Three for Three

Our crew has now begun collecting air miles in earnest as we have covered our first three matches via three flights and completed our first triad tour of our sister cities. We have traveled from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth to Durban to Cape Town. We have begun to make ourselves familiar with what will be frequently visited airports, our drivers in each city and our homes away from home (Cape Town) away from home.

Our driver met us in Port Elizabeth and our 10 passenger van is not large enough to handle the driver plus 7 of us and our excess baggage. I shouldn't say not big enough because we did make it work, but seats were sacrificed for luggage and luggage provided an extra seat. We got better at the in the next couple trips. SEATS FOR EVERYONE! We did not have time to swing by the hotel before the match. So off to the match we went.

The stadium in Port Elizabeth is as well an older fixture and has been retrofitted for the World Cup. It is a smaller venue and quite adequate. As with all the venues I have seen it is distinct in its architecture and ornamentation. From a distance our crew decided it looked like a sea shell resting on the beach.

The King Edward Hotel in Port Elizabeth has obviously just gone under renovation. The 'Port' city is dominated by ports, terminals, warehouses, roadways and rail heads. Laurence has commented that EVERYTHING is made of concrete. It is not very modern, and The King Edward Hotel is prime example. I will research the date, but I am sure it is a century old at least. It sits on a knoll overlooking the ports and a park across the street is adorned with obligatory nautical themed statuary. I say the renovations are new because of the distinct smell of paint and new carpet and the flat screen televisions in the rooms and the glass, stainless, and marble fixtures in the bathrooms don't fit the skeleton key and chandelier motif throughout the rest of the palatial building. The staff in training is also evidence of the burgeoning boutique destination they are striving to achieve.

After the early morning traveling and catching some rays at the rare 1:30PM start, it was down to business....finding a venue for the England v USA match. The KEH was not quite what we had in mind so one of the chiefs of the staff recommended we go to Barney's on the waterfront. Barney's was quite what we had in mind either....but it filled the bill. It was a garish clone of an American sports bar complete with typical chain restaurant eats, loud music, lots of televisions and World Cup fans with those damn vuvuzelas. And the drunker they got the more they blew them. URGH! A large room with picnic tables and a projection TV was perfect for the occasion. I could have done without the coverband in the next room, but the 180db of the TV did good battle with the rock and roll band (160db) and the vuvzelas (100-200db). The wager was 200 Rand each. Jamie, Laurence and Alex (all from England) for England and Carl, myself and Lars (Germany) for the USA. Lars liked the the fact the Brits were so confident in their team they gave us the draw. Our Aussie mate held the 1200 Rand and well....thanks to butter fingers Green I won enough money to cover my entry into our group pool. Updates to come on that competition.


With the 3-0 South Korea defeat of Greece in the books in Port Elizabeth it was off to Durban the next morning. The daily check of the weather forecast was looking bad for Cape Town in two days time, but there was a bright spot in Durban. An Eastern Cape beach destination, Durban's World Cup theme claims it to be the hottest spot of the World Cup. As we were headed in for landing the captain came across the PA per usual with the announcement of time and temperature.....28 degrees C (82F!) and this is supposed to be winter time?!

Durban Beach front with the stadium on the right in the background.

The early morning flight has landed us in enough time for a late breakfast which turned into an early lunch which faded into a late lunch before the 8:30PM kick off. Shorts and a tshirt were the call for the beach side restaurant. Service was on 'island time' which might be nice for the vacationers that dominate the scene there, but it was making us a bit twitchy that we weren't going to get our afternoon nap in before the game. All went well and we got back to our basement room at the City Lodge for some much needed rest.

The new and modern Moses Mabhinda Stadium in Durban, named after a working class hero, is built next to the home grounds for the Durban Sharks Rugby Team. It has canopies on the sides that stretch up toward a center spine that arches skyward above the venue. It is visible for some distance down the beach and seat 70,000 vuvuzela blowing football fans. It was here where Lars' German squad crushed Quinn's not so mighty Socceroos 4-0. Included in the loss was Australia's Tim Cahill who will miss the next two games as a result of a red card. And Quinn's wallet is a little lighter as I noticed some Rand swapping hands in the press room afterwards.

This is Alex under the arch in the Durban stadium.

After sweltering in the relative winter heat of Durban it seemed impossible that the forecast for Cape Town could hold true.....3C (37F) and sideways rain at the 8:30 PM game time. 'This is your captain speaking...' as we approached landing in Cape Town at 1:00PM it was announced, 10C (50F) and rain. The arrival time did not allow us to head back to the villa so it was straight to the stadium for some press food and 5 hours of relaxing in the press tent before the cold, wet, dark, kick off between Italy and Paraguay. So here I sit.......

Alex, Lars and Carl kill time in the Cape Town Media Center.