Quick Turnaround. Another Plane Ride

The day after the Holland-Chile match, we were packing up at our Sao Paulo hotel to travel again, this time once again up to the northeast coast, to Recife, for the final Group G match - Germany.

The flight was an evening affair, so the three-hour flight was time for a short nap, and a late, after midnight, arrival at our FIFA hotel, the Mecure Navegantes, one block off the beach. Its designation as a FIFA hotel means it was a FIFA shuttle stop, and that it had the most modern accommodations. Those modern accommodations did not involve the easiest, or most consistent, access to the Internet, and differing from all of our other host hotels, our media program package did not include breakfast.

The next morning, we awoke to not an overcast day, that marks the changing of the seasons here, as they just entered their 'winter', which means rain. Nonetheless, my 16th floor did show me the beach in daylight.

Upon waling out my door, the walkway opening showed the city of Recife, itself.

Recife is the fifth-largest city in Brazil, and has the traffic and lack of infrastructure to make it a traffic nightmare. Much of the developmental density is pushed towards the beach, but many narrow, and even one-way streets make navigation tricky, especially as our group travels on a large coach-style bus.

To travel to Arena Pernambuco, named for the Brazilian state where Recife resides, it is a 40-minute ride with NO traffic. We arrived to find this modern facility, but as we would refer to the locale back home, 'out in the country'.

With that introduction to the third and final of our host cities, I will close this entry, and devote the next to the actual Match Day -1 preparations and press conference.

One final note, however, is there is a popular restaurant down the block from our hotel. A number of our group chose to venture there for dinner. One of the New York writers had his Visa cloned there, and hit up for over $46,000 in charges in less than 48 hours. I know, it could happen anywhere, but Brazil is using the World Cup to pad every pocket possible, in any way possible.

All contents of this blog, written and photographic, are copyrighted 2014, all Rights Reserved, by Perry McIntyre - Atlanta, GA.