How I Spent My Summer Vacation: Day 8 

Friday June 25, 1998

On the way back from Nantes, we stopped at the palace of the kings. Versaille. It is an immense and beautiful palace. And its the first place I've ever paid to use the restroom.

That night we went back to Lens for the big v match. No beer or alcohol for 50 kilometers of the stadium. That was due to the hooligans rioting on the beaches of Marseiles earlier during the cup. The French Police even searched the tour buses during the game and took all the booze off. Before the game they had the crowd hold up colored paper to make the flag designs and spell out LENS. I don't know what my section spelled. If you were there, let me know. Those big pyramids in the distance are spoil piles from coal mining.

There's nothing like an England game. The English had 90% of the tickets and made it their home game. They never stopped singing and chanting, and when they scored it was pandemonium. There were conga lines all over the stadium. Colombia never had a chance. On the way out all the England fans in their $75 umbro jerseys whistled the tune from "The Bridge over the River Kwi" over and over.

We got back to the hotel just in time to watch v and Esse make the PK call that made him world famous.   I just knew he must have seen something that the TV replays didn't.     I didn't find out 'til a week later that he was right when I got back to the US.  The French and English TV never made much of a retraction for the lynching they put him through.

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