Goodwood Festival of Speed and Henley Rowing Regatta

It was all about transport and racing this weekend.  Cars and canoes.  The Goodwood Festival of Speed is the highlight for any motor car enthusiast and it was 6.00 in the morning when our little yellow Saxo took one car enthusiast and a sleepy passenger for a long drive south.  We arrived to a reasonably full car park and walked into Goodwood with hundreds of others all dressed in shorts, teeshirts, sun hats and covered in sun screen ie weatherwise it was going to be a good day. I left Harry after working out where we would meet for lunch (I had left my cell phone back in Bristol, so instructions were by the statue at the end of the Red Arrow display) and went off to watch the motorised and human powered bikes do their thing.  It was fairly impressive!!  I then took some long walks around the race track (bit difficult to see without a stand ticket) and through the shops and up through the forest to the top of the track. Lots of noise and roof tops of cars whizzing by!! Spent some time sitting in the seat in deck chairs and talking to security guards on their lunch breaks...

And now the Goodwood Festival through Harry's eyes.  Like a child in a candy shop - I didn't know which way to turn first.  So many things to see and so many cars ranging from 1911 through to the most modern - all the super cars on the market today.  Lots and lots and lots of motor racing cars from saloon cars to Le Mans prototypes to Formula 1. It was a century since the Indianapolis 500 was first raced and there were examples of all the racing cars raced during the years including Scott Dixon driving his 2010 Dalara Honda.  The Goodwood Festival of Speed has become such a well known event thanks to Lord March owner of the Goodwood estate.  Not surprisingly he is a petrol head and drove a 1978 turbine car that ran at Indianapolis.  There is even a strip of bricks from the famous race at the start of the Goodwood race track.

We both had a great day - but were we in the same place??
The next day we weren't really sure what we would do but after some discussion Harry suggested we go off to see Henley on the way back to Bristol - the place well known for its rowing regattas.  Little did we know that a regatta was on so we followed the yellow 'regatta' signs with a big P and after driving down some narrow country lanes we found a park (£5 for the first one we missed, £8 for the next which we stopped at and £20 if you want to park close by).  It was picnic day beside the Thames - some like us were in shorts and sandals and munched on sandwiches.  Others (in their old boy striped jackets and brightly coloured trousers and woman in outfits fit for the Queens garden party with shoes to match) munched on strawberries and champagne at picnic tables you could hire for £10 a day or under trees in the expansive car parks.  Others with connections and the right dress had the privilege of sampling horderves in a marquee at the finish line.  The River Thames was an array of little and not so little boats going up and down the course (regardless of whether a race was on or not), some with a brass bands playing and some with umpires and serious looking officials.  Occasionally a race was run - but only 2 boats at a time which was a little bit boring for us especially since there was no way we could see the finish of the race (next time we'll just have to dress up) and we didn't know who to support.  Quite a cultural experience!