Getting to Rosario...

... Is a lot harder than people think! Below, is me in the van being packed in with the luggage. In terms of international hockey roadtrips, you'll struggle to better this!

There was me, obviously...
...Alan Craddock (father of Charlotte)
...Brian and Judy Blyth (parents of Australia's Madonna Bylth) with Sue
...Margaret and Don from Cheltenham Hockey Club (Interested hockey watchers)

And Migel, the driver, who came and collected us all from different hotels. Migel loves Dire Straits, Genesis and Kiss - all on his phone.

At the coffee stop I bought some new Emo white sunglasses and another pair as I think the white ones look cool, but won't last the tournament.

It takes around 4 hours to get to Rosario from Buenos Aires, and then it is another 45 minutes or so to the Jockey Club where the World Cup is happening.

I had a beautiful lunch of fish caught from the Paraná river, everything is so very big and spaced out here in Rosario.

Below is a looking down from the top of the riverbank picture of the river-side restaurant.

Travelling to Argentina

Below: One of the Haathees from around London recently, this one lives at Heathrow airport. 'Haathee' is Hindi for elephant and these fellas helped to raise some money to protect the real Asian elephants.

Above: A street scene from Buenos Aires, showing a massive advert for Adidas - note it isn't the new Las Leonas kit sadly, but still very cool.

Just to prove I am actually here!

The flight from Heathrow was delayed by some 7 hours, so that wasn't too good, but it did mean I got to do plenty of reading! 2 hours late leaving Heathrow, diverted to another airport because of fog at San Paulo and a 3 hour wait on the runway at Campinas in Brazil. The crew had to change over there and then a long wait in the stack to get into San Paulo.

Anyhow, arrived in Buenos Aires and so far everything has been very good, food excellent, people very friendly. The barman at the hotel is very impressed with my picture with Luciana Aymar! Taxi driver was a bit nuts, kept pointing out all the different football clubs Maradona played for, and asking me about Liverpool team news (He was a big Liverpool fan) - keep your eyes on the road son, as traffic came at us from both directions.

The final roundabout before the hotel he grabbed at the crucifix dangling from the rear view mirror and made the sign of the cross. I wasn't hopeful we'd make it across...  Still the Lord works in mysterious ways, especially at roundabouts. 

And of course everybody knows the Las Leonas, there is a great photo spread in the sports newspaper from the opening ceremony in Rosario with dancing and the teams - Chloe mentioned it was great on a text message she sent me.

It does look good in the newspaper, on to Rosario tomorrow on the bus.