Today in Trust member Kate Thompson’s South Africa diary, Kate visits Pretoria and then goes to the Final
Day 32: Saturday, 10 July 2010
A similar pattern to yesterday, ie a lazy morning and a brief trip to the shopping centre for a sandwich. There are no papers today, which seems odd. After a minor panic when I couldn’t find my camera (it was right of the bottom of my rucksack) I waited for the bus to Pretoria. It was nearly 45 minutes late and when it arrived it was another minibus with only seven of us – two from Australia, two from Indonesia and two from Korea (I assume the one that’s not a communist state!).
Our first stop was the Voortrekker Monument, outside Pretoria, which is enormous. It is actually a building, with a small museum, a cenotaph and fantastic views from the top. After quite a long stay there we drove past Paul Kruger’s former house to Church Square, where there are some handsome 19th century buildings. The guide, who was Dutch, said that most of the recent buildings are ugly, which they certainly are, but the lesson appears to have been learnt and they are now trying to construct better-looking buildings.….
Voortrekker Monument
Church Square contains a memorial to Kruger, with a statue of him, the Palace of Justice, City Hall and various other attractive buildings – including an Art Deco coffee shop. We then drove to Union Buildings, which were built when the South African republic was founded at the end of the Boer War. Its architect was Sir Herbert Baker, he of Downing College fame.
Union Buildings
There are some nice gardens in front of the buildings with a good view of Pretoria which it overlooks. On the return journey the guide pointed out the construction of the Gautrain line, which will eventually go to Pretoria. The other thing I noticed was a lady collecting rubbish. We had seen men before: apparently they collect rubbish from people in cars who give them a few coins, but today I saw a barefoot woman doing it at a very busy intersection. What a dangerous occupation.
I ate in the hotel again and watched the 3rd place play-off game between Uruguay and Germany. It is a non-event and I’m sure the players don’t want to play in it. I do not know of any other cup competition which has this element and – as someone else said – it is probably FIFA wanting to make even more money! However, it was quite an entertaining match, with Germany eventually winning 3-2.
Day 33: Sunday, 11 July 2010
Cup final day with the closing ceremony starting at 6.30. Our guide, Clare, has heard that FIFA has pulled Mugabe’s ticket which would be about the only good thing it has ever done! She has decided that we will leave at 13.00 instead of 14.00 as she is worried about the traffic. This means an early lunch in the hotel as the options for eating anything other than junk food in the stadium area are zero! Needless to say, the journey was very smooth and we arrived at the designated parking space before 2.00! I walked towards the stadium, which opened at 2.30, and sat on some steps in the sunshine reading the paper and drinking a bottle of drink which I wouldn’t be able to take into the ground.
At about 3.00 I went into the ground, having had the most thorough search to date. I wanted a few bits from the shop but there was a queue. I waited 25 minutes to get in and then another 40 to pay! Still at least it used up a bit of time. I made my way to my seat about 5.30, with still an hour to wait until the closing ceremony, although it didn’t actually start until 6.45 and lasted about half an hour. It was very colourful and featured several African singers and the Colombian singer Shakira who sang the World Cup theme song (Waka Waka).
Stadium
We then had a visit from Nelson Mandela (and his wife) who were driven onto the pitch on a golf buggy. After another wait, enlivened by watching the crowd and the weird and wonderful costumes some of them were wearing, the match began.
Spain 1 Holland 0
Spain were definitely the better side and Holland struggled to win the ball and, when they did, failed to do anything positive with it. There were 14 yellow cards in the game, nine of them to Holland, and of course a Dutch player was sent off. I see in today’s Times that Sneijder is complaining about Webb’s refereeing, but apart from when he gave a goal kick instead of a corner, I thought he did alright. It was very cold and most of us were hoping it wouldn’t go to extra time! At least it was settled in extra time without the lottery of penalties.
Spain Celebrate Goal
My seat was the worst one I’d had and of course the ticket was the most expensive. I was only five rows from the front and my view was obscured by a line of television cameramen standing at the side of the pitch. I didn’t really see the goal and had to watch it on the television the next morning. It was a long walk back to the coach and a bit of a wait for everyone to arrive, so that we didn’t leave until after 12.30. We had a smooth run back and arrived at the hotel just after 1.00 am.
The final part of Kate’s diary will appear tomorrow