Made it to the Maracaña today – maybe the most famous soccer stadium in the world. Watched Fluminense play Atlético MG to a 2-2 draw. They are fighting for last place to avoid relegation. This was the LOUDEST sporting event I have ever been to.
Very late night getting to our hotel and an early rise to go to the Rio De Janeiro U15 Championship between Flamenco and Vasco. Vasco came in with a previous 1-0 win and there were no goals in this game. Vasco claims the U15 championship
Game was fun to watch. Players are very talented, but still doing the same things that our 14 and 15 year olds do at home. Crowd was much more interesting and lively than our youth games.
So here comes another football trip. We leave for Brasil Friday morning. A group of about 10 (I think) coaches will travel to Rio for a week of games, training sessions and clinics.
Looking forward to Thanksgiving with my family and then the flight Friday.
We met up with Beatriz’ mom Isabel Thursday night back in Bilbao. We enjoyed some wine and pintxos together and said our very sad goodbyes.
Friday morning, we checked out of our hotel and traveled 3-1/2 hours to Segovia. Segovia is an old city with roman, moorish and Christian artifacts. A roman aqueduct from about 100 AD marks the south side of the old town. A beautiful Cathedral from 1500 is in the middle of the city and a boat shaped castle, the Alcazar of Segovia is at the northern tip. The Alcazar is built on top of ruins on top of ruins… The existing structure dates from around 1100.
Our hotel, Casa La Mudejar, is built on top of an ancient Roman spa. They have built an underground spa in top of the roman spa. There are several areas of the roman spa exposed to the interior of the current day spa. We spent Friday night in the spa.
We left Donostia and traveled north-east into the French city of Saint Jean-de-Luz. This is still part of Basque Country. We started with crêpes, shopped and walked, had some hot chocolate and tea and finished with some ice cream.
On the way out, we had to deal with the automated self cleaning toilet from hell.
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