My oh my! Here we are down near London attending the Ascot Races! It's Royal Ascot week which means that the Queen attends and there is lots of pageantry and so forth going on. We couldn't miss such an opportunity to experience the English culture on a Royal Race Day! As you can see from the photo below, Christy and I are all decked out . . . including hats! Christy is all vintage in her choice of clothing, but I decided to stay with something I could wear more often.
For those of you familiar with musicals, it is at Ascot that Eliza in My Fair Lady makes a fool of herself by yelling obscenities at the horses as they pass by. It's a classic moment and Eliza is also dressed to the nines with a huge hat. Hats are in at Ascot and we got our eyes full of them while there. This next picture has a bunch of slightly intoxicated blokes joining in with us because one of their group was kind enough to take a snapshot of us and his friends all felt inclined to join in. That was okay with us. . . as long as they didn't hang around too long! Everyone dresses up at Ascot and these guys did a good job illustrating what the general admission ticket people wear.
We wandered over to the warm-up Paddock because Christy and I wanted to see the horses a bit closer up. These animals were incredible and I was thoroughly in awe of their musculature and how fit they all looked. I've never been this close to thoroughbreds before! The horses were very high strung and you could tell that they knew it was race day and that they were being warmed up because they were skittish and some of them were really giving their handlers a hard time. One horse started slobbering more and more as he was walked around the track and I imagine that was his way of reacting to all of the adrenaline. One man standing by watching almost got hit by a pair of flying rear hooves.
This next picture is of the Queen's carriage as she is paraded into the winner's circle. It is quite an event when the Queen comes and it made me smile. It's such a fun thing to see the English and their interest in 'royalty'.
The Queen has now gotten out of her carriage. She's the diminutive one in the center of the picture dressed in white. Of course, she has a nice hat on her head as well.
This next picture supplies a look at the Queen's box. It's the white semi-circle in the center of the picture. If you look closely you can see her coat of arms just in the middle of the black band over the white part. All of those boxes are the rich people's boxes, of course. The rest of us were down on level with the track. There were no seats in our area, but there were a few garden benches scattered around and there was also the nice lawn to sit on between races.
This is a picture of a man in a top hat and tails. There were many such men dressed like him roaming about and I had to take a picture because that's really what Ascot is about--going and looking at people, not just at horses. I've never in my life felt like people were so interested in what other people were wearing and there was a definite atmosphere of analyzing and commenting on the clothes others had on.
Here is a view of the track from part way up the stands. These horses just arrived and are warming up a bit. The races were actually run in the opposite direction as you will see below if you choose to click on the video segment I've supplied.
And finally, here we are with the track behind us. The weather turned really cold and cloudy after this picture was taken, so we were lucky to get it. Christy is on the left and Christy's friend Adele is on the right. It is Adele who so kindly supplied us with all of the hats we have on. I must confess, however, that by this point in the day the elastic band that was keeping my hat on was giving me a HUGE headache and I would have been quite happy to ditch the hat at any moment. In spite of that little problem, it was fun to dress up, hat included, and go to the races! For those of you wondering, I did NOT shout obscenities at the horses as they passed, though I did think about about it several times.
The movie clip below is the end of one of the races we saw. It will give you a good idea of the sights and sounds first hand. We were not far from the finish line and so these horses are about done at the point you are seeing them. Fun stuff!
For those of you familiar with musicals, it is at Ascot that Eliza in My Fair Lady makes a fool of herself by yelling obscenities at the horses as they pass by. It's a classic moment and Eliza is also dressed to the nines with a huge hat. Hats are in at Ascot and we got our eyes full of them while there. This next picture has a bunch of slightly intoxicated blokes joining in with us because one of their group was kind enough to take a snapshot of us and his friends all felt inclined to join in. That was okay with us. . . as long as they didn't hang around too long! Everyone dresses up at Ascot and these guys did a good job illustrating what the general admission ticket people wear.
We wandered over to the warm-up Paddock because Christy and I wanted to see the horses a bit closer up. These animals were incredible and I was thoroughly in awe of their musculature and how fit they all looked. I've never been this close to thoroughbreds before! The horses were very high strung and you could tell that they knew it was race day and that they were being warmed up because they were skittish and some of them were really giving their handlers a hard time. One horse started slobbering more and more as he was walked around the track and I imagine that was his way of reacting to all of the adrenaline. One man standing by watching almost got hit by a pair of flying rear hooves.
This next picture is of the Queen's carriage as she is paraded into the winner's circle. It is quite an event when the Queen comes and it made me smile. It's such a fun thing to see the English and their interest in 'royalty'.
The Queen has now gotten out of her carriage. She's the diminutive one in the center of the picture dressed in white. Of course, she has a nice hat on her head as well.
This next picture supplies a look at the Queen's box. It's the white semi-circle in the center of the picture. If you look closely you can see her coat of arms just in the middle of the black band over the white part. All of those boxes are the rich people's boxes, of course. The rest of us were down on level with the track. There were no seats in our area, but there were a few garden benches scattered around and there was also the nice lawn to sit on between races.
This is a picture of a man in a top hat and tails. There were many such men dressed like him roaming about and I had to take a picture because that's really what Ascot is about--going and looking at people, not just at horses. I've never in my life felt like people were so interested in what other people were wearing and there was a definite atmosphere of analyzing and commenting on the clothes others had on.
Here is a view of the track from part way up the stands. These horses just arrived and are warming up a bit. The races were actually run in the opposite direction as you will see below if you choose to click on the video segment I've supplied.
And finally, here we are with the track behind us. The weather turned really cold and cloudy after this picture was taken, so we were lucky to get it. Christy is on the left and Christy's friend Adele is on the right. It is Adele who so kindly supplied us with all of the hats we have on. I must confess, however, that by this point in the day the elastic band that was keeping my hat on was giving me a HUGE headache and I would have been quite happy to ditch the hat at any moment. In spite of that little problem, it was fun to dress up, hat included, and go to the races! For those of you wondering, I did NOT shout obscenities at the horses as they passed, though I did think about about it several times.
The movie clip below is the end of one of the races we saw. It will give you a good idea of the sights and sounds first hand. We were not far from the finish line and so these horses are about done at the point you are seeing them. Fun stuff!
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