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Standing: Rob Blok (Hawaii, USA), Herr Kemmer, Fazal & Ariane Rahman (Trinidad), Colleen Hansen (Nova Scotia Canada), John Lanting (USA), Jim Philson Sr. (Hawaii), Kristine Dewey, Joe Wong, Pam & John Rody (USA);
Front row: Jim Philson Jr. (Hawaii), Fred Lanting, Esther Chai (UK), Frau Kemmer, Paul Espiritu (USA), Ann-Marie Leadbeater (Grunfeld German Shepherds Nova Scotia Canada).

Anniversaries are devices used to commemorate events such as birthdates and weddings, or other specific and meaningful dates on History's calendar. My first tour of Europe was 20 years prior to this report being written; for most of the years since, I have been attending the annual Sieger Show (Bundessiegerzuchtschau) in Germany. After the first, I found that there were many people who wanted to go, but were afraid to try because they spoke no German and the territory was unfamiliar.

It became my happy custom to act as guide and translator (although my German is rudimentary and self-taught, I get by quite well) and in the succeeding years I became very familiar with the geography, culture, and points of interest. As an SV judge and schutzhund trainer, I also developed friendships with both the Zucht- (breed) and Leistungs- (trial) judges, and have been able to line up visits with them and many other breeders and clubs. So it developed, rather quickly, that I was leading tours that included historic and scenic sights, training clubs, and breeders' and judges' homes. You can find my "Impressions" articles about previous years' shows on SiriusDog.com and other websites.

This year, with the show in Oberhausen, not very far from Germany's western border, I offered a tour of the fascinating Netherlands (Holland) with its windmills, wooden shoes, canals, boats, bicycles, and unique culture. As usual, I would be away during my wife's birthday anniversary, and this year also during the 5th anniversary of the infamous 9-11 attack on America by Islamist extremists. When the twin towers, the Pentagon, and the Pennsylvania crashes occurred, my 2001 tour group had just ended a circuit and were noisily and happily walking into the hotel lobby for the last (we thought) night. Everyone else was ready to go home to their several countries, and I was to spend a week in Europe with friends before meeting another group that was scheduled to fly in for the BSP (Bundessiegerprüfung or national schutzhund championship trials) in another part of Germany.

We were hushed up by hand gestures and "Shhh!" by the hotel staff who were glued to the TV set in the lobby. Not long before, the 9-11 plane-bombs had snuffed out thousands of lives, and the pictures now coming in were heartbreaking. We all thought at first that it was a movie, since the commentary was in rapid German, but like a ton weight lowered onto each one of us, the depressing realization caused shock and tears among the group that had been laughing mere minutes earlier. Air traffic would not resume for a few days, and the hotel owners helped my group find accommodations until they could reschedule flights. I cannot imagine an air trip in early September that would not include the shadow of those terrible events of 2001.

The 2006 show in Oberhausen was certainly not as large as the SV's 100th Anniversary show in Karlsruhe back in 1999, when massive publicity and encouragement brought 50,000 people into the stadium, but the Sieger Show is still the world's largest single-breed event. It is getting more difficult every year to secure the venue. After all, a contract for dozens of soccer games per year is more lucrative than a single weekend of dog shows. Stadiums are smaller and in towns that are not as convenient to get to, or to park and find lodging in. Still, I have been able to find nice country hotels with the best rates, and by pro-rating rental-car costs, my tours have always been more economical than others, including doing it on your own, and in spite of the higher cost of Euros and considerable inflation. With fuel at more than $7 a gallon, it is wise to share the vehicle.

My group this year included a few who have been with me in the past, but for most of the people, it was their first Sieger Show experience. And for some of them, their first trip abroad. We met at the Amsterdam airport and spent much of the first day in that busting city, one that can be seen easily on foot. Some of the group went through the Anne Frank house (she was the epitome of courage and the example of how Dutchmen hid Jews from the Nazis, until her family was found and taken away; she died days before the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated).

After a night in a delightful village east of the city, we drove to the southeastern corner of the Netherlands, where it is a stone's throw to Luxembourg, France, Belgium, and Germany. We met with noted trainer Koos Haasing of the Tiekerhook working-lines kennel, and played with his latest pups. That evening we watched schutzhund and breed-ring training at a VDH club field less than an hour further.

The next day we were royally entertained at Karthago kennel in Erkelenz, Germany, where Artur and Ursula Kemmer fed us traditional and delicious "eisbein" (ham hocks) before showing us a couple of their youngsters. Kemmer bred the BSP Sieger of 1993, a dog named Okar, that I liked a lot. Neither of them speaks any English - only rapid-fire German, but between me and one of my group (a Dutchman from Hawaii) we were able to communicate and act as conduits to the rest of my party.

Three days of the show followed, which I shall briefly describe in a moment hence. After the weekend, on Sunday night, we enjoyed visiting the Pfalzerheide kennel near Goch, on the road toward Holland. They have some attractive brood bitches, two of which were in whelp; they are also offering for sale a magnificent Nero Nobachtal son (SchH-3) with a low-ZW hip rating, a great advantage to complement his terrific pigment, size, and temperament.
On Monday the caravan stopped first for photos at Arnhem, at the site of the WW2 battle that was the subject of the excellent movie, "A Bridge Too Far". It was here that the British glider crews and paratroopers held off the Nazi forces long enough to allow other Allied units further away to make gains in the war. Next stop was the traditional village of Staphorst, where decorated bicycles, old-style dress, wooden shoes, and thatched barns attached to green- or blue-trimmed houses keep history alive. Driving northwest from there, we arrived at Emmen in time to be given a special inspection tour of a working windmill, arranged by a friend of mine who lives in a nearby town. After that, we drove north to Exloo and stood in the middle of a crowd of a couple hundred milling sheep that were being told by the shepherds' dogs to stay together while grazing.

Tuesday morning we took some pictures at the authentic, undisturbed ice-age dolmens that the Dutch call "hunnebedden". These are rocks balanced on other rocks (like a roofed and much smaller version of the more famous and later Stonehenge) that served as shelters from wild animals as well as birthing and dying ceremonies for the prehistoric inhabitants of so much of Europe.

That afternoon, the group got a deeper sense of the once-independent land of Friesland that in early centuries A.D., included the islands and coastal provinces reaching from what is now northwestern Holland through coastal Germany into southwestern Denmark. Even today, the now-smaller Friesland has its own flag, language, and (to a great extent) identifiable physical features of the people. The breed of cow that some people call "Holstein", after the German portion of this stretch of land and seacoast, but which is more properly called Frisian cattle, has long been the heart and soul of the economy in the region, with fishing and sailing coming close behind. The fame of Dutch milk, butter, and especially cheese comes largely from this cow, so it is no surprise that one of the landmarks in Friesland's capital city of Leeuwarden is a life-size statue of such a cow.

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