World Cup

The tournament started today and as is the usual case with major international sporting events, Day 1 was a light day, only two games. One conclusion is clear, however. I am going to be busy.

Watching football, fitting in a two hour bicycle ride and for crying out loud the Tour de France starts in a couple of weeks. Yup, I may not have a job but I have way too much on my calendar.

Let the fun begin.

Actually the fun began today. Allez les bleus. France looked to me to be the strongest of the four teams in Group A. I suspect the host team will be suffocated by the extremely defensive style of Uruguay. I suspect that the occasionally cavalier defensive style exhibited by Mexico will work to the advantage of France.

My predictions for the tournament are already on record but have not been posted here. No one, and I mean NO ONE can predict the World Cup. But what the hey, I predict a final four of England, Brazil, Spain and Argentina. I predict Argentina and England in the final. I predict that the winner of the tournament will be Argentina. Why? Lionel Messi, best player in the world, that's why.

It rained really hard this morning. I got in a couple of miles between games and then rode again after France v. Uruguay. I passed through the Fairgrounds. They have already had one antique motorcycle event over there but another one is on tap for this weekend. This picture indicates to me that at least one of the participants is an extremely serious hobbyist.Just driving down the street cruising for antique motorcycle parts, now there's a guy with well established priorities.

Here's a previously unpublished picture from Day 4, the Deportation Memorial. In a city dedicated to tourism this site is sobering. They only let a few people in at a time. We waited in line and when four people came out, we were allowed in. We quickly discovered that we were the only four in the memorial. No more than four at a time. Before we were allowed in we witnessed staff asking the German lady waiting in line behind us to put on her jacket to cover her bare shoulders. It isn't a tourist site, it is a serious memorial.The picture shows a hallway lined with 200,000 lights, one for each French victim of the Nazi concentration camps. The inscription reads, "Dedicated to the living memory of the 200,000 French deportees sleeping in the night and fog, exterminated in the Nazi concentration camps."