Here are a few scenes from our first day at the venue (which was still relatively quiet in the early afternoon, but packed with people after the day’s festivities) and the opening ceremony for the world championship.
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if you’re, as this sign asks, still tired, there are several places to find a cup of coffee
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unlike the “crowd” you see here, the beer trucks were truly packed by about 6:00 p.m.
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food choices abound: pizza, sausages, fish sandwiches, schnitzel, salad, and more … if you need something sweet, one option is this colorful candy truck
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one of the antique vehicles presented in the opening ceremony (and used to bring dignitaries and show officials into the arena) was the same (fascinating but rather noisy and slow) horseless carriage you saw in yesterday’s post
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on our trip are folks from Argentina, Canada, Great Britain, and the U.S. … unfortunately, I didn’t get any good photos of the lone driver representing Argentina, and there aren’t any drivers representing Canada … but I kind of love this photo
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if you’ve been following the blog for a while, you’ll know that I have a serious weak spot for baroque horses; these two beauties are the leaders of one of the Spanish teams competing in the championship
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the U.S. team, left to right: Joe Yoder, James Fairclough, and Chester Weber
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these are only some of the nine German drivers; as the host nation, Germany is allowed to have more individual drivers, in addition to the three drivers on the team
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after all the drivers were introduced, we were given highlights of a couple of other shows that will be held tomorrow; one of these is a show of German cold-blood horses … but look at the adorable foal!
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after the heat of the day and the opening ceremony, we needed a bit of a pick-me-up
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when our group was preparing to leave the grounds around 6:00 p.m., the party tent (here), the beer trucks, and the wine-tasting stands were in full swing
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We’ll be back over there in a little while this morning for the first day of dressage!
The Slower Road 