During your stay in Germany, you'll no doubt want to stay in touch with people at homes and with fellow fans scattered all across the Federal Republic.  There are two obvious ways of doing so: via the Internet and on the phone.

Internet
While many of the more expensive hotels will have their own Internet facilities, if you're on a budget your accommodation may not stretch to such luxuries, in which case you may be on the look-out for an Internet cafe.  We've done a bit of advance searching for you and found at least one cafe in each venue.  See the list below.

Mobile phones
Although many phone tariffs now allow you to roam freely, making and receiving calls at will abroad, your bill when you get back home can often come as a shock, with many of the calls and texts you received - as well as those you sent - costing a lot more than at home. 

Responding to several enquiries about the availability of Sim cards specifically for use in Germany, we did some searching and found www.gosim.com, a company in York (England) that provides just that.

While many retailers in Germany sell cheap sim cards, the law states that they must be registered to a German address, which tends to make them inaccessible to most foreign visitors! 

However, www.gosim.com resolve this problem by registering the card for you via their German office, so that you have the card before you leave.  It's ready to start working as soon as you get to Germany and you can tell your friends and relatives before you go the number you'll be on while your away (for everyone else, just leave a message for callers to your normal mobile number, giving the new one to call while your in Germany).

The savings can soon mount up.  Let's take an example of four England fans going to Germany for 2 weeks, each buying a www.gosim.com card for their mobiles.  If during each of their two weeks away they each receive, say, 45 minutes of calls from friends and family at home, call each other for 60 minutes, spend another 10 minutes calling other mobile phones and 30 minutes to fixed-line numbers in Germany (taxis, hotels etc.) and send each other around 7 text messages a day, the combined saving made by the group would be around £700 (compared to UK Vodafone roaming rates).

The www.gosim.com card costs a one-off £19.99.  It gives you a local German mobile number (which you will know before you go), FREE incoming calls in Germany, a starting credit of €10 and FREE incoming texts in Germany.  This is a 'pay as you go' card.  There is no contract and there are no monthly fees.  Once your credit has been used up, you can top this up at numerous retail outlets in Germany or online.  The card is sent to you in a DVD-style case, complete with English user guide.  Support in English is also available 24/7. Orders can usually be turned around in 24 hours.

More details and further cost comparison examples can be found on the go-sim website (www.gosim.com).

Internet cafes
We've listed here at least one Internet cafe in each host city.  We've only listed cafes with a website, so that you can check them out for yourself before you go.  You may also want to print off this page to give you a hard-copy list of addresses.

Berlin
There are 6 easyInternetcafes in Berlin, including one with 319 PCs at 224 Kurfürstendamm (open 06.30-02.00) and one at the Sony Center on Potsdamer Platz (37 PCs, open from 7am till 11pm, midnight on Fri & Sat).  They also have a place near to Zoo station at no. 2 Hardenbergplatz (28 PCs, open 06.00-23.00) and another with 30 PCs near Alexanderplatz at 5 Rathausstrasse.

The full list of easyInternetcafes in Berlin is:

easyInternetcafe on Karl-Marx-Straße
                                                             easyInternetcafe at 224 Kurfürstendamm
easyInternetcafe at 102 Schloßstraße
                                                             easyInternetcafe at the Sony Center
easyInternetcafe at 5 Rathausstraße
                                                             easyInternetcafe at 2 Hardenbergplatz
Cologne
Try Giga-Byte within the Giga-Center, an all-singing, all-dancing entertainment complex at 7-11 Hohenzollernring (near to the Rudofplatz underground station).  They have over 100 PCs and charge 50 cents an hour. The Giga-Byte website: www.giga-byte.info (German only)

Dortmund
There will be an Internet cafe within the Fan Fest complex at the Westfalenhallen exhibition centre directly next to the stadium.  More details at the Fan Fest website: www.fancampdortmund.de

Frankfurt
easyInternetcafe have a place in Frankfurt at 74 Kaiser Strasse, just across the road from the main station (28 PCs, open 8am to midnight).  Details on the easyInternetcafe website: easyInternetcafe at 74 Kaiser Strasse

There's another place called CyberRyder at 31 Töngesgasse, which is near to the central square in front of the town hall.  More details (in English) are available on their website: www.cyberyder.de

Hamburg
Two places to try: www.cyber-zob.de and www.new-gate.de

Hannover
Cyberpark on Raschplatz (website details to follow).

Kaiserslautern
The Hacienda Internet Café on Weilerbacher Strasse (website coming).

Leipzig
Try: Internet Café le Bit on Rosa Luxemburg Strasse (www.le-bit.de) or www.intertelcafe.de.

Munich
Several to try near the station, e.g. easyInternetcafe and www.coffee-fellows.de just over the road in front of the station, or 'Times Square Online Bistro' on the Bayerstrasse side (www.times-square.net).

Stuttgart
Bistro on Olgastrasse (www.si-centrum.de/Internet_Cafe.php) or www.levone.de.