Have Game? Will Travel!

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Spanish Segunda Division: Cadiz at Levante

After stage 7 of the Vuelta a Espana was over, I met Nicole at the El Corte Ingles. Rather than drive to Valencia’s city center, I thought we should check out the area surrounding Levante’s home stadium – Estadio Ciudad de Valencia. However, there was not much in terms of restaurants so we drove back to the city center.

Pre Game Dining
Last Sunday, before the Valencia football match, we spotted a couple of pintxo restaurants opening as we were leaving for the Mestalla. Thus, Nicole wanted to try them out this week. We thought we would try both of them since pintxo’s are basically tapas – meaning you can eat a few at one restaurant and a few at another.

1) The first restaurant we tried was Sagardi Euskal Taberna – located at San Vicente Martir, 6. The restaurant was more upscale and was a pleasant dining experience. Pintxos cost 1.80 euros each.
2) The second pintxo restaurant we tried was about one block towards the Cathedral called La Taberna de la Reina – located on the Plaza de la Reina. This place was not as nice and neither were the pintxos they were providing – of course, the pintxos were slightly cheaper – 1.20 to 1.55 euros.

Pre Game Transportation
As stated earlier, Nicole wanted to shop in Valencia’s city center rather than watch a second division soccer match. Since Nicole and I had already parked our car in a public parking lot, I decided to take a cab rather than move the car and try to park the car on a sidewalk or in the middle of the street at the soccer match. The cab only cost 6 euros from the city center to the stadium.

Obtaining Tickets
I walked to the ticket office to find out the cost of the cheapest ticket. They did not have their prices posted so when I asked at the ticket window they said 20 euros. With a high price point, I decided to talk to the guys who had approached me wanting to sell their extra tickets. I talked to one of them and he said he had a face value 40 euro ticket for 30 euros (I had no idea if that was true since the ticket did not have a price on it). I told him I would only spend 10 euros – a price he balked at. Of course, he dropped from 30 euros to 25 euros to 15 euros to, finally, 10 euros. I bought the ticket and entered the first gate I could find as the ticket did state, “INVITACION. PROHIBIDA SU VENTA” – meaning “Invitation. Prohibits your selling.” Not sure what that meant but I entered the Levante supporter’s area and sat in a relatively empty section.

The Game
There is not much to mention about Estadio Ciudad de Valencia. The stadium is old, run down and there were temporary concession stands setup to sell drinks and snacks – similar to some other stadiums I have been to in Europe.

D. Carril Freire gave Levante a 1-0 lead in the 32nd minute. E. Moruno equalized for Cadiz in the 68th minute and the game ended in a 1-1 tie.

Post Game Transportation
After the game I could not find a cab outside of the stadium. Thus, I walked to the main street where I was dropped off (Avenida Alfahuir) to see if cabs were driving (and hopefully waiting). There weren’t any. I walked a couple of blocks towards the city centre figuring I would find a cab as I got closer to the city centre and found a metro (tram) stop. I figured whichever showed up first (the tram or a taxi) would get me back to the city center to meet Nicole. The tram came first and I took Linea 6 to Beniclamet, transferred to Linea 3 and took that train to Colon – the stop by the city center.

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Saturday, September 5, 2009

Stage 7: Vuelta a Espana in Valencia

Very rarely is there an opportunity to attend two sporting events in the same day while in Europe. Not that two sporting events do not occur on the same day, but getting the wife approval is more difficult. Under normal circumstances, I probably would not drive 90 minutes to attend the Tour of Spain – given the fact the tour was in other areas closer to where we are staying. However, Valencia’s second division soccer club, Levante, had a home match scheduled for Saturday night – meaning I could attend both events in Valencia Saturday.

Last Sunday, when we went to Valencia, all of the shops were closed since it was the end of August (Spain is closed in August as the Spaniards are on vacation). Thus, with the wife wanting to shop and two sporting events in Valencia the day was set.

Time Trials
The event in Valencia was an individual time trial – meaning rather than spending 5 minutes watching the leaders and the peloton, cyclists ride individually on a course throughout the city. If you are a cycling aficionado this is the best way to watch every rider as they are not bunched up with the rest of the tour. The event started at 1:20 pm and finished around 5:30 pm.

However, if you are the Ultimate Sports Wife and enjoy spending less than one minute watching the riders during a regular stage, then this is not the event for you. Thus, Nicole decided she would not brave the rain and instead shop at the El Corte Ingles we parked at (0.02 euros per minute) for the event. But Nicole had the last laugh as she was able to watch a section of the time trial from the 8th floor of the El Corte Ingles rather than stand in the rain by the finish line as I had done.

The Race
The seventh stage consisted of a 30 kilometer time trial that started and finished on Valencia’s Formula 1 street circuit. Since I was unable to see the entire course when I attended the Formula 1 event two weeks ago, this gave me an opportunity to see the finish line – which was one of the reasons I walked in the rain to see the main area.

Fabian Cancellara won the stage and kept the gold jersey for one more day finishing the 30-kilometers in 36:41 – way ahead of the other competitors. David Millar, who placed second, was 32 seconds behind Cancellara, third place Bert Grabsch was 36 seconds slower and fourth place David Herrero was 40 seconds behind.

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Monday, August 31, 2009

Spanish La Liga: Sevilla at Valencia

The Ultimate Sports Wife and I decided to spend the afternoon touring Valencia since we had decided to watch Valencia square off against Sevilla at 7 pm on La Liga’s opening weekend.

Obtaining Tickets
I had already bought two tickets to Sunday’s match on Thursday night so we would not have to deal with buying tickets on Sunday evening. We may have been able to beat the 20 euros ticket price at the window but taking our time to get to Estadio Mestalla was worth the peace of mind for not much extra money.

Parking Part 1
Since it was a Sunday and we wanted to tour Valencia’s City Centre, I decided to park on a street in between the City Centre and the stadium. We found a nice area where other cars were parked and appeared to be free. It was (however, read parking parts 2 & 3).

Valencia City Centre
We started walking around Valencia at 3 pm. Something to note about Valencia during August and on a Sunday is that everything is closed. There was not one store open between where we parked and Valencia’s main Cathedral. Of course this was to the Ultimate Sports Wife’s dismay.

However, as we approached the main tourist area by the Plaza de la Virgen where the Basilica de la Virgen de los Desamparados (which was closed) and the Cathedral are located, the restaurants and stores were opened. Phew! Of course, the only tourist attraction open in the area was the Cathedral but after seeing many Cathedrals in Europe for free we chose not to pay the 4 euros to see this one. Even the Mercado Central, one of the largest markets in Europe, was closed until September 2.

Pre Game Dining
I was concerned that the Ultimate Sports Wife would not like the restaurants (also known as bars) around the stadium. So rather than risk eating by the stadium, we ate at Cerveseria Manyans. The restaurant was not located in the main tourist area by the Cathedral but rather on a side street a few blocks south of the Plaza de la Reina. We ate early for Spaniards at 5 pm, but since we were hungry and had a long drive back after the game, the timing made perfect sense for us.

Parking Part 2
With our tickets already in hand, we decided to drop off some items in our car and be sure we had not received a parking ticket, or even worse towed. We did not receive a ticket, but to our surprise, we had a car parked perpendicular right behind us! Since we did not need to move the car at the time, we figured we would go to the match and hope the car was moved by the time we got back – although a man was ready to move the car for us if we needed to leave at that time.

As we approached the stadium, what I had not realized when I attended the match on Thursday night was that there are no parking regulations during a Valencia football match. Cars were parked bumper to bumper on the sidewalk, on the street and a second row on the street – blocking in all of the cars that had parked “legally” on the street. So much for worrying about whether we had received a parking ticket.

The Match
With the pitch on Sunday evening just as bad as it had been on Thursday evening, Valencia scored two goals in the second half to defeat Sevilla 2-0. Sevilla was reduced to 10 men during stoppage time of the first half as Fredi Kanoute was shown the red card (after receiving one yellow card in the 22nd minute and one yellow in stoppage time). Valencia immediately took advantage of their advantage by scoring in the second minute of the second half. Pablo Hernandez ensured Valencia won by scoring the second and decisive goal in the 79th minute.

Parking Part 3
Just in case you were wondering, when we got back to the car, the car that had parked behind us was gone as was the man who offered to move the car for us. There were many other cars still parked in the middle of the street but we backed our car out of its parking place and drove back to Benimassot.

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Friday, August 28, 2009

Europa League Play-off: Stabaek at Valencia

One part of Spanish soccer I do like is the late start times of soccer matches. La Liga’s weekly Saturday night contest begins at 10 pm (meaning it ends close to midnight) – no sporting event in the United States has that scheduled start time. Last season, I remember thinking it was crazy that Game 2 of the NLDS between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs had an 8:37 pm start time at Wrigley Field.

Thus, I should not have been surprised when the Europa League Play-off match hosted by Valencia had a scheduled start time of 9:30 pm. I left Benimassot at 6:30 pm and by the time I found the Mestalla and parked the car it was 8:30 pm.

Parking at the Mestalla
The Mestalla is similar to Wrigley Field in that the stadium is in the middle of the city. There is no parking lot in the immediate vicinity as apartments, restaurants and bars surround the stadium. I found a parking garage (Garaje Primado Reig) within a few blocks of the stadium which cost .0329 cents per minute – a strange cost metric for a public parking lot but at less than 2 euros per hour I was not going to complain.

Obtaining Tickets
After walking the few blocks to the stadium, I headed straight for the ticket office. I remembered many extra tickets around the box office when attending games at Real Madrid and Barcelona in December 2004. As I had thought, scalpers and fans had extra tickets. However, with the cheapest seat from the ticket office costing 10 euros there was no reason to buy from a scalper unless they could beat the 10 euro price point. They could not so I bought a seat in the upper deck for 10 euros.

The Match
With Valencia already ahead in aggregate 3-0 from their match at Stabaek, Valencia did not have to worry about not advancing to the group stage of the Europa League. In convincing fashion Valencia won the second match 4-1 (7-1 on aggregate).

Miku scored three goals for Valencia – one in the 28th, 29th and 80th minute while Nikola Zigic scored the other goal for Valencia. Stabaek’s Pontus Farnerud made the match close towards the end of the first half as he scored at the 36th minute to cut Valencia’s lead to 2-1. However, Valencia was too much for Stabaek in the end.

Estadio Mestalla
The upper deck at the Mestalla is one of the steepest I have ever seen. I cannot think of another stadium that compares. Other stadiums would probably have three rows in the same height that the Mestalla has two rows.

The pitch at the Mestalla was a complete mess. It appeared to be a dirt pitch with patches of grass around the field. The pitch broke up every time a player would try to cut. At halftime the stadium crew came out to fix the divots created by the players in the first half. Also, they watered at halftime with the sprinkler system. They did that before the game as well, which at the time I thought was odd but finally realized it was necessary.

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Monday, August 24, 2009

Formula 1: Valencia Street Circuit

After arriving in Spain Saturday night, we quickly got ready and drove to Valencia Sunday morning for the Grand Prix of Europe. Although the race started at 2 pm, I wanted to arrive early to see part of Valencia. We left the house at 9:30 am and finally parked our car at 11:30 am.

Parking
As we arrived in Valencia we followed signs to an “official” parking lot which was no where near the circuit. We paid 15 euros and then had a lengthy walk to get to the track. However, the walk did bring us by the Ciutat de les Arts i de les Ciencies (City of Arts and Sciences) – one of the main tourist attractions in Valencia.

Obtaining Tickets
With the temperature in the 90’s and ticket prices between 150 and 200 euros each, the Ultimate Sports Wife decided she would skip the race and instead chose to go to the Museo de las Ciencias Principe Felipe. Given the fact Formula 1 races are over within two hours and the museum was within a short walk of the track it made sense for us to enjoy the short afternoon separately.

I walked to the main box office figuring most people with extra tickets would try to sell their tickets there. Before arriving in Spain, I looked online and saw that the cheapest seats available were 195 euros. The actual cheapest seats were in the general admission section for 100 euros but those seats were already sold out when I checked online. With such a high price point, I figured I would be able to buy a ticket for under face value. When I arrived at the ticket office, the 195 euros seats were sold out and the cheapest seats were now 250 euros – quite expensive for any race if you ask me.

The first man I talked to had a 480 euros seat he wanted to sell for 300 euros – still too much money for me. The next woman (and men helping her) had a 375 euros ticket they also wanted to sell for 300 euros. In Spanish, I told them I only had 235 euros in my wallet and that was still more than I wanted to pay. They eventually agreed to sell it for 230 euros after a bit of haggling but that price was still too high. A third gentleman also had a 480 euros seat. I did not even ask how much he wanted for it. I began to get concerned that I might actually have to pay 250 euros for one ticket from the box office (I still needed money to buy lunch). However, as I was debating whether to walk around the track a bit, a young couple arrived with one extra ticket – face value 195 euros. They wanted 150 euros and we eventually agreed on 140 euros – still more than I wanted to pay but it was still less than face value and 110 euros less than the tickets available at the ticket office.

The Race
I entered the track after I bought the ticket. There was no point to walking around the track in the blaring sun. It was about an hour before the race was scheduled to begin so instead of sitting in my seat (there were no shade seats), I stood in the shade behind one of the temporary grand stands. I entered my section around 1:45 pm as the preliminary laps started.

At 2 pm, the race started. To my surprise, I actually did not need to use ear plugs. As opposed to NASCAR, which seems to blow out your ear drums, Formula 1 cars have a high-pitched tone that does not actually hurt your ears. Nevertheless, I used my ear plugs – thinking it was better to use them than not use them. However, most of the fans around me did not use ear plugs and were probably making fun of me.

Also to my surprise was the constant breeze that kept smacking me in the face coming from the Mediterranean Sea. This breeze kept me cool for the entire race which was a great plus since I thought I would be dying by the time the race ended.

A second difference Formula 1 has from NASCAR is that NASCAR tracks are mainly ovals – meaning as long as you are seated high enough in the stands you can see the cars race around the entire track. On the contrary, Formula 1 races are street circuits – meaning you can only see the cars as long as they are on the stretch of track you can see from your seat and you watch the rest of the race on the giant screens in front of your section.

The third and major difference between Formula 1 and NASCAR is that there were no yellow flags which always slow down the race in NASCAR. A couple of times, cars slid off the road but were able to gain control of the car, turn it around and keep racing. These lead to temporary yellow flags – where only the cars on that part of the track were told to take caution.

In the end, the race lasted about one hour and 40 minutes. Rubens Barrichello won the race and Lewis Hamilton finished second.

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