Porto (A) April 17th 2019. Champions League Quarter-final, 2nd leg
By Stephen Burns (TTT Subscriber Leftfooter)
As I rolled off the train in Munich it hit me like a slap in the face, the snap of the cold. Traipsing around the coast of southern Italy in high teens or early 20s for the previous few months, the sudden drop was jolting to say the least. I was even more shocked at seeing the amount of snow on the cars from the previous few days as I pedalled my way through the darkness. Plans might have to be changed I thought.
After a successful night in the Bayern arena I thought to myself, where to now? My loose plan was to cycle east towards the Danube, and follow it all the way to Budapest stopping off in Vienna, Bucharest etc. But I’m no masochist, and the thoughts of cycling in the snow & cold didn’t appeal much.
My dilemma was short lived as Friday’s draw rolled around quite quickly. Porto; delighted with that one from a footballing perspective. Upon further studying the draw I reasoned a betting man might predict a further game on Iberia, of course extrapolating further the obvious conclusion was that we might have some business there in early June. I had three weeks to make it to Oporto, so plenty of time. A cursory glance at the weather for southern Spain and Portugal…..no snow, happy days. Booked the flight to Malaga, bought four rolls of clingfilm to wrap bike and said Auf Wiedersehen Deutschland.
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