Same City, Different Friends
I've been in Lyon now for nine nights and I have one more to go. So I must say I'm getting itchy feet now. Tomorrow I head for Bordeaux and then Spain. Still, the ten days have included two day trips to other places and there have been several company combinations (none, one, or two different friends at different times) to keep it interesting.
Yesterday, very early in the morning, Simon left this hotel for blighty and later in the afternoon, my old mate from university, Jake, and his (and my) dear old friend, Dougie, took his place.
Jake and Dougie arrived at 3pm and we'd arranged to meet in the old town at 5pm to watch the Group C deciders. So I had time to get a clothes wash done and do a bit of sightseeing.
Laundromat
The nearest laundromat is about a ten minute walk from the hotel and so it was easy to pack a couple of bags of smelly clothes and carry them there. The system seemed easy and efficient enough, even for me to do, and there was an excellent cafe just across the road where I did my blogging while my clothes were being washed, and then washed again, before being dried. Ok, not that easy then - what I thought was a drier was in fact some kind of massive washing machine. Five cups of delicious coffee later, I headed back here, dumped my clothes and headed off to the confluence of the two rivers in Lyon where there's a museum, recommended to me by Ella, Rory O'Brien's daughter.
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| Gino cafe - best coffee in France so far |
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| Leo Laverie |
Confluence
One of my favourite places in the world is in Kaunas, where the river Neris joins the Nemunas. There is something special about these geographical landmarks, so when I finally realised that Lyon had such a point of interest it was high on my priority list to see it.
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| Lyon, on the confluence of the Saone and the Rhone |
I caught the T1 tram from in front of the Part-Dieu station to the museum - getting off one stop too early, and walking the rest of the way. At last, the weather seems to have turned and it got quite hot and sweaty as I walked towards the spectacular, modern "cloud" structure which is the museum. First, I headed down to where the rivers meet. I went as far as a dare, without getting my feet wet. It's quite scary to be standing on that point with two massive, deep, turbulent rivers either side of you.
So, having had my fill of selfies and panorama shorts, I headed for the museum. It's a really impressive new modern structure. I went round all the permanent exhibitions. The origins hall was really well done and it brought a tear to my eye to see several groups of children all ooing and aaaing at the exhibits. Oddly, there was a section on death which included an interactive video panel where various French academics (medics, anthropologists and philosophers) gave their different thoughts about death. I must admit I did have a little snooze through some of it but I disagreed about the view that death is inevitable so we should just embrace it. Maybe this is true for older people like me but for the younger generation, I think not. Ray Kurzweil's "Singularity" might not arrive as soon as he predicts, but it surely will happen one day.
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| Fantastic "Tree of Life" 3D Model |
Jake and Dougie
After the museum I caught the tram, and then metro, to get to our rendez-vous at the Wallace pub. Jake and Dougie arrived and we sat outside to catch up before going inside to watch the two Group C games simultaneously.
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| In The Wallace with Jake and Dougie, watching two matches at once |
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| with Jake and Dougie |
Germany 1 Northern Ireland 0
Most people, who are not German, were probably hoping for an upset here. But equally, almost non of them actually thought it would happen. Sure enough, Germany completely dominated the match and bombarded the Northern Ireland goal pretty much incessantly. Amazingly, they only scored one goal but it turned out to be enough.
Poland 1 Ukraine 0
In the other group C game, going on simultaneously in Marseille, Ukraine, the only team to know they were going out even after the round of games, put in a spirited first half display against Poland, who were looking to win by 2 goals to tie with Germany. If that had happened, the fair play record of the teams would have been used to decide which team won the group. But again, just the one great goal from Jakub Blaszczykowski (surely the longest surname in the tournament) was all they could manage.
After a fantastic burger at The Wallace, we headed off through the old town and then back to the same little square Gerry, Simon and I had got soaked in the other night.
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| Germany in Pole position. Ulstermen have to wait. |
Croatia 2 Spain 1
Before this game, Dougie, Jake and I had been discussing which sides we thought were most likely to win the tournament and all of us had Italy and Spain in our shortlist of four. Afterwards, as Spain lost and finished second, they must play Italy in the standout fixture in the round of 16. So one of the favourites must fall there - could be good for England.
Spain started well enough when Morata scored a neat goal through typical quick passing interchanges in and around the box with Fabregas but credit to Croatia, they never let their heads drop. Even with Luka Modric and Mario Mandzukic on the bench injured, they gradually grew in confidence, and equalised just before half time. Then as Spain looked for a winner the Croatian goalkeeper saved a penalty before Perisic grabbed a last gasp winner to top the group.
In the other match, Turkey beat Czech Republic 2-0 to send them home and give themselves a chance of remaining in.
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| Croatia stun Spain and condemn them to play Italy next |
So we now know two of the eight knock out games. Switzerland will play Poland next Saturday, 25th June in St Etienne and Italy will play Spain next Monday, 27th June just before England's tie in Nice. So I will need to make sure I get there nice and early to make sure I don't miss that one!
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| "Final Table" after three group games. Better than it looks for England, I think |
Jake, Dougie and I discussed football and other matters such as the EU referendum before getting an Uber to our hotels.
Aljice
Lyon
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