Before and after the 7 month journey from London to Rio

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Week 1. I have mostly been...
Arriving in Northern Spain, knocking over motorbikes, riding across Santiago de Compostela on my own pilgrimage through Vigo, Nazarre, Lisbon and Peniche.  After 6 days in the saddle and a different bed each night I needed to take a reality check on how many hours a day the Vespa engine, the sidecar & my backside can take.
This is done and the schedule is updated HERE

Day 1. Crash Bang Wallop! 
I pushed the scooter off the pavement on the left, meandering through the rest of the motorbikes whilst a (English?) family waited patiently with their kids staring at the sidecar.  I waved  thanks and yelled ʺBon Viajeʺ to them. The sidecar's personality emerged as it took the opportunity to shoulder charge a Honda Transalp 750cc and take it down. It fell slowly, loudly and fortunately into a empty parking spot preventing a domino effect on a line of motorbikes toppling.  
Rattled, I jumped off the scooter to check. The dad had picked up the Honda. We saw and agreed there was no damage. I was keen to get out of there sharpish. So we only had time for a short discussion about the weeks upcoming weather - they were definitely English!
Celta Vigo 1 Getafe 1
The article in Faro De Vigo newspaper
I'd received a text to meet Yolanda and Ruben outside the stadium. I may get a ticket but at a minimum we can take penalties for the competition and go for a sidecar ride.  There was a healthy pre match warm up, drinking coffee & beers and snacks.  It turns out the coffee is often a local liquor called ????? Yolanda had arranged a phone call with a journalist and just before kick off one of the goalmouth photographers showed up resulting in this article "Un Ingles...."

Inside the stadium we ran up the stairs, could see the pitch and hear the sound system blaring out  ʺThe A Team!!!ʺ Excellent start!  
Fans choose seats (anywhere) and set to work creating a unfeasible amount of noise cracking & eating pumpkin seeds.  Added to the hola's, the joking between young & old, the mothers with babies next to chain smoking drum bangers, and the flag wavers running along the stadium.  Absolutely anything but sitting quietly still.

Indoctrinated I stopped clapping and yelling Yoyoyoyoyo Celta, when Getafe scored on the break and spoiled the party.  One woman clapped sarcastically.  Apparently she is always miserable and moaning regardless of the teams performance.  I'm sure every club has its share...

Getafe had a man sent off in the second half and Celta's constant pressure resulted in a equaliser but not the winner. A good game, great atmosphere and great kick off to the trip!
Benfica 1 Vitória Guimarães 0
The Eagle has Landed.  The eagle swooped down after circling the stadium majestically.  Very cool!
Its a big stadium capable of holding about 60,000 but was over half full on a Monday night. After celebrating the central defenders 400th game it was off to a quick start.  Benfica almost dribbled the ball into the net with very neat passing play.

The most memorable and identifiable song was a musical number to the tune of Creedence Clearwater Revival's ʺBorn on the Bayouʺ.  They sang for so long they could have just been singing the actual song...however I did not witness any air guitaring.
Secondly a loud ʺBENFICAʺ echo from one end of the stadium to the other which drew applause from around the stadium after several minutes.
Then it all got a bit too much when a dance resembling ʺHeads, Shoulders, Knees and Toesʺ was performed.  JohnnyB, Mario any ideas what this one was?

Musically inspired Benfica players danced their way around the defence culminating with the striker one on one with the keeper. One close range chip over the keeper, a dash around the back, calmly tucking the ball into the net. 1 Nil.