The Opening Ceremony of the 11th International Space Olympics 2003

This afternoon (Friday) we attended the opening ceremony of the Space Olympics.

It consisted of a musical parade of flags representing each country taking part in the competion. There was then a series of speeches including one by one of the original Russian Cosmonauts, who worked with Yuri Gagarin and Serge Korolev, another was by a Cosmonaut from the International Space Station programme.

This was followed by a series of different dramatic presentations by groups of competetors, based on a famous Russian story. A superb Russian dance team took centre stage and led a spectacular pageant.

Here are some other pictures from the day's events.