A Day At the Races

We may have mentioned in previous posts that our apartment is located near (among other things) a race track. Well, last Sunday, the race track was open for business hosting a "grand prix" event for people who like to ride horses while seated in awkward mechanical contraptions. (I'm told the word I'm looking for is "trotter"; don't believe me? Look it up!)

We decided it would be fun to attend a horse race, so Leysia, Max, Lilja, and I took the two minutes it takes to walk down our driveway to get to the race track. (Ilene was out running errands that day, making reservations for her upcoming trips to Norway and Italy.) We got there around 1 PM after having gone out to pick up our third car in two weeks (and hopefully the one we will have for the rest of our stay in Denmark) and so we first set about acquiring lunch. The race track was serving up hot dogs outside and had a "cafeteria" and restaurant inside. Cafeteria was put in quotes in the previous sentence because what we found inside is not what a cafeteria is like in the U.S. Instead, it was essentially a small group of tables where you could buy sandwiches, drinks, and desserts. The restaurant took up most of the space inside and you could have anything you want, as long as you ordered the buffet. Max opted for a hot dog (see below) while Leysia and I got sandwiches and beer. This is funny because we NEVER drink beer at lunch time in the U.S.! But, hey, "when in Rome, ..."



Lilja wasn't all that interested in lunch, instead she kept leaning over to view the TV screens to see how her horses were doing. She's only 18 months but her knowledge of the various riders and horses in the Danish trotter scene is astounding. She made a killing that day and we were happy to let her do her own thing.



After lunch, we dragged Lilja away from the TV screens to view a horse race with our own eyes. Leysia discovered that its very difficult to take a picture of a trotter moving at full trot. Her best picture is shown below, featuring the winner of one of the races that we saw. (It was quite remarkable in that it was the first time a horse with no head had won a race in Denmark.) Max was disappointed that his horse wasn't the winner while Lilja was using the winnings of that race to bet on her favorite horse for the next.



After Lilja was finished, we walked over to the children's section of the race track and let Max have a high speed race of his own.



Following this, he demonstrated his ability to dive right into new situations by making friends with some kids while bouncing to their hearts content.



Lilja would have joined in, but she was too busy studying the races planned for the next grand prix event.

Ken