This Summer me and my dad went to Central Europe and we visited some equestrian places that I want to share with you! I think I have some tips that can be useful if you are planning to go to one of the places that I am going to talk about.
The first equestrian place I visited was Aachen, in Germany, where I visited the facilities of the CHIO Aachen.
My hotel was in the center of Aachen so I needed to catch a bus. Unfortunately, one of the bus drivers wasn’t very helpful and that made us catch the wrong bus and go to a place where we had to walk 2 Km to get to the CHIO Aachen facilities. Although we had this little issue, my dad talked to an amazing German man who wanted to drive us to the main entrance – he was so kind, I wasn’t expecting to find someone like him, I am very grateful! If you don’t want to have this problems, here is a tip: catch the bus number 51 and go to Sportpark Soers – the CHIO Aachen bus stop.
The first thing I saw was a huge countdown clock showing how many days we have until the next CHIO and then I started to see the amazing entrance, the CHIO building, the horses statue, the grass, the stables, the Walk of Fame…and everything looks so perfect, so beautiful…You can feel the Aachen spirit that you see on the TV.
After this, we went to the CHIO secretary in the main building and they told us they do guided tours to show us some of the things they have there (the main building is kind of a museum, I think) but since it was almost 4 pm they couldn’t do it because they were about to go home – such a pity!
Although I couldn’t visit the main building, I could visit all the arenas, the stables, the countertops and this opportunity was one of the best I have ever had!
The first thing I visited was the Jumping Arena. It is magic and huge! I had a big surprise though: where was all the grass?! I don’t know if they take all the grass off every year but they where also replacing the chairs so maybe they were just replacing some things!
After the Jumping Arena, we went to the Dressage Arena. It’s smaller than the Jumping Arena but it’s still incredible.
They also have an indoor arena:
And now…the most incredible show stables I have ever seen, they are beautiful but I have to say that my mare’s stall is bigger than these! 🙂
I hope you like this post, I loved writing it and I can’t wait to write the next post where I am going to talk about my trip to the Global Champions Tour of Valkenswaard!
What a fab experience! Such a pity you missed the tours – but now you've an excuse to go back 😉
Thanks for the bus tip, Aachen is very high on my bucket list of shows to visit. Hopefully next June if i can get myself organised in time!!
Aachen is an amazing place, especially when the competitions are on, but you end up having to walk so much during the day if you don't know all the right bus routes and shortcuts around the place!! 🙂
I really want to go back – Aachen = Paradise!
That's so true!! I was really lucky!!