Trip to Lyon

So the trip to the third largest city in France panned out pretty much as we all expected it to.

Once again an early morning alarm set for 4.15. Check in at Liverpool JLA was 5.30 for a flight scheduled to leave at 7.30. The missus dropped me off at 5.20, I'd checked in and cleared security by 5.45. Once again I could have had another hour in bed!!

Anyway, this time there was only John Raftery that I was meeting for this trip, my other mates had gone over to Lyon on Tuesday. Upon arriving into the departure lounge, I found myself heading towards a bar. I couldn't help it, the temptation too great as I handed over £4.55 for a pint of Amstel.

There were a few people I know also having an early morning pint so I sat with them. The now familiar topic of conversation being "who do we think will be the next manager" to "how many will we lose by" against Lyon? This led to a second Amstel, which nearly became a third as a 15 minute delay on our departure time went up on the board. However I decided against this, thinking of how much would be consumed later on in the day!

We finally boarded and took off for the 90 minute flight down to Lyon. We were served a "hot breakfast" of sausage, bacon, baked beans and potato croquet. Jet2.com should be sued under the trades description act as it was a "cold breakfast", but WTF, it done a job.

We landed at Lyon pretty much on time, about 10.20 local time. We made our way to the coaches for the 45 minute journey to Lyon centre, which turned into over an hour due to heavy traffic. We finally arrived at Place Bellacour at about 12.30.

John went off with two of his mates also on our flight, for a look around, so I headed off with the lads I knew up to the old town. €20's was thrown into the kitty, which got us four pints each. We were asked to be back to the coach for 4.30 PM for the journey to the stadium. By 3.30 two of us decided to find an offy and get a couple of cans and head back to the coach. The square at Place Bellacour was full of blues and the usual footballs flying around, but somehow the whole day felt very low key.

The journey to the stadium took about an hour, and it literally is in the middle of nowhere. It did look really impressive as we approached it though. We were located in the upper tier in the stand opposite the players tunnel. For those who have been to Newcastle, the walk up to the top is on a par with that!! The most annoying thing was the net installed in front of our section, which made viewing, particularly the far end where Lyon scored their goals, difficult.

For an hour I thought we done ok, nothing special, but done ok. We could, and probably should have been ahead early in the second half, oh for a decent striker, but once they scored, that was it, we all knew the game was over.

At the end we were kept in for about 20 minutes or so, before boarding our coach back to the airport, only 20 minutes away. The return flight was scheduled to leave at 10.30 p.m. but no way was that happening. We cleared security and headed straight to the gate. We boarded one of those shuttle buses that takes you from the gate to your plane. As we approached our plane, the dopey French driver drove straight past and towards the two sports options flights, two Thomson aircraft flying back to Manchester. He stopped at the first one. Everyone shouted wrong plane, so the daft git drove to the second one!! "Knobhead, it's still the wrong plane" we all shouted. He finally got us to the right plane, which left Lyon at about 11.40.

We arrived back at Liverpool JLA at quarter past midnight. A phone call to the missus to pick me up and I was home by quarter to one.

So four European aways done, and one to go. The only problem being I've shown my interest to go with the club to Cyprus. There could be a problem though, if this trip is pulled due to sudden lack of interest.

We shall wait and see!

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