenal and England physio Gary Lewin. By the way, Gary, Janet Jackson and I all share the same birthday.

One official was busy reworking the VIP lists for forthcoming games, slotting Fernando Hierro in here, David Dein there.

Lewin, normally encamped with the England national side at major tournaments, is on something of a busman's holiday, checking out various team bases and training camps.

A very unassuming, amiable guy, Lewin said how strange it was for him to watch games at anything other than pitch level. He also revealed which high-profile players Arsenal are going to sign this summer....gotcha.

Before I left Berne, I made sure that I paid a visit to the apartment where Albert Einstein lived when he formulated his special theory of relativity while working in the patent office in the city in 1905.

Physics was never my strong point at school. I remember Mr Gallagher soothing me with the reasoning that you either "get" physics or you don't and that falling into the latter category was nothing to be ashamed of.

I thought that visiting the flat he rented with his wife and child might inspire me to new heights of understanding. It was a pokey place, the ambience of which was not eased by a group of Americans with voices so loud it was as though they had a Dutch fan's loudspeaker wedged in their larynx.

But the visit got me thinking - where would we be without Time magazine's person of the 20th century? Our understanding of science might not be so developed, caricatured scientists might not have a bird's nest of wiry grey hair, and the pantheon of pop history would be a little lighter.

Without Einstein, there would be no E=MC2, Big Audio Dynamite's 1984 hit. And if that was the case, we would not have been graced with the lyrics:

"Ritual ideas relativety,
"Only buildings no people prophecy,
"Timeslide place to hide nudge reality,
"Foresight minds wide magic imagery."

And for that, if nothing else, I'm sure our world would be a much poorer place, though I suspect it may have taken someone of Einstein's intellect to deduce its meaning, if indeed there is one.