Sunday, Feb 01

Sunday was a fine start to the trip. We all met up at Café 't Loosje in Nieuwmarkt to get acquainted before the game. The weather brightened up while we were getting acquainted with some Heinekens, and we had a pleasant trip to the Arena. We entered the stadium in plenty of time to see the teams warming up, and it turned out to be the best performance ADO Den Haag would make on the day, as Ajax won easily 4-0.

The early contingent of the Ajax USA traveling team met up at Cafe 't Loosje in Niewmarkt square for some pre-game refreshments.

We arrived at the Arena early enough to see the teams go through their warm-up exercises.

The visiting supporters are caged in and watched closely by police, but that didn't stop them from tearing out seats and setting off several extremely loud fireworks.

Too bad for them that their team wasn't equally capable of inflicting damage, as they were strictly on the receiving end of the a**-whooping on this day...

After the game, we returned to Menno's house for a birthday party for Sean, who turned 7 today. Our group was joined by some old friends, and it was a very nice evening. Sean entertained us all with his story about trying to figure out the ticket-eating-turnstile at the Arena.