Guten Tag from Austria, where I am traipsing merrily after Celtic on their pre-season trip, staying in beautiful Linz on the banks of the Danube and travelling between the champions’ idyllic training base and their matches in surrounding towns. It’s a hard job, but somebody has got to do it.

It is a privilege to be here and enjoy not only the football and observing the meticulous preparations that Brendan Rodgers puts his players through, but to soak in a new culture. Although that has extended to soaking in the local brew and a fine selection of Bratwurst thus far.

For the Celtic players, this is anything but a holiday.

Their hotel, situated 56km away from the centre of Linz in the tranquil hills of the Bohemian Forest, is the perfect place to get down to work, because there is little else to do. It would take a determined player to sneak out after curfew for a fly jar up there, with the nearest village some miles away in the pitch-black of night. Whether Leigh Griffiths and Scott Brown have attempted it, is unconfirmed.

While Scotland is melting, the conditions in Linz have been more in line with a traditional summer back home, with frequent rain and temperatures hovering around 20-degrees. It is to get warmer over the weekend, and Rodgers will want his players to get accustomed to playing in such conditions before they travel to sweltering Armenia.

Believe it or not, we have actually been kept busy on the work front since arriving on Tuesday, with the first chance to meet up with the Celtic party and watch the players in action coming on Wednesday evening in Steyr, some 40 minutes drive from Linz.

The Life Radio Arena (proving that Scotland doesn’t have a monopoly on daft corporate stadia names) was small but not without its charm, not least of all with its scoreboard that doubled up as a massive advert for a local strip club, complete with a huge image of a scantily-clad dancer. It at least acted as some sort of distraction for the small band of Celtic supporters in the 2000-strong crowd from what was typical friendly fare.

On a more positive note, the fan experience even at this level – Vorwarts Steyr play in the Austrian second division – was miles ahead of anything on offer in Scotland. There was a giant beer garden at the back of the stand where supporters mingled in the sunshine before and long after the match, enjoying a hot-dog and a drink together. Food for thought for our authorities, as clubs would surely relish the extra revenue.

From a footballing perspective, the fine debut showing from Lewis Morgan was the major positive, and talking to the former St Mirren man after the game, you can sense a quiet confidence and steely determination in him to make his mark.

Yesterday, we made the long and winding journey out to the Celtic base-camp to sit down with Brendan Rodgers, the results of which you can read elsewhere in these pages, and today we will travel to Velz to watch the second friendly of the tour against Bohemians of Prague.

Odsonne Edouard is set to get his first run-out for the club since joining permanently, so even if there isn’t another beer garden or ‘entertaining’ scoreboard, it should be a worthwhile outing.

Until then, as the locals say, Prost!