Once again the match is not the highlight, or main draw, of the trip. A fair game, very end of season, friendly in the sun. Lethargy on the pitch and in the stands. Drinking in the park, just happened to be a game on at the same time! The Dutch fans are well up for it though. Never seen so much orange, head to toe, wigs, clogs, pants, face paint… a very friendly, hospitable, fun place. Lots of bars, lots of chat, laughter…

Rotterdam was actually a decent place. Well set up fan zones in the centre. Very much a business city, being the biggest port in the world, but some good sites and basically taken over by orange!

We decided to escape Little Britain, i.e. Amsterdam, for Haarlem. It is only 15 or so minutes away on the very efficient, punctual, frequent Dutch train; but it is also worlds away from Amsterdam. It is pretty quiet, small and picturesque. A town with quite a few bars round a central market square. There’s a distinct lack of stag parties, which was excellent, and the locals knew how to enjoy themselves…

Amsterdam is a great city too. It is beautiful. If you can avoid or remove the stag parties, it would be even better. Guess that what happens when you have a good place with the particular draws it has.

It is a bit like Groundhog Day though – walking over a canal bridge as a tour boat cruises beneath; a lamp shop on the corner of the street! Being flat, everyone cycles. At stations and in the centre there are fields of bikes, racked up. Probably more bikes than there are legs to peddle them.

Holland is a good place. I like it. Everything just seems to work, and work well. Like a Honda advert! Efficient and quality, just darn good.

Oh, the Dutch won 2-0, through a mistake by Brother Phils favourite player Carl Robinson and then what looked like a really soft free kick… Being as we had 5 or 6 first team players missing and the average of our team was 14, thought we did well…