Friday 20 June 2008

Royal Ascot 2008 - The Royal Procession

Here's what the 'Royal Procession' to the race course looks like.

Step 1:
The police show up to direct traffic, then the crowd (nice hat - check out the pose, think they've had their picture taken before?), then motorcycles, then the Queen's mounted procession starts.


Step 2:
Then the four carriages with the Royals. The first has the Queen and Prince Phillip. (she waved at Shirleen!) The last one has Princess Beatrice in red (I think). Don't know the rest. The only reason I think I know the Princess is that yesterday she scandalized the civilized world by wearing a dress that was 2 inches above the knee. (Gasp!!!) Commoners would not have been admitted to the Royal Enclosure dressed in such an inappropriate fashion. (notice the "coachmen" seated on the back of the forth carriage are actually "coach ladies")


Step 3:
They are followed by a line of 5 or 6 custom built luxury cars (in case it rains, I suppose) with little "royalty crowns". (to distinguish these custom built cars (Bentleys & Rolls) from all the others in the neighborhood) I've read they are made especially for her. They are luxurious, fast, and bulletproof. Then an ambulance. And at the end of a looong procession of miscellaneous vehicles (containing the Queen's posse), two mounted police ladies.

Thursday 19 June 2008

The Royal Ascot


We live in a village of 3,000-4,000 people called Ascot. The centerpiece of Ascot’s year, the Royal Ascot is the world’s most famous horse race, dating back to 1711. The royal family attends the meeting, arriving each day in a horse-drawn carriage. (more on that in a later post) It is a major event in the British social calendar and press coverage of the attendees and what they are wearing often exceeds coverage of the actual racing. The BBC radio and television do full day coverage of the events every day. The Royal Enclosure has a strict dress code. (covered in a later post) Outside the Royal Enclosure the dress code is less severe, but many people choose to wear formal dress anyway. Traditionally to be admitted to the Royal Enclosure for the first time one must either be a guest of a member or be sponsored for membership by a member who has attended at least four times.

Over 300,000 people make the annual visit to Ascot during Royal Ascot week, making this Europe’s best attended races. (and causing 5 solid days of traffic snarls) Many of the participants know nothing about racing and are there purely for the social side and to drink large quantities of champagne.

Royal Ascot 2008 - People Watching on Ladies Day

Your friendly neighborhood reporter and his loyal sidekick walked to High Street to see the sites. It was 'Ladies Day' at the races so we expected to see the ladies showing their stuff. (you know what I mean)

This is a compilation of the sights ...

Helicopters were one of the more interesting ways to get to the races. I counted 29 helicopters passing directly over our house to land about a block away in a cattle pasture. (highlight of the year for the cattle) This sign to the helipad was at the corner, by our house.
Another novel way to arrive was via horse drawn coach. As you can see, some had coachmen running along side to guide the horses, and some had coachmen on the back with herald horns playing songs to announce the arrival of the coaches.


Ascot added a couple of temporary pedestrian bridges to keep people from stopping traffic when crossing the street. It happened anyway ...

And let's not forget buses. Busses roared up and down our normally quiet little street all day, every day. Once the busses got to their parking lots, the riders would sit in the grass and eat and sip champagne until the races. See the champagne flutes?

Have you ever seen a horse ambulance? Neither had I. Of course in Ascot, it would be a Hummer.

And then there were the outfits. Everyone we saw was at least in 'Sunday dress', and at least half were in formal dress. And there were hats everywhere. I tried to take as many 'hat' pictures as possible without getting arrested for invading privacy. It was quite a site.






We were lucky enough to see one "substantial fascinator" (more on that in a later entry) - in the second picture she is not hiding her face, she is trying to keep it from blowing off. Take a close look ... it is a bathroom