England, here we come!

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Annie Van Proyen here....This morning we left Dublin by ferry. Though I was excited about leaving the city for a new place, I will certainly miss the friendly, smiling Irish people. I’m sure we will find people equally as wonderful in England, but the Irish hospitality was certainly distinct to their culture. We hopped on a ferry early this morning and departed for Holyhead. We were pleasantly by the accommodations on the ferry. After visiting the outdoor deck and doing our best not to be blown away, many of us enjoyed the comfortable chairs and took a nap. The view of Wales when the boat pulled up to the dock was phenomenal. The beautiful seaside city was surrounded by tall, rocky hills. We then got on a coach headed towards Bath, and we stopped at the Aintree Racecourse along the way. I personally didn’t know what to expect at Bath. I knew it was often referred to in old British novels that I had read, but that was about it. When we finally came down out of the hills, Bath looked to be just as old and British as the novels I had read! Just by looking at the beautiful, ancient buildings, you could easily see the history that each place held. I look forward to exploring the city more in the daylight tomorrow. We might eve get to see the Olympic torch come through the city!



Today’s horse adventure was visiting Aintree, home of the John Smith’s Grand National race. The stable manager, who had worked there for many, many years, gave us a tour of the seating areas, where we could see most of the massive track. The races held at Aintree are jump races, much unlike the flat races we most commonly see in the U.S. These fences, which are a minimum of four feet six inches high, are set on a grass track (not turf!) with drops as large as ten feet. This race is run over the great distance of four and a half miles, longer than any race you will find in the U.S. Our guide then took us back to the stables. These stables were empty and go completely unused for most of the year, only filling up on race days. The horses held here are all at least six years old or older, all geldings or mares. This stands in contrast to most U.S. races that are run by two and three year old stallions and mares. In addition, we were also allowed to see the stable manager’s office. This was a real treat, as he had many autographed photos and tack items or winners that he had collected over his many years at the course.



I thought I would leave you with my main memories from each of the five senses to help you visualize our day:







Sight: The yellow fields of England and Wales.



<span> The bright, golden fields of rapeseed are gorgeous and can be seen from miles away. They stand out among the beautiful green landscape.







Taste: Foreign hamburgers.



<span> In both England and Ireland, the cattle are basically strictly grass fed because of the high quality of the grass. This leads to a unique flavor to the meat. Most of us like it, but it certainly is different!







Feel: A bit of motion sickness.



<span> Between the travel over the Irish sea, the winding roads, and a bit of a crazy bus driver, many of us were feeling rather queasy, despite attempts to stave off







Smell: The local agriculture.



<span> Our bus is a bit old, so our best chance at getting some cool air is to open up the emergency exit windows. This exposed us to all the wonderful smells of the countryside. Between the fresh fields of hay, the great smell of horses, the sweet smell of cattle, and the not-so-wonderful smell of chickens, we smelled it all!







Sound: The stories of the stable manager.



<span> This man was as much of a legend as some of the winning horses, and though many of the people he mentioned were unfamiliar to us, it was obvious he was a living history book of the sport.

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