We ditch the rental at the TGV station and train to Lyon. It’s all pretty chillax and we check into our hotel. We bought a rugby weekender package which gives us four nights accomodation and the All Blacks vs Italy and the Aussie vs Portugal. We are planning to ditch the Aussie tickets by giving them away to someone who wants them but that’s another story.
The next day is test day we hop on the hop on and hop off bus and go around a loop. It’s not that great, the commentary doesn’t work and the bus breaks down but it helps get our bearings. We catch up with whanau’ s, whanau, and all is well with the world, all be it a little bit nervous re game day.
Our whanau bought there tickets online from the French World Cup rugby site and have worked out they are not sitting together but they are only a few blocks apart. One of there tickets however is in the same block and row as ours 10 seats away. What are the odds of that in 56,000 people? We are also trying to locate WH brother who came over from London for the game and that is relatively easy as well. Then just because it is all going swimmingly we find our seats are brilliant. Game on.
View from our seats. Front row in the second tier.
It’s a fun, exciting, try scoring game. Bring on the quarter finals.
The following day is the final day with whanau and we head off to do touristy stuff. The travel gods are with us and everything falls into place. Buses turn up just when we need them, we see ginormous queues have appeared for people to go in when we are coming out, we get a table in the shade to have a drink and a tart, we are happy tourists.
I still have my tickets for tomorrows game, Aussie vs Portugal. We had to buy them to get the weekend package with the All Blacks and I was never intending to go but my theory months ago of listing them for resale is long gone as when I had looked last week there were literally hundreds of them now for sale. I have seen quite a few aussies but when I approach them to ask them if they would like two tickets they think I am a crazy ticket selling woman and brush me off. I only want to give them to someone who will use them. I feel that someone must be here and know someone who wants to go, someone’s son or daughter or cousin or somebody’s something. But nope cant even give them away. An Aussie I approach tells me I wont be able to give them away – Until, we are in the square watching a fun, dress up, brass band play and a group of young men dance on past. They have Portugal jerseys on so I chase them down and they are very happy. I don’t know how they will work out who will go but they are happy, we are happy. Everybody happy, its been a good day.
Portugal Fans
We say ma te wa to our whanau as there adventures take them on a different path. It’s been great to spend time with them and share some special moments that we can dine out on for years to come.