Finally the wait was over and the greatest show on earth had come to town. We all sat down to watch Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony with it’s surprising twist of the Queen jumping off a helicopter on the Friday evening.
The next day Kavitha and I got up early to make our way to the Greenwich arena where the equestrian events were taking place. We changed trains at the Stratford underground tube station where the main Olympics village is situated. Stratford is only a few stops from our place and the place was abuzz with volunteers directing everyone to their rightful places. Everyone seemed to be in high spirits.
We soon reached Greenwich and made our way to the dressage venue. I had never understood what it was all about, but was about to find out. The couple sitting next to us were farmers from the north of England. They were surprised when I said that I had no clue about what dressage was all about. The event was already underway by the time we took our seats. It is one event where you are not allowed to make any noises during the performance in order to not distract the horses. The riders took the horses through the dance routines and soon I got into the flow. The score board updated us as the routine unfolded so you can see if the horses were doing well or not. Once you understood the routine it was quite fascinating to see the horses dancing in rhythm to the music. We cheered the riders especially those from Team GB. Once we had seen enough, Kavitha and I walked around the Greenwich arena to see the other venues which had been prepared for the rest of the equestrian events which were due to take place the next day.
Later when Charlotte Dujardin won gold medals for both the individual and team dressage events with her horse Valegro, we were able to understand what it involved.
Soon it was time for us to move on to our next venue. We stopped off at Docklands and had lunch at a Japanese restaurant. After this we reached the O2 in time to see our next Olympics event.
