Day 5 - Netherlands vs. Cameroon

On day 5, we slept in quite late. Apparently, we'd eaten something which didn't agree with anyone, and all of us had some variety of sickness. Lee managed to get up around noon and go hike to the Lion's Head of Signal Hill, but the rest of us, after grabbing an early coffee on the roof, slept until about 3:00 PM. We'd planned on hiking up to Table Mountain, but the conditions of everyone's stomachs precluded a trip up the mountain.

However, we had tickets to the evening's Netherlands - Cameroon World Cup match, and we were not going to allow sickness to stop us from going to the game. Because the game was an evening game, compared to the last one, which was in the early afternoon, the crowd going to the stadium was much more dense. I was a little surprised at the size of the crowd because the game was completely meaningless. The Dutch had already won the group, and the Cameroonians could only finish in last place, so the game was only for pride (and a run out for Arjen Robben). The Netherlands ran out comfortable winners, 2-1. As I am writing this blog, the finals are tomorrow, so I'm hopeful of being able to say that we saw the eventual World Cup champions.

Let me interject an aside about the efficiency and security that we saw for the World Cup. Prior to the World Cup, there had been many fears that there would be long lines and petty crimes. We went to two games with over 66,000 attendees, and had very short waits to get into the stadium and to get our tickets. We saw only friendly and welcoming people, and we never felt threatened or concerned...except when the touron decided to try to feed the baboon.