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| It can�t get better than that! This is what we said whilst walking out of the Nou Camp football stadium in Barcelona in May, after a hectic 10 days, including a 7 day holiday in Spain. Manchester United had won the �Double� for the third time (the first team to do this), the �Treble� (the first team to ever do this), the European Cup (for only the second time) and by beating a German team with 2 goals in the last minute to win 2-1. We had seen it all and don�t ever expect to see anything as good again. The 10 days started by being crowned the League Champions. Then the next Saturday it was off to the Cup Final and then straight after we had a flight to catch to Spain. This was the first time ever we�d been to a football match, never mind a Cup Final with Suite cases. We left them at Euston Train Station and then went to the match. The match wasn�t very exciting and was a bit easy, but at the end of the day we had won the FA Cup and become the first team to win the League and FA Cup in the same year for the third time. We staid at the ground for a while and saw the players as they left and then it was off the Gatwick to catch an aeroplane to Spain. We�d booked a 7-day half board break in Lorrette De Mar (about an hour�s drive north of Barcelona). We booked it by 9.00 am on the day after we qualified for the final. This meant that we�d booked the holiday before the travel agents realised they were going to get inundated with people trying to get a holiday near to Barcelona. As soon as the travel agents spotted this, the prices went up. Our 7-day break cost the same as most people paid for the 1-day trip to the final. We arrived at the hotel at lunchtime. There were a few other Manchester United fans who had got the same idea as us but we must have been amongst the first to get there. Later on in the day a coach arrived with a group of fans from Macclesfield. They were an interesting bunch who bent every rule in the book. They had and were selling forged tickets. They were selling football tee shirts they had printed, and had got in to see every match abroad during the season without ever having a ticket or paying. They were however the people who could solve our problem of getting to and from the football ground. We asked for if they could give us a lift and by buying them a match programme we were on the coach. The days leading up to the game we spent around the pool and the resort. Every day more and more fans (mostly Bayern Munich fans) came into the town. We set off for the match early on the Wednesday. We spent the day in Barcelona soaking in the atmosphere and got to the ground quite early. The match started and we weren�t playing to well. Bayern Munich got an early goal and then made it very hard for us. With 10 minutes to go every one was looking a bit dejected and for the first time all day had stopped singing. Then in the last minute things changed. United scored and the match could go into extra time. The players and the fans weren�t having that and felt they could score again. They did and every one went wild for a long time after the Trophy had been presented. Except the Bayern players who fell to the floor crying and the Bayern fans who went quite and left (never to be seen again, as when we got back to the resort there was no sign of them that night or the next few days). |
| It Can't Get Better Than That - Issue 4 1999 |
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| This was special. United had had some spectacular matches during the season but this was something else. To win the way they did against a German team, to win the European Cup and to win the Treble was a bit special. We spent the next few days calming down, buying all the newspapers we could to read the reports of the match and seeing what was going on back home. This was our first �once in a lifetime experience� for the year, and following football will never be as good again. It can�t get better than that! |
| Eclipse - Issue 4 1999 |
| Our second �once in a lifetime experience� was going to Devon to see the Eclipse of the Sun. We�d thought about going for a while but the talk of millions of people filling up Cornwall put us off. Then with a few weeks to go we heard that everyone else had been put off as well so we looked into it again. We were at a Wedding on the Saturday beforehand and we had to get back to see Manchester Untied play on the day of the Eclipse, so we had to plan things well. We spotted that the full Eclipse could be seen in Devon. This made it easier for us to get away as most people would be going to Cornwall that was another hours drive away. After trying about 5 campsites within the Eclipse zone that were full, we found one that wasn�t in Paington. We set off from Crewe at 1 o�clock in the morning straight after the Wedding hoping to miss all the traffic. We stopped a couple of times to have a short sleep. The motorways were busy with other people having the same idea as us but we got there without any problem. We had the Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to have a look around the area and plan where we were going to watch to Eclipse. In the end we decided to stay on our campsite. The site was on the side of a hill and if you went to the top of the hill you could see a long way. The only people up the hill were going to be the people on the site so we could take the Camper Van to the top of the hill and this is what we did. On the morning of the Eclipse we went up the hill. We got the van parked and put the television on so we could follow everything that was happening. It was a bit cloudy but every now and again you could see the sun and the partial Eclipse getting bigger. Then with 10 minutes to go before the Full Eclipse was due, a big cloud came over and we weren�t going to see it. (It turned out the only people who did in England were just a few miles down the road from us in Torquay). Anyway this didn�t stop us experiencing an amazing occasion. The light went very strange; it was like wearing sunglasses on a dull day. On the television they showed the Full Eclipse had started in Cornwall. In seconds it would be with us. The light suddenly dimmed but not totally and then seconds later it went dark; it was like someone had switched the lights off with a dimmer switch. You could here peoples screams and cheers for miles and see street lights and flashes from Cameras going off from 40 miles away. On one side of us there was a Sunrise and on the other a Sunset. Then as quick as it went dark it became light again. It was an amazing experience, even though we couldn�t see the sun. If you ever get a chance to see an Eclipse, don�t miss it! |
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