England 2006
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The Balettie Bunch invade England!
More pictures can be found here in our England 2006 photo gallery.
UK 2006 - Day 3: Football and
horseshoes
Part 5 of the England 2006 trip
report:
This is our first full day
outside of London... we're staying with Julian
and Jenny at their *fantastic* house out in the
English countryside near the beautiful Malvern
Hills (lots more on that in a few days!) and
located right on the edge of the famous English
Cotswolds district.
One thing (among
many) I really like about England is that a lot
of the houses that aren't inside a developed
town have their own names! And... rather than
giving a street address, you define the address
as the house name, followed by the postal city,
area (shire!), etc., along with a six digit
(letters and numbers) postal code. Here are a
few pictures of their house...
So... today's adventures
actually have us splitting up a bit. Andrew and
I are big football (soccer) fans, and we've been
partial to Aston Villa for the ten years + since
I've known Julian. So, Andrew, Julian, Jenny,
Sam, and I are heading up to Birmingham for a
VIP tour of Villa Park, Aston Villa's beautiful
soccer stadium. Kathy and Mel, not being so much
the footie fans and *MUCH* more the "horse"
fans, have been set up with a day full of
horseback riding and pub lunching through the
Malvern Hills woodlands area.
After
dropping Kathy and Melanie off, we're off to
Villa Park... I've actually attended a match
here, some 10 years ago (!!!!), so I really
enjoyed being back at the stadium. Andrew was in
his element, as he's currently playing soccer
for both club and high school.
Our tour starts through
the Player's entrance and up into the media
center (for press conferences):
In the picture above,
you'll notice Andrew and I have two different
versions of the Villa home kit. Mine has "Rover"
as the sponsor, which is really cool, because
Julian's father (John) was one of the four
primary owners of the MG-Rover car company until
they sold it just recently. For two years,
MG-Rover was the primary Villa sponsor... thus
my kit. Andrew's kit was from a couple of years
before, so we were going to remedy that today.
Next, we
were on to the Director's Suite, where the fully
stocked bar, great meeting areas, etc. were
located:
Also present was the
Villa trophy case, with their FA Cup trophy from
a few years back:
We were led out into the
director's box for views of the pitch -- it was
being prepped for the upcoming Premiership
season, so no markings, etc. were visible, nor
were we allowed *onto* the pitch... pity! But, we did get to
go through the Players' entrance from the
dressing rooms out right *NEXT TO* the pitch...
close enough!
Next up was the Villa
dressing room... it was, shall we say, "open".
So... a quick trip to the
Villa store gets Andrew his new Villa kit
(personalized!!!!) and I get a cool polo
shirt:
A fantastic lunch at "The
Corner Flag" cafe, overlooking the pitch, wraps
up our morning... and we head back to round up
the girls, who have been having fun *all* day
with English horses!!!
They have had a beautiful
morning riding, with a great pub lunch
overlooking the Malvern valley:
When we pick them up,
they're tired, but happy!!!
We head back to "Woodland
Cottage" for a great BBQ dinner with John and
Marianne (Julian's parents), his brother Mark,
his grandparents, and his friend Lyndon... all
of whom I've known for years. It's fantastic fun
catching up with everyone and the talking and
beer drinking goes on well into the night (which
is a long time, since the sun doesn't really set
until after 10 pm!!!!!!!).
Another super
day in England comes to a close with the promise
of a castle to explore tomorrow!!!
This way for more adventures!!!!!
-or-
... back to the Adventures in England page!
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