Leeuwarden 2004

During Easter there was a show held in Leeuwarden, Holland, and we decided to go there. We – that were; Tommy, Lene, Catarina and Stefan, and since we had one seat available in the car Pia and Speed joined us too. Speed is a malinois and he is absolutely WONDERFUL! So in the end we were five people and 3 dogs that got in the car on Sunday to begin the trip south to Holland and Leeuwarden. It’s quite far so there are many kilometres to travel… but both we and the dogs are used to travelling so it all went well. It was wonderful to travel through Gemany and Holland – we got to meet spring! The grass was greener, the flowers looked wonderful and it was spring in the air. Yes, it was really wonderful… We arrived in Leeuwarden in the afternoon and in a short time we found our bed and breakfast. I’m a bit proud that I’m SO GOOD to find the correct place even if the maps and the directions are not so good. It’s nice to know that one can do something right! Our bed and breakfast was placed close to the canal so we had a wonderful view. As soon as we had put all our stuff to our rooms we went out for a walk to explore Leeuwarden and its centre. I have been here several times for shows but for the others it was the first time. We followed the canals through the centre and enjoyed the sun and the spring in the air – it was wonderful to meet spring like this.
We found a café and we had the opportunity to sit outside and enjoy it. When we had rested a while we once again began to walk and had a great sight-seeing before we returned back home to eat and prepare the dogs for the next day’s show! We had a very fun evening and even if we were tired in the beginning we became more alert later in the evening… because Pia wasn’t going to sleep so neither were the rest of us!! But we had a lot of fun! The next day the weather was lovely and we had only 5 minutes to drive to the show, but then it took really long time before we came into the show arena… It wasn’t a quick entrance. Once we came into the show arena we hurried to our ring and got our numbers. It was 20 dogs before the bichons in the ring so we had enough time to prepare Kurt and Thelma. When it was time for us to go into the ring, we were really nervous… But it was a great day! Kurt (Ch Yoannewyn See U At Hardy-Flaps, co-ow. L Kinow) was BOB with CC and CACIB and Thelma (Ch Hardy-Flap’s Knowing Me Knowing You, ow. L Möller) was BOS with CC and CACIB. Thereby Thelma became International champion! After the bichons had been judged we had time to look around and some of us found something to shop… After that we had to move to the honorary ring since we were going to compete in couple class with Kurt and Thelma and Kurt was going to compete in the group finals. We got a perfect place and then we only had to wait and wait and wait… Because this was the looooongest final I’ve even been at!! It took like forever… But it was well worth to wait because the couple was BIS and Kurt was group-2!! So to travel back home was really easy and we arrived in Höllviken at 3 o’clock on Tuesday morning – alert and happy! At least happy…
Catarina