Unfortunately, we have an early start the next day. We have tickets to Volleyball starting at 09:00. It is our only event of the day and we have a day off tomorrow, so despite the tiredness we decide to go. We again walk to the Rowing centre, but there are no buses. We are told that the buses are only for transporting people too and from the events at Schinias, and are not for use by spectators to get back and forwards to Athens.
I tell him of the events of yesterday evening and how there are lots of foreign visitors who have received the same information as we have and have been given the same information regarding transport on the Z20, Z21 and Z22 busses. Eventually, after much discussion, he gets one of the volunteers to take us to @@ where we can get a bus to Athens.
We wait a short time for the bus. The Peace & Friendship Stadium is at Faliro and is on the main metro, so we have little difficulty getting there and arrive just before the first game is due to start.
As we queue to enter the atmosphere is electric. The dutch fans have a wide assortment of drums, hooters and trumpets (some of which the security people are not allowing into the stadium).
The first game is between Serbia and Poland. Serbia are one of the favourites for the gold medal (having finished third in the World League in July), but they are comprehensively outplayed by the Polish side who have a large vocal support seated immediately below us next to the court. The Polish win the game by 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-16).
Next up are Holland and Russia. If the Polish were loud, the Dutch are louder. The Polish and Dutch fans have swapped places during the break and now it’s the Dutch who are court-side. I don’t know how the agreement was reached, but it’s a fine example of the Olympic spirit. There is slightly more Russian support that there had been Serbian and it is again the team with the support who win out against the higher ranked opposition. However, this game is much, much tighter. The unfancied Dutch team win a tight first set, but the Russians dominate the next two.
In the fourth set, two service faults by the Dutch helped the Russians to reach 20 points (20-18) first before a magnificent ace by Jeroen Trommel tied the match at 22-22. Two faults by the Russian team, seemed to give the Netherlands the set. But both teams continued the thrill as the score went to 24-24 and then 25-25. Finally a block from Richard Schuil and a missed spike from Alexander Kosarev, that went out of the court, clinched the set for the Dutch, to send the match to a tiebreak.
In the tiebreak, rally by rally, point by point, both teams were desperate to grab the win. The score rose 14-14, 15-15, 16-16 before Guido Gortzen's serve-ace and Kosarev's spike out completed a tremendous victory for the Dutch.
The Dutch secure the victory 3-2 (25-23, 19-25, 17-25, 27-25, 18-16).
Whilst the game is continuing the French team appear on the balcony behind us to watch the exiting encounter. They are very tall. Beth gets a photo with the tallest (Stéphane Antiga).
As it’s only afternoon we decide to try the Olympic transport system again. We arrive at @@ and find a large group of people waiting for the bus. Amongst those waiting is a German lady, with her son, who had been stuck in Athens on the night of the opening ceremony and had book into a hotel when she had been unable to find her way back to Z20.
When we ask at the main bus station, they are not helpful. We decide to head back to @@ to try again for a bus to Marathon. Some of the other people decide to stay but the majority come with us, including a group of French people, who are also camping.
We catch the bus and as it is far less crowded than on the previous day. It is much earlier. As we are passing @@, the French lady recognises where she is and calls out that she can see her campsite. We hadn’t realised it, but they are staying at a different campsite! She says that she will be able to get the campsite manager to give her a lift to retrieve her car, and offers to drive us back to our campsite.
The campsite manager takes the French lady and us to the car-park at @@. When we get there the car park is deserted apart from on little car parked in the middle of the car part! The French lady takes us the campsite and we are relieved to have avoided the difficulties of the previous day.