Day 6: London

Day 6: London

Quote of the day:

When you hear the music trouble disappear
When you hear the music ringin' in your ears
Can you feel the magic floatin' in the air?
Can you hear the magic? Oh, yeah, yeah
When you hear the music ringin' in my ear
Can you hear the music? Oh, yeah
Can you hear the drummer? Gets you in the groove
Can you hear the guitar? Make you wanna move? Yeah
Can you hear the music? Oh, yeah
Can you hear the music ringin' in my ear?
Can you hear the music, can you hear the music?

Weather: Cool, overcast, hint of rain, some breezes…another day in paradise

Pics: The giant steel structure from below (will we go to the top?), meadow near main stadium, the most unusual food cart (olives), team handball and NO toilet pics

Same-same: breakfast, walk, perfect transport to OP.

Clarification: However, before we leave KHB starts wondering why our tix for first day were 3 together and 1 separate and we go through out tix to find that we have several days where we are not sitting together; including some where we have one and one a few seats apart! Who knew! THB thinks some of it may be when we re-ordered tix for days we did not get our first choice, some are clearly not.

And, we are thinking of buying tix to overlay our Water Polo. However, the tix are only sold on-line and only to EU residents. Yowzaa…that pretty much lets us out. They do have a system just started up where people at double session events can turn their tix in after the first match and then those standing outside in a queue can get in. We saw a long queue at Handball last night and the second match of the last session had already started!

Arriving at OP, we again stop in M-S food hall, this time getting a whole roti chicken (some for dinner), rolls, salad (THB had forgotten what fresh greens tasted like, and these were terrific), drinks, an oatmeal bar, pineapple, $20. A BARGAIN!!!!! And, terrific.

It’s Women’s Team Handball, two sessions. France tops Sweden and Brazil lets up on GB in afternoon. We sit next to an Italian guy who does tons of O handball (he plays in over 45 league) and he explains a few of the fine points to us.

Dinner of roti chicken, cheddar cheese, rolls, cider, excellent draft beer, pineapple, $15 (drinks only)

Evening session: Spain over Denmark (they have a weak team this year, very unusual), and two unusual events: player for Spain is given red card for hitting goalie in face on a penalty try and Denmark pulls their goalie in 2^nd half when way behind (only when they are on offense), both firsts for us. In second match, Russia and Croatia tie. Ooops, that’s after the first half, when we decide to head home to rest up for a late night of VB. As it is, that just means we get home at around 11:30. We read that Croatia topped Russia, which means the Russian coach only had 2 heart attacks (he is the loud man of these and of any games he’s at), one for each half.

Observations

· Food: yes, some of you are actually wondering why there isn’t more about the food! First off, the prices in OP and other venues is not outrageous: 16oz draft Heineken is $7.20, cheaper than at any major league ballpark. On other hand, it is almost universal that the concessions are out of our first choice and often second choice. Today, no cinnamon sugar pretzels, no draft cider. Maybe we should be going to the morning sessions…hmmmm….

· Why are there so many young kids at the morning and afternoon sessions: their tix are only $11 each! THB would’ve brought his 2 and 4 year olds if that had been on offer to non-EU citizens, yes he would have!

· Scoreboards how much more can THB say? Just that when you see a replay on TV, it fills your screen. Here, at handball, if they show a replay, it also fills the screen, except the screen is so small that the replay is showing very, very small midgets.

· And, there is a mascot for these games. Sooooo PC that even an alien would feel badly that this is the way they are depicted: neutered, obscure, blurry.